The New York Islanders host the Washington Capitals for the first meeting of the season with their Metro and fellow wild card rivals. It’s a pretty big one, and the Isles need to salvage more from this 1-1-1 home stand that concludes later this week against the juggernaut Bruins.
Currently the Capitals (52 points) and Islanders (49) are in the East’s two wild card spots, though the Penguins are right behind (48 points) and have multiple games in hand. The Isles enter the night trailing the Capitals by three points with one game in hand.