Friday October 10, 2014

PNC Arena in Raleigh

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The New York Islanders and the Carolina Hurricanes will both be hoping that they can move up the Metropolitan standings this season and they will get their first chance to do so when they face each other on Friday night. The Hurricanes were able to beat the Islanders in three of their four meetings last year.

The Islanders could only come up with 34 wins in the 2013-14 season mostly because they only scored 2.4 goals per game. Right wing Kyle Okposo stepped up and had the best season of his career by scoring 27 goals and assisting on 42 others. John Tavares was also solid, finishing with 24 goals and 42 assists.

The Islanders made a bunch of moves over the offseason, but their best one had to be signing goalie Jaroslav Halak. Halak had a .921 save percentage last season, which was much better than any of the Islanders' goalies.

Carolina missed the playoffs last season after accumulating just 83 points. One player who did play well for them was defenseman Andrej Sekera, who scored a career-high 11 goals in his first year with the Hurricanes. 21-year-old Jeff Skinner led the team with 33 goals and he finished with 54 points in 71 games.

The Hurricanes put a lot of work into getting new front office members, but they didn't do much in terms of signing on-ice talent. Getting first-rounder Haydn Fleury signed to a deal was probably their best piece of business.

Injuries to Watch

NY Islanders

10/07/14 D Lubomir Visnovsky Back out indefinitely
10/07/14 D Matt Carkner Upper Body out indefinitely

Carolina Hurricanes

10/07/14 C Elias Lindholm Lower Body "?"
10/07/14 LW Jeff Skinner Concussion is downgraded to out indefinitely
09/25/14 C Jordan Staal Fibula out 3-4 months

Josh's Pick: Take Carolina

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