The New York Islanders and the Nashville Predators meet in NHL action from the Bridgestone Arena on Thursday night.
The New York Islanders will be out to build on their 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators in their last game. Brock Nelson leads the Islanders in scoring with 18 points including 9 goals and 9 assists while Mathew Barzal has a team-high 18 assists and Anders Lee also has 16 points with 8 goals and 8 assists. Ilya Sorokin has gone 7-4 with a 2.17 GAA and a .932 save percentage while Semyon Varlamov is 4-2 with a 2.77 GAA and a .920 save percentage so far this season.
The Nashville Predators will try to build on their 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild in their last outing. Filip Forsberg has a team-high 15 points with 5 goals and 10 assists while Mikael Granlund has 12 points with a team-high 11 assists and Matt Duchene has 13 points with 9 assists on the year. Nino Niederreiter’s also chipped in a team-high 7 goals while Ryan Johansen has 5 goals as well on the year. Juuse Saros has gone 5-6-1 with a 3.03 GAA and a .907 save percentage between the pipes for Nashville while Kevin Lankinen is 2-2 with a 2.60 GAA and a .921 save percentage.
New York is 5-1 in their last 6 road games and 9-2 in their last 11 games overall while the over is 16-5 in their last 21 games against the Western Conference. Nashville is 8-17 in their last 25 games overall and 1-6 in their last 7 games against the Eastern Conference while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 games following a win.
I get the case to be made for a team on home ice with a cheap price, but the Nashville Predators are still in my bad books from their tough start to the year. The burned a hole in a lot of people’s pockets and a couple of recent wins isn’t going to change my stance. New York is again that team that plays that physical style of hockey that frustrates opposing teams and just gets under your skin and takes you off your game. I think the Predators get taken out here, so I’ll back the Islanders in this one.