Golden Knights at Islanders
Captain John Tavares has the New York Islanders navigating their way up the Metropolitan Division standings while the expansion Vegas Golden Knights have won five straight to remain hot on the heels of red-hot Los Angeles for supremacy in the Pacific. With two hat tricks in his last three contests, Tavares looks to continue his scoring surge against the visiting Golden Knights on Monday as the Islanders bid for their fifth victory in six outings.
Tavares, who has recorded all 13 of his points this season in four games, scored three third-period goals on Saturday to net his eighth career hat trick - and second of the natural variety - in New York's 6-2 rout of Nashville. "He's got the hot stick ... You want to keep him going when he's like this," fellow forward Jordan Eberle told Newsday of Tavares. Vegas is also cashing in as it extended the best start ever by an NHL expansion team and matched the longest winning streak by a club in its inaugural season with a resounding 7-0 rout of Colorado on Friday. The Golden Knights, however, hope their Cinderella story plays well on the road where they will play eight of their next nine contests.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Vegas), MSG-Plus (New York)
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (8-1-0): Oscar Dansk recorded the first shutout in franchise history after turning aside all 32 shots he faced while playing in just his third career game. James Neal has competed in far more - 641 overall career contests to be precise - and is off to a sizzling start as well, with seven goals and 10 points in 10 games. The 30-year-old has averaged a smidgen under a point per game versus the Islanders, collecting 22 (12 goals, 10 assists) in 23 career encounters.
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (6-4-1): New York finally experienced a power surge with the man advantage, eclipsing the total of power-play goals in their first 10 games (two) with a 3-for-5 performance on Saturday. Rookie defenseman Ryan Pulock collected a pair of power-play points (goal, assist) after being inserted back in the lineup after a two-game absence. "We had some good long talks the last couple days about the power play, we re-evaluated ourselves and our effort and we just got back to basics," said Anders Lee, who set up a pair of tallies to increase his point streak to five games (four goals, four assists).
OVERTIME
1. Vegas suspended C Vadim Shipachyov on Sunday after the 30-year-old Russian reportedly left the team's American Hockey League affiliate.
2. New York LW Josh Bailey set up a goal on Saturday to extend his assist and point streaks to five and six games (two goals, seven assists), respectively.
3. Vegas has successfully thwarted all of its short-handed situations in seven of its last eight contests.