Preds hope to find their offense against Islanders

(SportsNetwork.com) - The Nashville Predators will try to rebound from consecutive 5-0 losses when they visit the sliding New York Islanders for Tuesday's battle at Nassau Coliseum.

The Predators began their seven-game road trip with a promising 2-0-1 record, before getting slammed in the next two outings at Winnipeg and New Jersey.

Nashville was dealt a 5-0 loss Friday against the Jets despite firing 41 shots on net. On Sunday in New Jersey, however, the Predators were held to just 15 shots on goal, as Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur extended his NHL record for career shutouts to 123.

Carter Hutton allowed all five goals on 23 shots for the Predators, who went 0-for-6 on the power play.

"We're not playing well defensively and giving up way too many chances," Predators captain Shea Weber said. "We're giving up odd-man rushes and not helping out our goalie. We need to play solid defensively in order to get offense."

Hutton, who is the club's de facto No. 1 goaltender with Pekka Rinne on the shelf, has started the last seven games for Nashville and is 4-3-1 with a lofty 3.53 goals against average and .887 save percentage this season. Marek Mazanec spelled Hutton in Friday's loss in Winnipeg, but has yet to garner his first NHL start.

Nashville forward Mike Fisher is questionable for Sunday's game after sitting out the last three games with a lower-body injury.

The Predators are 4-5-1 on the road this season and will cap their longest trek of the season Friday night in Pittsburgh.

The Islanders are happy to be home after going 0-4-0 on a recent four-game road trip. New York yielded four goals or more in three of the losses and was outscored by a 16-6 margin during the four-game slide.

The ill-fated road trip ended Sunday with a 4-2 setback in Montreal, as Lars Eller and Michael Bournival scored second-period power-play goals to snap a tie and lift the Canadiens to a win at the Bell Centre.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders, who are on their longest slide since an 0-5-0 stretch from Feb. 3-11 of last season. Montreal native Kevin Poulin manned the crease on Sunday, but gave up all four goals on 31 shots.

"It's frustrating," said Islanders coach Jack Capuano. "We did some things but we made a lot of mistakes, silly mistakes."

The Islanders played Sunday without winger Thomas Vanek after he suffered an injury early in Saturday's 5-2 setback in Columbus. Vanek left the contest just 23 seconds in after sustaining what the team is calling an upper-body injury. He is not expected to play on Tuesday.

Vanek, of course, came over to the Isles late last month in a trade with Buffalo and has started slowly with his new team, posting one goal and two assists in six games.

Cal Clutterbuck also has sat out the last three games with an unspecified upper-body injury and the New York forward is questionable for tonight.

Nashville has dominated the Isles in recent seasons, taking three straight and posting an 8-0-1 mark in the last nine meetings between the clubs. New York, which is 3-3-3 as the host this season, does have three wins in its past five home games against the Preds.