So the matchup comes down to whose depth gives out first. Practice on Monday had Holmstrom-Horvat-Palmieri on top, Heineman-Schenn-Eklund next, Palat-Pageau-Duclair on the 3rd line, and MacLean-Cizikas-Chaffee on the 4th. That is a real NHL lineup, but Ritchie and Maccelli were 2 of the guys giving it some skill below the top line. Horvat's take on it: "Good teams find ways to get wins, and we're a good hockey team in here."
Anaheim's start has gone in 2 directions. They opened with road wins at Winnipeg (5-1) and Calgary (4-2) that looked like a team ready to make some noise. Since then they've lost 3 straight and scored exactly 2 goals in each. Some of that is who isn't dressing. Troy Terry is on long-term IR with a hip injury, Ryan Poehling is out 6-8 weeks with an MCL sprain, and Cutter Gauthier had been day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Today's report adds Mikael Granlund as day-to-day with an upper-body issue. The projected top line has Leo Carlsson centering Alex Killorn and Nikita Klepov, with Roger McQueen down the middle on the 3rd. Strip that much out of an offense and 2 goals a night starts to make sense.
In goal, Sorokin has been the reason the Islanders are holding up. He's the projected starter, 4-2-0 with a 1.68 GAA and a .940 save percentage, and Toronto put 29 shots on him to New York's 20 and still got only 1 past him. Anaheim goes with Lukas Dostal, who has 3 wins and a 3.17 GAA, and he'll need to steal a few for a tired group that hasn't sustained much pressure lately. That's the game: a short-handed Islanders team playing at home against a short-handed Ducks team that hasn't had its legs under it for days. Puck drops at 7:00 PM ET.