Avalanche at Islanders
What started out as a difficult road trip turned around nicely for the New York Islanders, who will look to gain a measure of revenge against the team that trounced them to start the trek. The Islanders carry a three-game winning streak into a rare home date against the Colorado Avalanche. The Islanders kicked off the five-game West Coast jaunt with a 5-0 loss to the Avalanche, but ended the trip with one-goal wins over Anaheim, Los Angeles and Arizona.
Colorado has fallen on hard times since that one-sided victory on Oct. 30, dropping four of its last five games - including a 4-3 decision in Philadelphia to kick off its four-game East Coast trek. Goal prevention has been a major problem for the Avalanche, who have allowed a whopping 18 tallies in the five contests since their lone shutout of the season. Colorado has also had trouble putting the puck in the net, ranking in the bottom third in goals per game.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, ALT (Colorado), MSG+ 2 (New York)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (4-7-5): Colorado coach and vice president of hockey operations Patrick Roy isn't miffed at his team's slow start, saying that such stretches happen when dealing with less experienced players. "They're young and they're learning," Roy told ESPN last week. "It's a learning experience. Whether you look at the Sedins, or (Ryan) Getzlaf and (Corey) Perry, to be consistent every game, that didn't happen overnight. They need time." The Avalanche fought gamely against the Flyers, scoring three times to almost completely erase a 4-0 third-period deficit.
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (9-5-0): New York coach Jack Capuano has a great problem: whether to start Johnny Boychuk or Lubomir Visnovsky at the point on the first power-play unit. The Islanders were 7-for-27 on the man advantage with Visnovsky out of the lineup, and 5-for-25 with him back in the fold - both impressive numbers. "They both bring a lot," Capuano told Newsday. "With 'Lubo' out there two years ago, we were a top-10 power play. But then we put Johnny up there against Winnipeg (last week) and right away we score."
OVERTIME
1. Colorado has outscored the Islanders 10-2 over the previous two encounters.
2. The Avalanche have five forwards under the age of 24 - Matt Duchene, Dennis Everberg, Nathan MacKinnon, Ryan O'Reilly and captain Gabriel Landeskog.
3. Colorado ranks among the league leaders in penalty-killing success rate at 87.7 percent.