New York Islanders seek a victory on home ice as Los Angeles Kings visit – NHL Preview
The lowly New York Islanders has a chance to impress its home crowd by overcoming the slumping Los Angeles Kings in a National Hockey League (NHL) game on Saturday, February 11, 2012, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York.
New York has entered that narrow valley from where the sight of postseason is not clearly visible. Nonetheless, no possibility could be ignored as the game is full of surprises.
Islanders have won three of their last five games, but all the victories displayed the flaws of the offensive line.
In the last game, New York was beaten by Montreal Canadiens, who had gained a three-goal advantage before Islanders’ first scoring move.
New York did retaliate by scoring two goals within a couple of minutes, but Montreal scored another goal to seal the victory, 4-2.
Islanders’ captain, Mark Streit, is also aware of the problem his team is facing.
He said after the loss:
"Coming back at the end to score two goals is good. But at the end of the day it's the win that counts. They [the Canadiens] were vulnerable and we didn't take advantage of that."
The Islanders are ranked at 14th spot in the Eastern Conference with 52 points after 53 games and can even get pushed down to the bottom where Carolina Hurricanes are currently placed.
On the other hand, Kings are much more favourable to reach the playoffs.
Los Angeles is ranked at seventh spot in the Western Conference with 62 points after 55 games.
However, the recent run might become a reason for their downfall, which could also ruin the playoff chances.
Los Angeles has lost three of its last four games, and this fact has forced the observers to favour Islanders for the game.
Kings’ recent defeat came against Florida Panthers in which the former could only score one goals while allowing three.
Kings, like Islanders, too are struggling on offence.
Kings’ captain, Dustin Brown, was of the view that more goals should be scored if the team needs to secure victories.
He said:
“It's more of the same for us. We've got to find ways to score more goals.”
Both the offensive lines are struggling. The one who manages to overcome the flaw will eventually get the victory.
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