Islanders at Rangers preview

ISLANDERS (28-15-5) at RANGERS (23-20-4)
7 p.m. ET; MSG, MSG+, NHL.TV

The Rangers defeated the Islanders 6-2 at the Garden and 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum last week with Georgiev in net for each game, stopping 70 of 74 shots he faced. They come off a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at home Sunday, when they allowed two goals in the third period, including the game-winner with 26.5 seconds remaining.
The Islanders are winless in their past three games (0-2-1) and 3-5-2 in their past 10. They're third in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of the Blue Jackets, two in front of the Carolina Hurricanes and three up on the Philadelphia Flyers. Carolina and Philadelphia also play Tuesday.

Players to watch

Islanders forward Anders Lee scored one goal and had a season-high eight shots on goal against the Hurricanes on Sunday.
Rangers forward Chris Kreider has scored four goals in his past six games.

They said it

"When you see a team, plenty emotions start to get higher each time you see them. And obviously the way the first two games [against the Rangers] have gone for us, I think that brings some added energy to the matchup. I think it just creates more importance on all the little things. Our details have got to be really good." -- Islanders forward Anders Lee
"We've played good hockey over the last few weeks here and we can't let [the loss Sunday] night get in the way of [Tuesday] night. We can't let the last minute of [Sunday] night's game cost us two hockey games." -- Rangers coach David Quinn

Islanders projected lineup

Anders Lee -- Mathew Barzal -- Jordan Eberle
Anthony Beauvillier -- Brock Nelson -- Josh Bailey
Michael Dal Colle -- Derick Brassard -- Tom Kuhnhackl
Matt Martin -- Casey Cizikas -- Leo Komarov
Nick Leddy -- Ryan Pulock
Devon Toews -- Scott Mayfield
Noah Dobson -- Johnny Boychuk
Thomas Greiss
Semyon Varlamov
Scratched:Ross Johnston, Sebastian Aho
Injured:Adam Pelech (Achilles), Cal Clutterbuck (wrist)

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Brendan Lemieux
Artemi Panarin -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast
Brett Howden -- Filip Chytil -- Kaapo Kakko
Brendan Smith -- Greg McKegg -- Pavel Buchnevich
Brady Skjei -- Jacob Trouba
Marc Staal -- Tony DeAngelo
Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox
Alexandar Georgiev
Henrik Lundqvist
Scratched:Micheal Haley, Igor Shesterkin
Injured:None

Status report

It's not clear if Buchnevich will play on the fourth line and be replaced by Lemieux, who finished the game Sunday skating with Zibanejad and Kreider and practiced with them again Monday. Quinn didn't commit to keeping it that way and the Rangers did not have a morning skate Tuesday.

Stat pack

Georgiev is 4-1-0 with a 1.40 goals-against average, .955 save percentage and one shutout in five games against the Islanders. … Both teams will be playing their final game before starting extended breaks, 10 days off for the Islanders and nine for the Rangers. … Fast will play in his 400th NHL game, all with the Rangers.