Islanders Take the Road Show to Ottawa After Palmieri's Breakthrough

New York Islanders Ottawa Senators

Matchup: New York Islanders (3-3-0) at Ottawa Senators (5-2-0) Start: 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) Venue: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa TV/stream: ESPN+

The Islanders open their season series with Ottawa still looking for their first road win (0-2-0 away). They're coming off a 3-2 home win over Vancouver in which Kyle Palmieri scored twice. They were his first goals of the season since he came back from an ACL tear suffered last November.

Bo Horvat leads New York with seven points (four goals, three assists). Defenseman Matthew Schaefer has six assists. Semyon Varlamov gets the start in goal, per NHL.com's projected lineups, with Ilya Sorokin (3-2-0, 1.81 goals-against average, .934 save percentage) as the backup. The Islanders are without Mathew Barzal (injured reserve, estimated return Oct. 20) and Alexander Romanov (out).

Ottawa is 5-2-0 and favored at home. Tim Stützle leads the Senators with 11 points (five goals, six assists). Linus Ullmark is expected in net after a blistering start (5-0-0, 1.27 goals-against average, .948 save percentage), though Ottawa was routed 7-2 by St. Louis on Tuesday. Jake Sanderson will miss his sixth straight game, while Ridly Greig is expected to play and Artem Zub is set to make his season debut, per NHL.com.

Storylines

Palmieri's return to scoring, the Islanders' search for road points, and Ullmark's dominant start against Varlamov.

Key players

Islanders: Palmieri, Horvat, Varlamov. Senators: Stützle, Ullmark, Batherson.

Recent form

Islanders: beat Vancouver 3-2, lost 5-3 to Tampa Bay. Senators: lost 7-2 to St. Louis, won 4-1 at New Jersey.