Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals face-off in Game 2 of their Round 1 best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
New York already took home-ice away, but it will look to take a commanding 2-0 series lead heading to the Nassau Coliseum for Games 3 and 4 while Washington will look to bounce back from a lacklustre effort and nod the series up before it shifts away.
The Islanders picked up a 4-1 victory over the Capitals when the series opened up with Game 1 on Wednesday.
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Brock Nelson scored two goals (including an empty netter) in Wednesday's game to help lift New York. Nelson joined Ryan Strome, who was making his playoff debut, and Josh Bailey as Islanders who scored their first-career playoff tallies in Game 1.
While they're off to a fast start, New York knows there's still plenty of work to do.
"That's going to have to raise our game, raise our play, raise our intensity and focus, and the things that need to be done to get a win [Friday]," captain John Tavares said via NHL.com. "You expect teams when they make the playoffs they're here for a reason and certainly Washington has proven that. Our focus has to be one game at a time and [Friday] is another opportunity, another challenge, and we want to be able to seize that."
Tavares led the Islanders in goals (38) and finished second in the NHL in points (86) in the regular season. The captain notched one assist in Wednesday's win.
The Capitals only goal-scorer was Marcus Johansson and the team will look to clean up its game after giving the puck away 11 times on Wednesday, seven of which came in the opening frame.
"We have to play quicker, we have to play better, we have to execute better," coach Barry Trotz told Monumental Network, according to NHL.com. "We had too many guys that didn't play the way they needed to play. There's some things that we can do better and we will do better [Friday]. There will be some minor adjustments in terms of what we do and we'll go at it [Friday]. Like anything, every game is a different journey, different adventure."
Washington will hope to get captain Alex Ovechkin going as he had no points despite generating eight shots on goal in Game 1 after leading the league with 53 markers in the regular season.
In the crease, Braden Holtby will look to bounce back for the Capitals after allowing three goals on 26 shots last time out.
Jaroslav Halak will look to provide some stability between the pipes for the Islanders after turning aside 24 shots and yielding just one goal in Game 1.
The Islanders look to take a commanding 2-0 series lead while the Capitals hope to tie things up when the puck drops on Game 2 of their best-of-seven Round 1 Stanley Cup playoff series live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
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