Florida vs New York Islanders Prediction 2 February 2025

🔊 Can the champion stop the "Islanders"? Florida continues to play at its leisurely pace, fully aware that the decisive matches are still ahead. The current Stanley Cup holder only goes all out when necessary, and now that necessity has arisen. The Islanders have gained incredible momentum, going two weeks without a loss. The visitors are the hottest team in the league right now.

📊 Head-to-Head

In the current regular season, the opponents have met once. At the very start of the regular season on the ice in New York, there was no contest. The "Panthers" confidently prevailed with a score of 6:3, completely breaking the opponent's resistance in the third period. The most productive player was Florida's forward Matthew Tkachuk. The American scored twice and provided an assist. The current form of the player leaves no doubt, as he scored points in three of the last four games.

🔴 Florida

Paul Maurice's team plays in an extremely pragmatic style and collects points whenever there is even a minimal opportunity to do so. In their last seven games, the "Panthers" have secured five victories. Slip-ups in encounters with Los Angeles (1:2) and Vegas (1:4) were from the "missed" category. Trailing in score, the home team applied decent pressure but, facing desperate resistance at the last line, preferred to conserve energy for the next game. Florida is third in the East, and this tournament position suits the team quite well.

🟠 Islanders

Many had long assumed that the club would miss the playoffs this season. Their play seemed too weak over the course of the regular season. However, Patrick Roy's team unexpectedly re-entered the race. Right now, the New Yorkers have a streak of seven wins. During this stretch, they managed to defeat all direct competitors for a spot in the top-8 of the East. But they are still three points away from the coveted eighth spot. Management also didn't sit idly by and signed a contract with Anthony DeAngelo from St. Petersburg's SKA. The American immediately responded with a winning goal against Tampa (3:2 OT).

🔗 Probable Lineups

Florida: Bobrovsky - Ekblad, Forsling - Reinhart, Barkov, Verhaeghe

Islanders: Sorokin - Romanov, DeAngelo - Lee, Horvat, Barzal

🥅 Goalkeepers

Florida's goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is once again showcasing all his skills. The graduate of Novokuznetsk hockey has maintained a 91% save rate in four consecutive games and shut out Los Angeles. The veteran makes almost no costly mistakes, playing in his usual composed manner.

Islanders' goaltender Ilya Sorokin, after a long lull throughout most of the regular season, is once again demonstrating top-level play. The Russian has six consecutive wins, during which he has saved at least 93% of shots on his goal. Currently, there is simply no better goalkeeper in the league than him. The Islanders' last line of defense is in perfect order.

📝 Editor's Prediction

In the Novokuznetsk goaltender derby, one should not expect an abundance of goals. Both teams look extremely effective when playing defense and rarely make mistakes on their half of the rink. Meanwhile, the "Islanders" openly "dry out" their opponents and have complete confidence in their goalkeeper. The "Panthers," on the other hand, prefer to get by with minimal effort. Thus, in 7 out of 8 recent head-to-head encounters, today's home team has not scored more than three goals. Moreover, a similar trend is observed in 6 out of 7 games for Paul Maurice's team in this regular season. We tend to believe that both trends will remain relevant. Our key bet is Florida's individual total under 3.5 goals.