Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, the Toronto Maple Leafs (2-3-1, five points) and New York Islanders (4-1-0, eight points) face-off live from the Nassau Coliseum in New York for the first of three meetings against each other. The game can be live streamed here. Toronto fans can hear all of the action on TSN 1050 while New York fans can do the same on WRHU 88.7.
Toronto is reeling off of a home-and-home sweep at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings and will look to snap a two-game losing streak while New York will look to respond to its first loss of the season as it returns home after dropping a game to the Penguins in Pittsburgh.
After back-to-back losses, Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle knows the team is up against an improved Islanders team with a top line led by captain John Tavares.
"You always recognize who's out there but it's a team game," the coach told NHL.com. "We've got to beat the New York Islanders, not just John Tavares. We have a job to do and we can't just focus one player. They have more than one guy who can hurt you."
Tyler Bozak has paced Toronto with six points this season off of three goals and three assists while Phil Kessel has two tallies and three helpers for five points and Leo Komarov has four points -- all off of assists.
A couple Islanders have a connection with the Maple Leafs as Tavares grew up rooting for them while Nikolay Kulemin will be playing against his old team.
"Every game is a new challenge, every team," Tavares told NHL.com. "But obviously growing up there, what hockey means to the people, it's obviously a lot of fun playing against the Maple Leafs."
Added Kulemin: "It's going to be a really interesting game playing against the guys that I played together with for a while. It's going to be a lot of fun. For sure I'll be giving my best against my old team."
Tavares leads New York with nine points off of two goals and seven assists while Brock Nelson has four markers and four helpers for eight points Kyle Okposo has lit the lamp twice and added five helpers for seven points.
In the crease, New York is slated to turn to Jaroslav Halak, who is 3-1-0 with a 2.70 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage while Toronto's James Reimer is likely to man the crease after going 2-1-0 with a 2.87 GAA and .906 save percentage thus far.
The Maple Leafs look to snap a two-game losing streak while the Islanders hope to bounce back from their first defeat of the season when the lights come up tonight at the Nassau Coliseum in New York.
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