Tip: Detroit Red Wings face a tough task when they visit UBS Arena!

Aside from the opening loss to the New Jersey Devils, the Detroit Red Wings seemed to have found an early form peak, winning five straight games and looking unstoppable. Now, they instead face three consecutive losses in their account and a tough away game ahead against the New York Islanders.

Detroit's Power Play

The nice form peak and the five consecutive wins were mainly due to the fantastic outcomes the team had in five-on-four play. After nine rounds, the output in this mode of play has slightly faded, but the Red Wings are still at the top of the PP league, only topped by the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers. However, in the last two games, they had problems against the Winnipeg Jets and Boston Bruins, who, despite being allowed some advantages, couldn't capitalize on them. The payout that the Red Wings had initially was brutal, and a regression is expected. That said, the Red Wings still look dangerous in this play mode despite the lack of payout in the last two matches. The game before against the Seattle Kraken resulted in three power play goals. Most teams will probably be very aware that they need to avoid drawing unnecessary penalties.

Overnight to Tuesday, the Red Wings face the New York Islanders at UBS-Arena. If there's anything the Islanders are often very good at, it's avoiding unnecessary penalties. Like the previous season, we find the Islanders far down in the penalty league, and that tends to be a hallmark for them. They rarely offer entertaining hockey; instead, the clock often ticks on with relatively few game interruptions, and if the Islanders get the game to go their way, it will hardly benefit Detroit, which so far has been very dependent on their five-on-four play to win matches, as their five-on-five play has not impressed notably.

Stable Start for the Islanders

So far, we have not been treated to any surprises from the Long Island team; it is still the same philosophy of play that prevails. Nor is it particularly strange since they, as usual, have not made any changes to the squad this season either. Much of the game is based on the same "gritty hockey" as recent years. When complemented by having the privilege of having probably the league's best goaltender duo, the Islanders often become very difficult to meet.

The distribution of goal production is still mixed. Like previous seasons, the goals seem to be similarly distributed among the different lines; Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmieri, and Bo Horvat currently top the internal points league with three goals each. The latter suffered from quite a few injury problems last season and only got thirty games in the regular season. Horvat has previously proven to be capable of scoring up to 40 goals in a season, a perfect weapon for the Islanders to spice up this season's edition.

Betting Tips and Conclusion

I don't think Detroit will enjoy facing the Islanders in tonight's clash at all. They are a difficult team to meet who are on a roll and rarely draw unnecessary penalties. Detroit is not in any way a bad team, and the season is far too young to judge their five-on-five play. We should also remember that even though the underlying numbers for Detroit in five-on-five play don't look great, they have led many matches and haven't needed to be the chasing team. Despite this, I still like the Islanders' chances tonight at home ice against a Red Wings that hasn't really reached the level lately. Add to that an Islanders coming from two straight wins and having a super goaltender in Sorokin, and I think we will see the Islanders pick up their third straight win.

I'm playing New York Islanders FT (full time) @ +120 at bet365!