photo courtesy of http://cdn.nhl.com/Tonight, our Islanders travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Sidney Crosbyless Penguins to open the teams' first round playoff series.
The goalie matchup tonight features Evgeni Nabokov for the Islanders and Marc Andre Fleury for the Penguins.
Tonight, Lubomir Visnovsky will return to the lineup for the Islanders in place of Matt Carkner. If you recall Visnovsky took a rest day on the last game of the season against Buffalo this past Saturday. Additionally, forward Marty Reasoner will make his first appearance in nearly a month dressing tonight in place of Jesse Joensuu.
For the Penguins, Sidney Crosby will be out after not being cleared to play while recovering from a broken jaw he sustained the last time the Islanders visited the Penguins on March 30th. Crosby isn't the only player out tonight for the Penguins. They will also be without rugged defenseman Brooks Orpik, and grinder Tyler Kennedy.
With the Penguins being bitten by the injury bug, tonight is there for the taking for the Islanders. They need to go out and play their game for a full 60 minutes and think of it as a start of a new season. The media and so called "experts" aren't giving the team much of a chance. They have been heavy underdogs twice to the Penguins in the playoffs before and won both times. While unlikely, crazier things have happened and that is why the games are played on the ice and not in print.
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