Islanders at Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights are on the verge of recording the best inaugural season in NHL history as they host the New York Islanders on Thursday. Vegas routed Columbus 6-3 on Tuesday, extending their home point streak to 12 games (10-0-2) and moving within one victory of matching the 1993-94 Florida Panthers and Anaheim Ducks for most in first-year annals.
"We just take it day by day," Golden Knights defenseman Brad Hunt told reporters after scoring his first goal of the season Tuesday. "We go to the rink in the morning, tomorrow's a new day. We just focus on the next day. We don't get too high, we don't get too low." Vegas enjoys a nine-point lead over San Jose in the Pacific Division and has its sight set on the league's best record as it sits one point behind NHL leader Tampa Bay. New York is coming off a 3-2 overtime loss at Arizona on Monday and finds itself two points behind Columbus and Pittsburgh, who lead the Eastern Conference wild-card race. The Golden Knights have won five straight versus the Metropolitan Division after dropping two of their first three such games (0-2-1), beginning with a 6-3 loss to the Islanders on Oct. 30 when New York's John Tavares scored twice and Josh Bailey added three assists.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, Sportsnet One; MSG Plus (New York), AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain (Vegas)
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (24-20-5): Anthony Beauvillier has scored twice in each of the last two games, giving him 12 goals in 38 contests after recording nine in 66 games during his rookie season of 2016-17. Tavares has 26 goals and a team-high 57 points after registering five goals and three assists in 10 January games while Anders Lee (club-must 27 goals, 42 points) has three tallies and zero assists in his last 11 contests. New York allows the most goals in the NHL (3.63 per game) with Jaroslav Halak (14-14-3, 3.23 goals-against average, .906 save percentage) and Thomas Greiss (10-6-2, 3.89, .886) struggling behind a suspect defense.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (32-11-4): William Karlsson continued his breakout season with two goals Tuesday, giving him a team-most 27 - tied for second in the league with Lee and Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov behind Washington's Alex Ovechkin (29). Jonathan Marchessault (17 goals) recorded two assists Tuesday, giving him three goals and seven assists in 10 January games to increase his team-leading point total to 46. Marc-Andre Fleury (12-3-2, 1.75, .944 in 17 games) has allowed five goals during a three-game winning streak and has yielded more than three in a game only once this season.
OVERTIME
1. Vegas has an NHL-best .955 winning percentage (21-1-0) when scoring first.
2. Bailey is tied for second in the league with 42 assists after recording four in his last three games.
3. Karlsson entered the season with 18 goals in 183 career games.