Pre Game: Isles @ Blues

 photo by hockey.ballparks

Tonight, our Islanders open their 5 game west coast road trip traveling to St Louis to take on David Backes and the Blues.

The goalie match up tonight features Anders Nilsson making his third consecutive start for the Islanders.  Meanwhile, Jaroslav Halak will start in net for the Blues.  Halak is 5-1-1 in his career against the Islanders with a 1.41 GAA and a .955 save percentage.

The Islanders are looking for their first road win tonight since November 1st.  On that night the Islanders defeated the Ottawa Senators by a score of 5-4 in a shootout.  Since then, the Islanders have lost 7 straight games in regulation on the road.  That is one more then the team lost in regulation during last years shortened season.

The Islanders will be dressing the same lineup tonight as Tuesdays OT loss to the Penguins.  That means, Brock Nelson along with Eric Boulton and Radek Martinek will be the teams healthy scratches.  The coaching staff is starting to receive criticism by people for failing to play Nelson who looked promising in his last stint of games over guys like Regin and Bouchard who have done very little to contribute and will likely not be with the team past this season.  This seems to fly in the face of the rebuilding mantra that has been pushed on fans for the last 6+ years.