Islanders seek fourth straight win against visiting Predators
Under head coach Barry Trotz, the New York Islanders reached the NHL semifinals in 2020 and 2021 - the deepest playoff trips for the Islanders since their run of five straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final ended in 1984.
On Saturday night, Trotz, now the Nashville Predators' general manager, will get to see what is shaping up to be the best Islanders team since his departure when New York hosts the Predators in Elmont, N.Y.
Both teams were off Friday after playing in the New York area Thursday night. The Islanders continued surging with a 2-1 win over the host New York Rangers while the visiting Predators suffered their third straight loss as they fell to the New Jersey Devils, 3-2, in overtime.
The victory continued a potentially season-defining week for the Islanders, whose home-and-home sweep of the Rangers extended their winning streak to three games and gave them a six-point lead over the Washington Capitals in the race for third place and the final guaranteed playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division.
The Islanders are tied for second place with the Pittsburgh Penguins, though the Penguins have two games in hand. Both teams are two points behind the Atlantic Division's Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins, who are tied for the two Eastern Conference wild-card spots.
The Islanders haven't won a playoff series since the spring of 2021, when the eventual Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning beat them in the semifinals for the second straight year. Current New York general manager Mathieu Darche was the director of hockey operations during Tampa Bay's championship run.
New York opened this week two points ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers, whom the Islanders beat 4-0 on Monday night, shortly before they acquired defenseman Carson Soucy from the Rangers.
On Tuesday, the Islanders acquired left winger Ondrej Palat from the Devils. Palat scored the first goal in Wednesday's 5-2 win over the Rangers before Soucy opened the scoring Thursday.
"We want to keep this going," Soucy said. "They've done a great job of welcoming both of us in."
Trotz, who was fired after the Islanders missed the playoffs in 2021-22, reunited with the Predators - whom he coached for the franchise's first 15 seasons - in July 2023.
After Nashville fell in the first round of the playoffs the following spring, Trotz signed former Lightning star Steven Stamkos to a four-year contract.
But the Predators finished with the third-fewest points in the NHL last year and got off to a 6-12-4 start this year before climbing within a point of a playoff spot by going 18-10-0 from Nov. 26 through Jan. 22.
While the Predators have managed to collect two points during their current three-game skid, they've slipped five points behind the Anaheim Ducks in the race for the Western Conference. Nashville squandered an early lead in a 5-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Jan. 24 before falling to the Boston Bruins, 3-2, in overtime on Tuesday.
The Predators held a pair of one-goal leads Thursday before the Devils' Jesper Bratt scored an unassisted goal just beyond the midway point of the third. Nico Hischier ended the game just 42 seconds into overtime.
"I think we had a couple moments in the game where we played great and then moments where we're allowing them (to) kind of get back into it," said Predators center Filip Forsberg, who scored Nashville's second goal Thursday. "It's good that we're getting points, but we need the two points."