Islanders at Jets

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This article was published 29/12/2017 (2814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

❯❯ About the ISLANDERS

New York (20-13-4) has won two games in a row to climb into a wildcard playoff spot in the ultra-competitive Eastern Conference. They returned from their Christmas break with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres in Brooklyn on Wednesday. RW Josh Bailey tied the game with 69 seconds left in regulation, and then rookie C Mathew Barzal notched the winner just 68 seconds into the three-on-three portion.

The Islanders went into the holidays with a 5-2 win over the Jets last Saturday on home ice, in which Barzal notched a hat trick.

New York is led by superstar C John Tavares (21G, 27A), who is on pace for a career season as he heads into unrestricted free agency next summer unless the Islanders lock him up before then.

Bailey (11G, 37A), is tied with Tavares for the team lead in scoring, while LW Anders Lee (22G, 15A) leads New York in goals. Barzal (13G, 23A) has put himself into serious rookie-of-the-year talks with an impressive start to his pro career. And C Jordan Eberle (13G, 15A) and veteran RW Andrew Ladd (9G, 9A) help round out a potent offensive attack that averages the second-most goals-per-game in the NHL.

D Nick Leddy (6G, 20A) leads a blue-line corps that has several question marks, especially with an injury to Calvin de Haan (upper-body) which could force him to miss the rest of the regular season.

Veteran G Jaroslav Halak (11-8-2, 2.96 GAA, .908 SV%) and G Thomas Greiss (9-5-2, 3.83 GAA, .883 SV%) have combined to surrender a league-worst 3.46 goals-per-game.

New York has the league’s fifth-best power play at 22.4%, but the second-worst penalty kill with just 74.5% efficiency.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

1 Thomas Greiss G

41 Jaroslav Halak G

2 Nick Leddy D

4 Dennis Seidenberg D

6 Ryan Pulock D

7 Jordan Eberle C

8 Steve Bernier RW

10 Alan Quine C

11 Shane Prince LW

12 Josh Bailey RW

13 Mathew Barzal C

14 Thomas Hickey D

15 Cal Clutterbuck RW

16 Andrew Ladd LW

25 Jason Chimera LW

27 Anders Lee LW

29 Brock Nelson C

42 Scott Mayfield D

50 Adam Pelech D

53 Casey Cizikas C

55 Johnny Boychuk D

72 Anthony Beauvillier C

91 John Tavares C

Head coach: Doug Weight

Associate coach: Greg Cronin

Assistant coaches: Kelly Buchberger, Luke Richardson, Scott Gomez, Matt Bertani

Goaltending coach: Fred Brathwaite

WINNIPEG JETS

35 Steve Mason G

37 Connor Hellebuyck G

3 Tucker Poolman D

5 Dmitry Kulikov D

7 Ben Chiarot D

8 Jacob Trouba D

9 Andrew Copp LW

13 Brandon Tanev LW

15 Matt Hendricks C

16 Shawn Matthias LW

17 Adam Lowry C

18 Bryan Little C

26 Blake Wheeler RW

27 Nikolaj Ehlers LW

29 Patrik Laine RW

40 Joel Armia RW

44 Josh Morrissey D

56 Marko Dano LW

57 Tyler Myers D

71 Julian Melchiori D

81 Kyle Connor LW

85 Mathieu Perreault LW

Head coach: Paul Maurice

Assistant coaches: Charlie Huddy, Jamie Kompon, Todd Woodcroft

Goaltending coach: Wade Flaherty

— Mike McIntyre