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Islanders look to bounce back against Blues

Oct 11, 2008 - 10:05 AM St. Louis (1-0-0) at NY Islanders (0-1-0), 7:00 pm EDT

UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Just one game into his tenure as coach of the New York Islanders, Scott Gordon already is playing goaltender roulette.

One day after sitting starter Rick DiPietro in favor of Joey MacDonald in the team's regular-season opener, Gordon must decide which netminder will play when the Islanders host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.

On Friday, the Islanders were without DiPietro in their 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils. The first overall pick in the 2000 draft, who had season-ending hip surgery last March and underwent a procedure on his knee during the offseason, is not yet ready to play consecutive games, and his benching was a precautionary measure since the Islanders have three games in four days, according to Gordon.

"He is still coming off an injury that we want to make sure he's getting every opportunity to get back in shape," Gordon said. "He hasn't had a lot of practice time and we just felt, give him another day."

Although DiPietro is expected to start the Islander's home opener, MacDonald impressed against a much-improved Devils team. Coming off a stellar season with Bridgeport of the American Hockey League, MacDonald made 27 saves and kept New York close throughout.

The Blues received an impressive 20-save outing from Manny Legace in a 5-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday.

St. Louis, which was last in the NHL with a 14.1 power-play percentage last season, was 4-for-6 with a man advantage against Nashville. Veteran Keith Tkachuk, who entered the season with 500 career goals, tallied twice with the extra skater.