The Islanders show up on a 3-game Western road trip, and the Dallas loss hurt. It was 3-3 before Wyatt Johnston, Jason Robertson and Mikko Rantanen scored 3 goals in under 9 minutes, and that ended New York's 5-game point streak. Before that night the Isles had been one of the stingier teams around, allowing 2.20 goals per game, with Ilya Sorokin carrying a .934 save percentage into Dallas.
The Isles are doing this short-handed. Mat Barzal, Maccelli and Ritchie were all listed out with lower-body injuries going into Dallas, so a lot of the offense runs through Bo Horvat, who led the team with 10 points entering that game. It also runs through Matthew Schaefer. The reigning Calder winner had 9 points entering Dallas and scored again there, and the 19-year-old is running the Islanders' attack from the back end.
That sets up the matchup. New York usually wins by keeping games tight and letting its goalie handle the rest. Nashville needs to hold a lead for 60 minutes, which it hasn't done often enough lately. If the Predators score first and keep pushing in the 3rd, they look like the team that beat St. Louis 5-2. If they sit back, the Penguins game shows how that tends to end. Puck drop is 7:00 PM CT.