The New York Islanders will host the Chicago Blackhawks at UBS Arena on March 24, aiming for their third consecutive home win. The game marks the second and final regular season matchup between the teams, with the Islanders having previously defeated Chicago 3-2 in a shootout last December.
This game is significant as the Islanders recently moved into the second Wild Card position in the Eastern Conference with 85 points, surpassing Detroit by one point. However, both Detroit and Columbus have games in hand, making each remaining contest crucial for playoff positioning.
The Islanders are coming off a 1-0 shutout victory over Columbus, where Bo Horvat scored and Ilya Sorokin earned his league-leading seventh shutout of the season. Sorokin’s performance ties him with Chico Resch (1976), Semyon Varlamov (2021), and himself (2022) for most single-season shutouts in team history. He is also noted as being the only goaltender in franchise history to achieve seven shutouts in multiple seasons.
For Tuesday’s game, defenseman Ryan Pulock will miss his second straight match due to a lower-body injury after skating ahead of morning practice but not joining team drills. Anthony Duclair remains unavailable despite being cleared to play following his own lower-body injury. David Rittich is set to start in goal against Chicago; he holds a record of 14-9-3 this season with two shutouts.
Team captain Anders Lee has registered points in his last two games and now totals 544 career points, tying him for fourth place on the franchise’s all-time goals list alongside Clark Gillies and tenth place for total points with John Tonelli. Horvat is approaching milestones as well: he needs two more goals to reach 300 career tallies and one more to hit thirty goals this season—a mark he has reached four times over five years.
On Chicago’s side, Connor Bedard leads his team with 66 points this year and is close to achieving both his first thirty-goal campaign and setting a new personal best for total points. The Blackhawks have struggled recently but maintain an NHL-best penalty kill rate of 84.4% this season.
