The New York Islanders face the Pittsburgh Penguins in a matchup between two playoff-caliber teams in the Eastern Conference looking to keep their wild card positions. The Islanders have a 33-25-8 record and with back-to-back wins, have leaped into the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Penguins have a 32-22-9 record and are coming off a come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win that helped them maintain their playoff spot. Both teams are looking to secure their playoff spots down the stretch and the upcoming game looks to be a great one.
The Islanders are having a great season but hope their offense can improve, scoring only 2.89 goals per game. Brock Nelson, Anders Lee, and Zach Parise have scored 67 goals and 64 assists to lead the top two lines but the rest of the offense has struggled. The hope is that Josh Bailey and Kyle Palmieri can step up as they play a pivotal role in the forward unit but have only scored 18 goals and 27 assists on the season thus far.
The offense has struggled but the defense has been one of the best in the NHL, allowing only 2.64 goals per game with only five goals in the last four games. Ryan Pulock and Alexander Romanov have combined for 7.6 defensive point shares and 218 blocked shots while Scott Mayfield, Adam Pelech, and Sebastian Aho have combined for 9.3 defensive point shares to add depth to the unit. In addition, goaltender Ilya Sorokin is having a remarkable year with a .925 save percentage and a 2.33 goals-against average on 1446 shots with 29.1 goals saved above average.
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