Islanders face tough task against Blues

ST. LOUIS -- The good news for the New York Islanders is that they won't have too long to think about getting blown out Friday night with another game set for Saturday night.

The bad news is that game will be in St. Louis against the Blues, off to the best start in franchise history and one of the best teams in the league so far this season with a 13-3-1 record.

The Islanders lost 5-0 at Dallas on Friday night and clearly were not happy about the result.

"We didn't play very well, we didn't execute and didn't win some of the 50/50 battles," John Tavares said. "It was hard for us to gain any momentum. The good thing is we get to respond tomorrow."

The Islanders had just 14 shots on goal and were 0 of 4 on the power play.

"We can't play like that," New York defenseman Johnny Boychuk said. "You have to do the simple things and we weren't. It's uncharacteristic of the team and it showed on the scoreboard. We have to put this one behind us and look forward to St. Louis."

Blues coach Mike Yeo expects the Islanders will use Friday night's loss as motivation for Saturday night's game.

"They've been playing well," Yeo said. "Watching video on them, it's gonna be a tough game. I think they're feeling really good about their game. Obviously, Tavares is playing at a real high level right now, too."

The Blues are coming off a tough game of their own on Thursday night against the struggling Arizona Coyotes, a game that looked to be a mismatch on paper but did not turn out that way -- as Yeo expected would be the case.

St. Louis needed a game-tying goal from Alex Pietrangelo in the third period to send the game to overtime before winning 3-2 in a shootout.

It was the first time this season the Blues won a game after trailing going into the third period. The win improved their record to 9-1-1 in their last 11 games.

Pietrangelo's goal, and one earlier from Joel Edmundson, gave the Blues 19 goals from their defensemen in their first 17 games, the most in the NHL.

The game against the Islanders will be the first time this season that St. Louis will face a team for the second time, coming in its 18th game.

The Blues needed a shootout to defeat the Islanders 3-2 on Oct. 9 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Jake Allen, who got Thursday night off, will be back in goal for the Blues. He was in goal for the previous game against the Islanders, making 40 saves through the overtime and then stopping both attempts in the shootout.

"I think we just have a silent confidence about us," Allen said after Friday's practice. "I can just kind of tell in the room. I don't think anyone's getting too high (or) too low, but everyone's pretty confident in themselves and what they bring to the table every night."

The game against the Islanders will be the 11th the Blues have played against a team from the Eastern Conference, compared with only seven within their own Western Conference. They are 7-3 against the East in the first 10 games.