Islanders at Devils
The surprising New Jersey Devils vie for their sixth win in seven outings when they begin a pronounced home stretch on Saturday afternoon against the Metropolitan Division-rival New York Islanders. Travis Zajac scored twice on the power play in New Jersey's 4-1 triumph over Philadelphia on Thursday to increase his total to four goals and three assists in his last five games.
Saturday's tilt begins a string of five the next seven games at the Prudential Center for the Devils, who have dropped six in a row to New York. The Islanders fell to 6-1-1 in their last eight after squandering a third-period lead en route to a 3-2 overtime loss to Carolina on Thursday. "You're not going to win every night, but we have to bring a better effort," said Frans Nielsen, who scored a highlight-reel goal versus the Hurricanes and has three tallies in his last two contests. New York boasts the league's top-ranked penalty kill as it has thwarted its last 23 short-handed situations and is 33-for-36 (91.7 percent) on the season.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, MSG (New York), MSG-Plus (New Jersey), RSN
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (6-2-2): Captain John Tavares certainly wasn't pleased with his performance in his last game, as he was held off the scoresheet for the second straight contest after collecting four goals and six assists in his previous six. "I definitely think about (Thursday's) game when I got to bed, when I got up the next morning. It's not the first time I've had a bad game and it won't be the last," he said. Tavares has dominated the Devils by scoring six goals and setting up four others in the last seven meetings while accumulating 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) in 28 all-time encounters.
ABOUT THE DEVILS (5-4-1): Kyle Palmieri has scored in back-to-back contests and added two assists versus the Flyers on Thursday. "It was a great effort," coach John Hynes told reporters of the 24-year-old Palmieri. "You see a guy make a real hard play, sacrifice his body to block a shot and then winds up scoring the winning goal." Adam Henrique has been held off the scoresheet in each of his last two contests after recording all six of his team-leading goals in his previous seven games.
OVERTIME
1. New Jersey G Cory Schneider will make his eighth consecutive start on Saturday.
2. With 14 points, the Islanders are off to their best 10-game start since 2001-02.
3. Devils RW Jiri Tlusty (upper body) is "questionable" to play in Saturday's game, Hynes told the Bergen Record.