Islanders vs. Senators matinee: Biggest game of the year, Part II

Let’s defend, okay? | NHLI via Getty Images

The Islanders drop the puck for a dangerous 1 p.m. Saturday clash with the Ottawa Senators and we can only hope they don’t drop the ball.

If they don’t win, their slim playoff chances become even starker and tomorrow’s meeting with the Habs could be bleak. If they do win, then they give themselves one or two more “biggest games of the year” and keep up the pressure on the Metro’s other sad sacks.

The Senators will be motivated with the chance to clinch their playoff spot, as well as the usual tomfoolery led by peacock feathers-puffing Brady Tkachuk and company. Last meeting, the Sens captain started an opening fight with Anders Lee that had no effect on the game, but it fit the narrative when the Islanders coughed everything up in the dying seconds as Tkachuk banged home the winner.

That loss accelerated the decline that led to Patrick Roy’s firing. Now Pete DeBoer is in place for his second game behind their bench, with a compressed evaluation of what his new charges are made of.

First Islanders Goal picks go here.

Islanders News

• Previewing today: Maintenance days yesterday for Matthew Schaefer, Max Shabanov and Ilya Sorokin, but no expected changes to the lineup. [Isles]
• The story remains the same: win them all and hope that’s enough. [Newsday]
• With his Brian Leetch record-tying goal, Schaefer continues to build a case that the Islanders will have the TWO best defensemen in New York NHL history. (I may be editorializing, slightly.) [Isles]
• Leetch, of course, is gracious and humble about it — it’s not the Bruins legend’s fault that he also spent a bit of time as a Ranger. [Po$t+]
• Now THIS is the kind of story I’ve got time for, damn it: the story behind each jersey worn at the Lee family pond hockey detour. [Isles]
• Not that kind of Hughes: The Isles are reportedly in the mix for NCAA free agent and Hobey Baker finalist (he didn’t win) T.J. Hughes of Michigan. [THN]

Elsewhere

No games of note yesterday — seriously, zero games — but five teams can clinch today.

• The Ducks have extended GM Pat Verbeek, who’s just a really tough negotiator. [TSN]
• Bourne: Looking at the playoff teams, assessing who has any chance at what. [Sportsnet]
• Since it’s a 1 p.m. start, this is probably also our game thread. You can’t relitigate every trade before puck drop.