The New York Islanders and the Florida Panthers meet in NHL action from FLA Live Arena on Sunday.
The New York Islanders will be out to rebound from a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in their last game. Anders Lee and Brock Nelson each have a team-high 5 points with Lee logging a pair of goals and 3 assists while Nelson has a team-high 5 assists. Mathew Barzal also has 4 assists while Oliver Wahlstrom has 3 goals and an assist and Noah Dobson has a pair of goals and a pair of assists for his 4 points. Ilya Sorokin’s gone 1-3 with a 2.05 GAA and a .908 save percentage while Semyon Varlamov is 1-0 with a 2.00 GAA and a .929 save percentage in goal for the Islanders this season.
The Florida Panthers will try to find some consistency after alternating wins and losses in each of their last four games after a 3-2 OT loss to the Lightning last time out. Matthew Tkachuk has a team-high 8 points with 3 goals and 5 assists while Gustav Forsing has 5 points with 4 assists. Colin White, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett each have 4 points with Barkov logging 4 assists while White has a pair of goals and a pair of assists and Sam Bennett has 3 assists of his own as well this season. Sergei Bobrovsky has posted a 2-1-1 record with a 2.79 GAA and a .916 save percentage while Spencer Knight is 1-0 with a 3.00 GAA and an .889 save percentage in goal for Florida this season.
I get the case to be made either way in this game as this should be an awesome game and hopefully a playoff preview come April, but I’m looking at the under in this game. The Islanders do come in on the back-to-back, so I expect them to try to control the pace and slow down the Panthers which is what the Islanders M.O. has been for some time now, playing tough, defensive hockey. Both teams also have some solid goaltending across the board, so give me the under here.