Having clinched a playoff spot, the New York Islanders are making a few lineup changes, but this clinch-hangover game is far from meaningless: Depending on how this and other games go tonight, the sixth-place Islanders could end the evening in anywhere from fifth to eighth place.
Ottawa and New York are each two points behind the Isles, and regulation wins would give them tie-breaker advantages if the Islanders fail to fetch a point in Philadelphia. On the other hand, an Isles win and a Toronto regulation loss puts the Isles in fifth.
The lineup changes? Well Kevin Poulin gets a start to give Evgeni Nabokov a rare chance at a spa and rest.
But the jarring move is removing Thomas Hickey in favor of Matt Carkner, which breaks up the fantastic partnership Hickey has developed with Lubomir Visnovsky over the second half of this season. Given the opponent and the possibility for garbage-time tomfoolery, the Isles arguably have incentive to put some policemen in the lineup.
But more than that, we'll get a look at how different defensemen work together as we head into the playoffs. Ever since Brian Strait's ankle injury, Carkner's rotating appearances (alternating with Radek Martinek) have come next to Mark Streit. With Strait back, the alphabetically tricky Strait-Streit partnership was reformed. So either way Vis gets a new partner tonight.
