It's John Tavares' NHL debut tonight out in Long Island and it's up to the Penguins to spoil that. When I spoke with the guys from Hockey Night in Long Island last night, I tossed out the prediction that he will record his first point before all is said and done. I won't go as far as to say he'll pick up his first goal, so I'll just take the safe bet and say point. After all, good things tend to happen to teams and players who go up against the Pens (unless by "team" we mean "Flyers"). Carey Price recorded his first win, Al Arbour hit his milestone in wins - yeah, you get the picture. It's the little things.
The Islanders has more or less unofficially announced that they will be going with a one-two combo in net this season, rotating between former Flyer Marty "French Toast" Biron and Dwayne Roloson. I haven't seen anything official as of yet, but from what I've read all week it would seem like Roloson is the pick for tonight. In that same respect, the Penguins haven't announced a starter either. Perhaps this will stand as Brent Johnson's debut seeing as how MAF may get the day off in the second part of a back-to-back. Your guess is as good as mine at this point.
Kyle Okposo, Trent Hunter, Frans Nielsen, Jeremy Reich, Doug Weight, Rick DiPietro (surprise) and defenseman Mark Flood are all out of the Islanders' lineup tonight.
Hooks is taking the trip out to Long Island for this one, so I'll check in again later during the thread and follow up with the recap. And of course, if you're looking to stay on top of what's going down with the Islanders, hit up our friends over at Lighthouse Hockey. They are, as you can imagine, excited for JT's debut tonight.