Music: {allcanada} ISLANDERS (18-7-0) at SENATORS (10-9-5)

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

{allcanada} ISLANDERS (18-7-0) at SENATORS (10-9-5)

Wrapped In Red - Kelly Clarkson / Eloise: Little Miss Christmas

Thursday, December 4, 2014

7:30 PM ET

ISLANDERS (18-7-0) at SENATORS (10-9-5)

TV: MSG+, RDS, TSN5

Season series: The New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators are completing a home-and-home series Thursday; the Islanders won 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum on Tuesday on an overtime goal by Thomas Hickey.

Islanders team scope: New York placed defensemen Johnny Boychuk (retroactive to Nov. 27) and Lubomir Visnovsky (retroactive to Nov. 28) on injured reserve Wednesday and recalled Griffin Reinhart from the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League. Reinhart, 20, who started the season with the Islanders, practiced Wednesday alongside Nick Leddy. "Griffin was with us at the start of the year and he'll get another opportunity now," coach Jack Capuano told the Islanders website. "Hopefully he can step in and help us out. The coaches [in Bridgeport] said he was playing well. [I want him to] play with some urgency, play physical, move the puck and use his body." Boychuk and Visnovsky each sustained an upper-body injury last week. They won't play Thursday and likely will be out Saturday against the St. Louis Blues. Right wing Michael Grabner will probably make his season debut; he was activated off IR on Wednesday. Cal Clutterbuck is likely to be scratched after he sustained a lower-body injury Tuesday.

Senators team scope: Ottawa returns home after going 1-3-1 on a five-game road trip. The Senators will be playing in front of a revved-up crowd Thursday; right wing Daniel Alfredsson, a former Senators captain who played 17 seasons in Canada's capital city, is expected to announce his retirement and then skate with the Senators during warm-ups. Alfredsson scored 426 goals and had 682 assists for 1,108 points in 1,178 regular-season games with the Senators. "It's going to be a special day for everyone, I think, in Ottawa, especially the fans and everybody," captain Erik Karlsson said. "Obviously, it's going to be a sad day. He's going to hang them up. Unfortunately I wasn't born 15 years earlier and had the chance to play with him a little bit longer."

Team Stats