On Monday, December 4th, the New York Islanders visit BB&T Center for a game against the Florida Panthers. It will be the first match-up between the two in 2017-18. This isn\’t a regular thing, so don\’t expect more, but it\’s a special opportunity. I\’m joined by Puck Under the Sun (from ThePuckUndertheSun.com).
Me: Here is the Islanders projected lineup:
Anders Lee – John Tavares – Josh Bailey
Andrew Ladd – Mathew Barzal – Jordan Eberle
Brock Nelson – Alan Quine – Josh Ho-Sang
Jason Chimera – Anthony Beauvillier – Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy – Johnny Boychuk
Calvin de Haan – Adam Pelech
Thomas Hockey – Ryan Pulock
Jaroslav Halak
Thomas Greiss
The only lineup changes are that Hickey comes into the lineup for Dennis Seidenberg, and Halak will start over Greiss, who started in the 6-5 loss against Ottawa on Friday. Seidenberg and Scott Mayfield are the two scratches, and Casey Cizikas was placed on IR today, but it should be a short stint. This is probably the ideal lineup, maybe with Mayfield in over Hickey, but it\’s probably the best. Cizikas would be in over Beauvillier, though Quine should be the one sitting. Greiss is probably still the starter, but he can\’t start every game, and Halak needs to play.
Puck Under the Sun:
Here is the Cats projected lineup:
Jonathan Huberdeau – Aleksander Barkov – Nick Bjugstad
Jamie McGinn – Vincent Trocheck – Denis Malgin
Connor Brickley – Jared McCann – Radim Vrbata
Michael Haley – Derek MacKenzie – Colton Sceviour
Keith Yandle – Aaron Ekblad
Michael Matheson – Mark Pysyk
Ian McCoshen – Alex Petrovic
Roberto Luongo
James Reimer
Henrik Haapala, Dryden Hunt and MacKenzie Weegar are your scratches. Evgenii Dadonov remains on IR, he\’ll miss a fifth consecutive game.
I think it’s going to be a fun game these two teams play together with a lot of emotion this will be a close game and a hard fought one
Me:
This game is also the first time Panthers assistant coach Jack Capuano will play the Islanders. Capuano was the Isles\’ head coach from 2010 to 2017, with a 227-192-64 record, with one playoff series win, which came against the Panthers, believe-it-or-not. Capuano said \”We have to go out and try to play 60 minutes of hockey against a really good team\”.
That is the end of the preview. If you like it, and want more previews, share it with your friends and retweet it on Twitter, it\’ll be there @Carterhudblog. If this post gets 50 pageviews, I\’ll make another one of these for the Isles game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. If it gets 50 during the game, you might see one on Thursday for the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Also, don\’t forget to follow Puck Under the Sun on Twitter @sun_puck, and check out his blog here.
CarterHud 