Islanders at Red Wings preview

ISLANDERS (41-22-7) at RED WINGS (24-37-10)
1 p.m. ET; FS-D, MSG+, NHL.TV

The Islanders have won four of their past five games, including 2-1 against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, to move within two points of the Washington Capitals for first place in the division having played one fewer game.
Dylan Larkin is expected to return for the Red Wings after the forward missed five games with a neck injury. Detroit has lost four straight and 12 of its past 13 (1-9-3), including 5-4 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, and is eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention.

Players to watch

Islanders forward Anders Lee leads New York with 25 goals and has scored in each of his past two games.
Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha has one goal and no assists in his past seven games.

They said it

"They are creating, and they've been fine on both sides of the puck, which is good. They are finding a little chemistry and they got a huge goal (against Montreal), which started in our own end." -- Islanders coach Barry Trotz on their top line of Matthew Barzal, Jordan Eberle and Anders Lee
"When you are missing a player like Larkin, who is probably one of your best players, your team isn't going to be as good unless other guys step up and play outstanding hockey. We haven't had enough guys stepping up like that." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill

Islanders projected lineup

Anders Lee -- Mathew Barzal -- Jordan Eberle
Anthony Beauvillier -- Brock Nelson -- Andrew Ladd
Josh Bailey -- Valtteri Filppula -- Leo Komarov
Matt Martin -- Casey Cizikas -- Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy -- Scott Mayfield
Adam Pelech -- Ryan Pulock
Thomas Hickey -- Devon Toews
Thomas Greiss
Robin Lehner
Scratched: Michael Dal Colle, Ross Johnston, Tom Kuhnhackl, Luca Sbisa, Dennis Seidenberg
Injured: Johnny Boychuk (upper body)

Red Wings projected lineup

Anthony Mantha -- Dylan Larkin -- Tyler Bertuzzi
Thomas Vanek -- Frans Nielsen -- Andreas Athanasiou
Luke Glendening -- Darren Helm -- Michael Rasmussen
Ryan Kuffner -- Jacob de la Rose -- Christoffer Ehn
Danny DeKeyser -- Filip Hronek
Niklas Kronwall -- Madison Bowey
Luke Witkowski -- Trevor Daley
Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched: Jonathan Ericsson
Injured: Evgeny Svechnikov (knee), Mike Green (virus), Justin Abdelkader (foot)

Status report

Neither team will skate Saturday morning. ... Trotz said Friday he expects Lehner to play one of New York's weekend games (at Minnesota Wild on Sunday) and that Boychuk will travel to Detroit and be a game-time decision. ... Kuffner, a free agent from Princeton, will make his NHL debut.

Stat pack

Barzal has four assists in his past four games. ... Athanasiou had two goals and an assist in five games replacing Larkin as first-line center.