Preview: Islanders at Lightning

ISLANDERS (5-6-2) at LIGHTNING (7-5-1)
7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, MSG+, NHL.TV

Islanders team scope

The New York Islanders will use the same lineup that defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Monday, meaning that goaltender Jaroslav Halak will make his fourth straight start. Coach Jack Capuano said better special-teams play is a must if the Islanders hope to avenge a 6-1 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 1. Tampa Bay scored two power-play goals and another while playing shorthanded. "When you play a team like this and you look at the five guys that the put out on their first unit, and their second unit is pretty skilled as well," Capuano said. "To me it's about discipline and managing the puck the right way." The Islanders are 25th in penalty-killing at 77.1 percent. Capuano feels the struggles on special teams have had an effect in the standings. "It's probably cost us four games," he said. "We've got to be better. We know that." The Islanders are 0-3-0 on the road this season, having played 10 of their first 13 games at home. The teams complete their three-game season series at Barclays Center on Monday.

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Lightning team scope

Forward Valtteri Filppula is likely to return after missing one game with a lower-body injury. Filppula took part in practice Wednesday and in the optional morning skate. However, forward Jonathan Drouin remains out with an upper-body injury sustained in the victory against the Islanders, and coach Jon Cooper said there's still no timetable for his return. Captain Steven Stamkos says he expects a much tougher game from the Islanders. "There are going to come in and know that they didn't play their best and we're not expecting [another] game like that," he said. "We're expecting a close game. They have been able to bounce back since then." Cooper said the win in Brooklyn is "forgotten memory" as far as he's concerned. "To me we're coming off a one-goal performance in a game we loss," he said. "We have to find a way to put pucks in the net. We have been getting good goaltending of late and these days we're either getting all these goals in one game or we're not getting them at all."

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Islanders projected lineup

Josh Bailey -- John Tavares -- Cal Clutterbuck
Shane Prince -- Ryan Strome -- Alan Quine
Anders Lee -- Brock Nelson -- Jason Chimera
Andrew Ladd -- Casey Cizikas -- Nikolay Kulemin
Nick Leddy -- Adam Pelech
Thomas Hickey -- Johnny Boychuk
Calvin de Haan -- Dennis Seidenberg
Jaroslav Halak
Thomas Greiss

Scratched:Anthony Beauvillier
Injured: Ryan Pulock (lower body), Travis Hamonic (upper body), Mikhail Grabovski (concussion)

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Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Steven Stamkos -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Tyler Johnson -- Brayden Point
JT Brown -- Valtteri Filppula -- Ryan Callahan
Cedric Paquette -- Brian Boyle -- Vladislav Namestnikov

Victor Hedman -- Anton Stralman
Jason Garrison -- Andrej Sustr
Slater Koekkoek -- Braydon Coburn
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Ben Bishop

Scratched:Nikita Nesterov
Injured:Jonathan Drouin (upper body)

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Status report

New York returned forward Mathew Barzal to Seattle of the Western Hockey League. Barzal, the No. 16 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, was scoreless in two games with the Islanders. … Vasilevskiy will start his fifth game; he is 2-1-1 with a 2.24 goals-against-average and .922 save percentage. Stralman will play after taking a maintenance day Wednesday.

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Who's hot

Clutterbuck had a goal was plus-2 against Vancouver, a game in which 12 Islanders each had one point and Andrew Ladd, Jason Chimera and Nikolay Kulemin scored for the first time this season. … Kucherov leads the Lightning with 15 points, (four goals, 11 assists); he had four points (two goals, two assists) against the Islanders last week.