New York Islanders at Tampa Bay Lightning
Even before their 4-2 loss to Florida on Tuesday, the Islanders’ underlying numbers had been sliding for a few games. However, when John Tavares is averaging two points a game (as he had been for the previous six games), a lot of problems get masked. The game against Florida was a friendly reminder that this is a team that isn’t very good defensively and is starting a goalie in net that was thought less of than Evgeni Nabokov to start the year.
The Lightning, with their win on Tuesday, are 16-10-4 without Steven Stamkos in the lineup (a 98 point pace) and they are 12-3-3 when Ben Bishop starts their games. It’s been an absolutely remarkable run for this team and they are solidifying themselves as probably one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference. If they can ever fix their penalty kill – which is just 65.2-percent over their last eight games – they could start handily winning games.
The Islanders sent down rookie Ryan Strome yesterday and that will force them to jumble their lines a bit (it also takes a good, cheap DFS play out of the lineup). The Islanders may again be without Travis Hamonic and that’s a big chunk of their already-shallow defensive depth gone.
The only time these two teams met this year resulted in 70 combined shots on net but just four goals. With the way Bishop is playing, I can’t justify betting against the Lightning tonight. Also, I’m not sure that anything beyond depth plays for the Islanders is advisable here.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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(TBL) |
Alex Killorn $8500 |
Tyler Johnson $7450 |
Sami Salo |
Brock Nelson $5000 |
