The Islanders are a different team from the one that started October. Mathew Barzal hasn't played this season because of lingering inflammation in his left knee, and there's still no return date. Matias Maccelli (2-4 weeks) and Calum Ritchie (4-6 weeks) both went down with lower-body injuries. Alexander Romanov tore his ACL against the Rangers on October 6 and is done for the year. Mitchell Chaffee got an emergency recall from Hamilton to fill out the lineup. No odds are posted yet for this one.
Nashville showed both sides of the Islanders. They scored 3 straight to open the game and looked in control. Then the Predators scored twice in the 2nd and tied it in the 3rd, and New York needed a scoreless overtime and a shootout to win 4-3. That stopped a 2-game slide, but a team missing that much skill up front isn't going to protect leads easily. St. Paul is the next stop after Dallas and Nashville.
Minnesota has its own holes. Brock Faber is out indefinitely after surgery on a fractured skull, so a blue line that has been suppressing chances is doing it without its best minute-eater. Both Folignos are on IR too, which takes some heaviness out of the bottom 6. The Wild's start of 9-3-2 came mostly from the top of the lineup, with Kaprizov scoring and Wallstedt stopping pucks. Puck drop is 7:00 PM CT.
So the question is whether the Islanders, short on scoring, can keep up with the league's hottest goal scorer in his first game back at home. They play a structured game and can hang around, like they did for 2 periods in Nashville. If they can't build another early lead and hold it this time, this looks like a long night chasing Kaprizov.