New York at San Jose 10:30pm Msg+

New York Islander Fan Central | 1/03/2009 02:00:00 PM | | |
San Jose Mercury News: Mark Emmons previews tonight's game against San Jose and reports C Torrey Mitchell (leg) and C Jeremy Roenick (right shoulder) are out. D Douglas Murray (lower body) are listed as day-to-day.

San Jose comes in having gained only four points on a three-game trip, but have lost their overall NHL lead to Boston but stand at 28-4-5 entering the game.

San Jose has thirty eight of a possible forty points on home ice this year, they are led by Joe Thornton (9-35-44) Patrick Marleau (18-22-40) D. Setoguchi (18-19-37) & former Tampa Bay Lightning defender Dan Boyle (11-19-30) with a host of other outstanding players and Evgeni Nabokov in goal.

For those who recall the Islanders defeated the Sharks in New York last season during their six game winning streak.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It's almost on a level of the Canadians historic season where they lost eight games between them and Boston.

We all know what happened in Boston despite it being a close game late.

Nabakov had two days off before this game and another two day break afterward, I do not see the Islanders facing the backup goaltender here.

Sad part is tickets are available for this Saturday game.

Only flaw I can find on paper is San Jose having only one game with more than three goals scored in their last six contest. At home the record speaks for itself and coming back after a trip with only one win in three the Islanders will face some significant problems here unless they play their best game with a much better level of team defense.

Otherwise this could get very ugly.

The team defense did a lot of running around against Phoenix.

Islanders drew only one powerplay last night. I would expect Joey MacDonald in goal, beyond that unless Scott Gordon is going to bench a forward I expect Jon Sim will remain on the sidelines with Martinek & Nielsen just practicing unless a surprise happens and one (or both) return.

I fully intend at this time to do a very late post-game with news articles so check back after the game concludes.


Updated:

Newsday: Mr Logan in the Islanders Newsday blog had a lot more from Doug Weight and Josh Bailey from last night's postgame that did not make it into the paper for Saturday.

San Jose Mercury News: David Pollak reports this will be Alexei Semenov’s first start in the NHL at forward with defender Derek Joslin’s making his NHL debut.

According to the writer Head Coach Todd McLellan made the moves in part because Jody Shelley won’t be in the lineup with upper body soreness.

Here are the line combinations from the morning skate:
Marleau-Thornton-Setoguchi
Michalek-Pavelski-Clowe
Grier-Goc-Cheechoo
Semenov-Cavanagh-Plihal






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