Devils at Islanders
The New York Islanders try for their fifth straight victory when they host the struggling New Jersey Devils on Saturday. New York is coming off home-and-home victories over Pittsburgh, including Thursday's 3-2 shootout win thanks to a pair of highlight-reel saves by Thomas Greiss in overtime against Sidney Crosby on a breakaway and a wide-open Phil Kessel in the slot.
"I think you're seeing us buying in here," Josh Bailey told reporters after scoring on a short-handed breakaway in the second period to extend his point streak to seven games and the only goal in the shootout. "I think we're starting to believe more and more as time goes on. That's what you want. We want to be on an upward path throughout the course of the season and so far it's been good. We know there's going to be some ups and downs throughout, but you want to stay even keeled and ride these streaks as long as you can." New Jersey's 4-0-0 start is a distant memory after Thursday's 4-3 loss at Detroit made it 1-4-1 since as the Devils haven't won a true road game this season (0-3-0), extending their slide away from home to seven games (playoffs included). "We've still got 38 more road games to play, so we better figure this out," New Jersey's Kyle Palmieri told reporters as the Devils are 0-2-0 on their season-high seven-game trip. "Everyone on the team has to start bringing energy in every building, not just the Prudential Center." New Jersey's Taylor Hall, who scored 39 goals en route to winning the Hart Trophy last season, is off to a slow start in 2018-19 with a pair of tallies.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG (New Jersey), MSG Plus (New York)
ABOUT THE DEVILS (5-4-1): Travis Zajac (three goals, eight points) has a goal and three assists during a three-game point streak and needs one assist for 300 in his career. New Jersey owned the No. 7 power-play unit in the NHL entering Friday, scoring at least once with the man advantage in all but one game this season, with Palmieri (team highs of nine goals and 14 points) recording five of the 12 goals but the penalty-killing unit has yielded two in each of the last two contests. Cory Schneider (offseason hip surgery) is expected to start in goal for the second straight game after he made his season debut in relief of Keith Kinkaid during Tuesday's 8-3 loss at Tampa Bay.
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (7-4-1): Bailey has two goals and seven assists during his point streak and leads the club with 13 points - one more than captain Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal. New York is receiving solid goaltending from Greiss (3-2-0, 2.18 goals-against average, .934 save percentage) and Robin Lehner (4-2-1, 2.45, .928), who has missed the last two games with what the team is calling a "strain.'' Brock Nelson has scored five of his team-leading six goals in the last five games while Barzal (club-worst minus-7) has only one goal after netting 22 in winning the Calder Trophy last season.
OVERTIME
1. New York has the third-worst shot differential in the NHL at minus-8.1 - ahead of only Ottawa (minus-10.3) and Anaheim (minus-12.9).
2. Seven of Palmieri's 14 points, five of New Jersey C Nico Hischier's 10 and nine of Hall's 11 assists have come on the power play.
3. The Devils have won three straight meetings with Hall scoring four goals in the four-game season series in 2017-18, giving him eight tallies and 15 points in 15 games versus the Islanders.