Lightning at Islanders
The Tampa Bay Lightning have been a very inconsistent and somewhat disappointing .500 team this season - except when they are playing against the New York Islanders. The Lightning go after their third consecutive victory over the Islanders on Monday in New York as the teams meet for the third time in 14 days.
Tampa Bay outscored the Islanders 10-2 in a pair of victories this season to extend its winning streak over them to six, including the final four of their Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series last May. The Lightning have won only five of 12 games since starting the season 3-0-0, after falling 3-1 at home against San Jose on Saturday, and open a five-game road trip Monday. New York thought it had captured its third win in nine games Saturday at Florida, but gave up a goal with 14 seconds left in regulation and lost 3-2 to the Panthers in overtime. Captain John Tavares, who leads the team with 12 points - one better than Brock Nelson – has managed only one goal in his last eight games and the Islanders are 2-3-3 in that span.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, TVAS, FSN Sun (Tampa Bay), MSG Plus (New York)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (8-6-1): Forward Jonathan Drouin, who missed the last five games with concussion symptoms, participated in the morning skate Saturday and could return on the road trip. However, top-pair defenseman Anton Stralman suffered an upper-body injury late in Saturday’s game - after he scored his first goal of the season - and is considered day-to-day. Coach Jon Cooper told reporters that over-passing was a problem in the loss to San Jose: “We weren’t hungry enough to shoot pucks. We’re going back to old habits we’ve been trying to break for years.”
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (5-7-3): One of the major reasons New York is off to a rough start is special teams, especially on the power play where it has converted only 5-of-44 opportunities after going 1-for-6 on Saturday. The Islanders have also given up 12 power-play goals in the last nine games and reside near the bottom of the league at 78 percent overall. Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, who has contributed four goals and owns a team-best plus-10 rating, is questionable for Monday after taking a puck to the face in Saturday’s game and a extra blue liner likely will be recalled.
OVERTIME
1. New York LW Andrew Ladd, who signed a seven-year contract worth $38.5 million in the offseason, has two goals and an assist in 15 games.
2. Tampa Bay C Steven Stamkos, who leads the team with 17 points, and RW Nikita Kucherov boast five goals and five assists combined against the Islanders this season.
3. The Islanders have gotten 13 goals from their defenseman, including Nick Leddy’s third in Saturday’s loss.