Islanders at Rangers preview

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.