The Islanders will look to resume their long climb back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture Tuesday night, when they host the Washington Capitals at Barclays Center. It will be one of 10 games as the NHL resumes play following a three-day break for the holidays.
Both the Islanders and Capitals won their final game before the break on Friday, when New York cruised past the Buffalo Sabres 5-1, while Washington blanked the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0.
The Islanders (13-14-6) is riding a two-game winning streak, having beaten the Bruins 4-2 in Boston on Dec. 20.
"Two in a row, we feel pretty good," Islanders right winger Ryan Strome said. "Refresh over the break. We've got to get on our horses here (and) get going."
Strome was one of five players to score a goal apiece on Friday for the Islanders, whose nine goals over the past two games were scored by eight different players.
"I think the biggest thing is when we get contributions from different guys, we're successful," Strome said. "We've kind of had a steady flow in our lineups now the last couple games. We're starting to get a little chemistry, so it's nice to get rolling and get a couple guys on the scoreboard, myself included. It feels good."
Islanders left winger Andrew Ladd, who also scored on Friday, added, "Any break, you want to go into (it) with a good feeling. Break or no break, we need to start stringing some wins together. These are important games that we feel like we need to win. We can't be giving away points."
The Capitals (20-8-4) snapped a brief two-game skid (0-1-1) with the win over Tampa Bay, but they own seven wins in their past nine games.
"We wanted to feel good about ourselves before the Christmas break," said Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom, who had two assists against the Lightning and is three away from 500 for his career.
The Capitals, who won the Presidents' Trophy last season as the top regular-season team before falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the conference semifinals, might not be ending the calendar year where they anticipated. Still, the recent run of form has Washington in far better shape than the Islanders as the playoff races begin to heat up.
"It's good so we can try to build off that momentum on the other side of (the holiday break)," Capitals defenseman John Carlson told the team's website. "It's going to be crazy (the) next month or month and a half with all the games that we play."
This will be the fourth of five meetings this season between the Islanders and Capitals. Washington has a 2-1 lead in the series thanks to a 2-1 win at Verizon Center on Oct. 15 and a 4-2 victory at Barclays Center on Dec. 13. New York earned a 3-0 victory at Verizon Center on Dec. 1.
The Islanders host the Capitals again on Jan. 31.
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