Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Edmonton Oilers (1-5-1) and New York Islanders (2-2-2) go head-to-head live from the Nassau Coliseum. The game can be live streamed here. Edmonton fans can hear all the hard-hitting action on CHED 630 AM while New York fans can do the same on WRHU 88.7 FM.
In the first of two meetings between these two teams that don orange and blue, the Oilers come into the game struggling, having won just one of seven games and allowing a league-high 32 goals, while the Islanders come in with two wins out of six after squandering a few third period leads along the way.
The Islanders inability to hold late leads has been an issue so far this season and it came back to haunt them again on Tuesday as the team was 2:01 away from a victory against Buffalo until the Sabres tied it and eventually won in a shootout.
"Last night we played our game for the most part," Islanders right wing Kyle Okposo told the team's website Wednesday. "We were physical. Tenacious. We were beating guys to pucks. We had a couple bad bounces - that happens sometimes. But if we play like that, we're going to win a lot more games than we lose."
Okposo has one goal and three assists for four points thus far this season. Frans Nielsen, captain John Tavares and Michael Grabner all lead the Isles with seven points apiece. Nielsen and Tavares have a team-high three goals to go along with four assists each while Grabner has two goals and paces the team with five helpers.
The Oilers, meanwhile, have stumbled out of the gate under new head coach Dallas Eakins and are hoping to turn it around after a troubling start. Edmonton is suffering through a four game losing streak and came close to topping the Pittsburgh Penguins Tuesday until Evgeni Malkin scored in the third period to give the Pens an eventual 3-2 win.
"To have done the job so far and everything's going all right for us and it's a fanned shot and it goes right to the most dangerous guy on the ice, the hockey gods aren't lined up for us right now," Eakins said per NHL.com about the last loss. "We'll do an exorcism and see if they give us more leeway."
David Perron and Taylor Hall have led the club with six points each off of one goal and five assists while Boyd Gordon has a team-high four tallies to go along with a helper for five total points.
So far this season Jason LaBarbera and Devan Dubnyk have alternated time in the crease for Edmonton, each playing in four games, but neither having much success. LaBarbera is 1-2-0 with 3.22 goals-against average and a .871 save percentage, while Dubnyk has recorded an 0-3-1 record with a 5.43 GAA and a .829 save percentage.
Evgeni Nabokov has spent the majority of the time between the pipes for New York as he's posted a 2-1-2 record with a 2.29 GAA and a .924 save percentage.
Edmonton will look to stop a four game skid while the Islanders will try not to squander any late leads the team might get when the puck drops in Long Island tonight.
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