Tampa Bay Lightning (50-23-8, third in the Atlantic) vs. New York Islanders (37-34-10, fifth in the Metropolitan)
Elmont; Friday, 7:30 p.m. EDT
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Islanders +163, Lightning -195; over/under is 5.5
BOTTOM LINE: Steven Stamkos leads Tampa Bay into a matchup against New York. He currently ranks eighth in the NHL with 103 points, scoring 39 goals and recording 64 assists.
The Islanders are 24-20-5 against Eastern Conference opponents. New York averages 9.0 penalty minutes per game, the ninth-most in the Eastern Conference. Zdeno Chara leads the team serving 85 total minutes.
The Lightning are 28-16-5 in conference matchups. Tampa Bay ranks eighth in the league averaging 5.9 assists per game, led by Nikita Kucherov with 0.9.
In their last meeting on March 27, Tampa Bay won 4-1.
TOP PERFORMERS: Mathew Barzal leads the Islanders with 43 assists and has 58 points this season. Noah Dobson has three goals and seven assists over the last 10 games for New York.
Stamkos leads the Lightning with 39 goals and has 103 points. Kucherov has 22 points over the last 10 games for Tampa Bay.
LAST 10 GAMES: Islanders: 4-5-1, averaging 3.1 goals, 4.4 assists, 4.6 penalties and 12.2 penalty minutes while giving up three goals per game with a .913 save percentage.
Lightning: 7-3-0, averaging 4.7 goals, 8.3 assists, 5.3 penalties and 14.3 penalty minutes while giving up 2.4 goals per game with a .915 save percentage.
INJURIES: Islanders: Zdeno Chara: day to day (illness), Ryan Pulock: day to day (covid-19), Scott Mayfield: out (lower-body), Brock Nelson: day to day (illness), Cal Clutterbuck: out for season (shoulder), Anthony Beauvillier: day to day (upper body).
Lightning: None listed.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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