Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the New York Islanders (15-22-7, 37 points) and Toronto Maple Leafs (21-17-5, 47 points) faceoff live from the Air Canada Centre for the second of three meetings against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. New York fans can hear all of the action on WRHU 88.7 while Toronto fans can do the same on TSN 1050.
New York is coming off of a big win but could be without their top goaltender while Toronto enters play on the heels of an embarrassing home loss that snapped a three-game winning streak. The first time these two teams met, the Maple Leafs defeated the Islanders 5-2 on Nov. 19 in Toronto.
The Maple Leafs are coming off of a 7-1 loss to the New York Rangers at home on Saturday night and will look to put it behind them.
"In talking yesterday, I said we weren't going to talk about the last game today, I've mentioned it twice already," coach Randy Carlyle told NHL.com Monday. "But that's what happens. As a coach, you never lose sight of what happened. Every decision you make is based on what's best for Tuesday. That's not any different than how we normally do it, it's just that the last game, do we pin that on a bad game, throw it out, ignore it, move on? Well, tomorrow we have to do that, but today we think about it."
The Islanders had a dominant home victory Monday night, beating the Dallas Stars 7-3 and were led by a hat trick from captain John Tavares. Tavares notched his fifth three-goal game of his career but was looking ahead.
"We're going to have a tough test tomorrow [against] a team that's looking to bounce back," Tavares said per NHL.com. "They've had a few days off, so we know we're going to have to be ready to play. We can't just dwell on this one and think it's going to be easy. We've got to come out with the right intensity, great work ethic and play a smart road game."
Tavares has a six-game point streak and is third in the league with 51 points off of 20 goals and 31 assists while Kyle Okposo has 16 tallies and 26 helpers for 42 points and Thomas Vanek--who is currently on a nine-game point streak--has lit the lamp 15 times and added 21 assists for 35 points.
Phil Kessel has paced the Maple Leafs with 38 points off of 20 goals and 18 assists while James van Riemsdyk has 15 markers and 15 helpers for 30 points and Mason Raymond has found the back of the net 11 times and added 15 assists for 26 points.
Jonathan Bernier may get the start for Toronto and is 13-12-4 with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage while with Evgeni Nabokov (lower-body) leaving Monday's game early, New York will likely turn to Kevin Poulin, who is 6-12-0 with a 3.26 GAA and a .891 save percentage.
The Islanders look to build off of Monday's solid performance while the Maple Leafs seek to erase a rough loss at home Saturday when the puck drops at Air Canada Centre tonight in Toronto.
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