Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the New York Islanders (21-28-8, 50 points) and Washington Capitals (25-22-9, 59 points) faceoff live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. for the third of four meetings against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. New York fans can hear all of the action by adjusting their radios to 88.7 WRHU while Washington fans can do the same on WFED 1500.
New York enters play having lost five games in a row while Washington has lost seven of its last 10 games. The Capitals have beaten the Islanders twice this season, with a 6-2 win in Washington on Nov. 6 and a 3-2 overtime triumph on Nov. 30 on Long Island.
The Capitals have been able to turn things around since a mid-January swoon that saw them lose seven straight games, and Alex Ovechkin notched an overtime game-winner Sunday against the Detroit Red Wings as he keeps trying to help the team find its way back.
"That's our goal," Ovechkin said Monday, according to NHL.com. "That's what we have to do. We have to win. It's so tight right now in the standings. Right now if we can win three or four games [in a row] we'll be fine."
Ovechkin leads the Capitals with 58 points off of 39 goals and 19 assists while Nicklas Backstrom has lit the lamp 11 times and added 42 helpers for 53 points and Marcus Johansson has found the twine seven times and added 27 assists for 34 points.
The Islanders shuffled their lines at practice on Sunday in hopes to bring about some better results following a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Friday.
"We just wanted to get different looks in practice with different plays and line combinations," coach Jack Capuano said per NHL.com. "We are going through a stretch where we aren't scoring many goals. You can play as much great defense as you want -- and that's our mentality, a defense-first mentality -- but there aren't going to be too many 1-0 games in this League. ... We have to get secondary scoring."
John Tavares paces the Islanders with 64 points off of 23 goals and 41 assists while Kyle Okposo has 24 markers and 34 helpers for 58 points and Thomas Vanek has found the back of the net 19 times and added 28 assists for 47 points.
Evgeni Nabokov is the likely starter for Washington, and is 9-10-5 with a 2.83 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage while Braden Holtby will likely man the crease for Washington and is 15-13-2 with a 3.00 GAA and a .909 save percentage.
New York looks to avoid its sixth straight loss while Washington will try to start winning when these two teams faceoff at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
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