Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Toronto Maple Leafs (32-22-6, 70 points) and New York Islanders (22-30-8, 52 points) faceoff live form the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New York for the third and final meeting against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. Toronto fans can hear all of the action on TSN 1050 while New York fans can do the same on WRHU 88.7.
Toronto entered the Olympic break on the back of a two-game winning streak while New York has lost its last six home games. These teams have split wins this season, with the Maple Leafs scoring a 5-2 win in Toronto on Nov. 19 and the Islanders gaining some revenge in Toronto with a 5-3 win on Jan. 7.
The Maple Leafs have dealt with a lot of injuries this season, however the two-week Olympic break has allowed some of their team to heal up and return. Coach Randy Carlyle is hopeful that his team's methods in practice will ease some of his players back into the lineup.
"What we've tried to do is simulate a little bit of a mini-training camp here and try to get our players back in top form that we can hit the ice playing the way we left the ice," Carlyle told the Canadian Press.
The Islanders have struggled to score thus far this season and are going to have to carry on without captain and leading scorer John Tavares (24-42-66) who hurt his knee during the Canadian Olympic team's quest for the gold.
"What we have right now is still the same system of how we play," coach Jack Capuano told Newsday. "We had a tough enough time scoring goals before the break.
With Tavares sidelined, Kyle Okposo is the team's top scorer with 59 points off of 24 goals and 35 assists while Thomas Vanek has 19 tallies and 30 helpers for 59 points.
Phil Kessel has an NHL-best 28 points since Jan. 1 and leads the Leafs with 65 points off of 31 goals and 34 assists while James van Riemsdyk has 24 markers and 23 helpers for 47 points and Nazem Kadri has lit the lamp 15 times and added 26 assists for 41 points.
Jonathan Bernier will likely suit up for Toronto, and he is 22-16-5 with a 2.55 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage while Evgeni Nabokov is likely to man the crease for New York and is 10-12-5 with a 2.74 GAA and a .908 save percentage.
The Maple Leafs and Islanders each look to have strong starts after the Olympic break when the puck drops tonight at the Nassau Coliseum in New York.
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