Islanders at Penguins preview

ISLANDERS (5-4-1) at PENGUINS (6-1-2)
7 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, ATTSN-PT, MSG, NHL.TV

Letang left practice early Monday for precautionary reasons after sustaining a lower-body injury in a 5-0 win at the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. He leads Penguins defensemen with 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in nine games.
Pittsburgh went 4-0-0 on a Canadian road trip, outscoring the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Canucks by a combined score of 23-6.
New York will try for a sweep of its three-game trip before beginning a three-game homestand against the Penguins on Thursday. The Islanders won 6-1 at the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday and 2-1 at the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. They are 3-1-1 in their past five games after starting the season 2-3-0.
Islanders coach Barry Trotz will face the Penguins for the first time since the Eastern Conference Second Round of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he coached the Washington Capitals to a 4-2 series win.

Players to watch

Islanders center Brock Nelson has four goals in his past four games.
Penguins center Sidney Crosby has five goals in his past three games after not scoring in his first six this season.

They said it

"[The Penguins] have a couple of great centermen. They got great culture, in terms of they know how to win, especially in this building. ... Been on the bad side of it many times." -- Islanders coach Barry Trotz
"[Letang] is an elite player. He plays so many different roles for us back there. ... We never look for any one guy to replace [Letang] if he's not in our lineup. Usually, it's by committee." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan

Islanders projected lineup

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

Penguins projected lineup

Jake Guentzel -- Sidney Crosby -- Dominik Simon
Carl Hagelin -- Evgeni Malkin -- Phil Kessel
Riley Sheahan -- Matt Cullen -- Patric Hornqvist
Bryan Rust -- Derek Grant -- Daniel Sprong
Brian Dumoulin -- Kris Letang
Jack Johnson -- Chad Ruhwedel
Olli Maatta -- Jamie Oleksiak
Matt Murray
Casey DeSmith
Scratched: Juuso Riikola
Injured: Justin Schultz (left leg fracture), Derick Brassard (lower body)

Status report

Clutterbuck will miss back-to-back games and remains day to day. ... Brassard will miss a second game with a lower-body injury that kept him out of practice Monday.

Stat pack

The Islanders are 3-0-0 against Metropolitan Division opponents this season and 5-0-0 dating to the final week of 2017-18. ... Malkin has had at least one point in 13 of his past 17 games against the Islanders.