John Tavares: Will play Thursday

“We feed off of that energy from the crowd”. “It’s another game, but one we easily could have had a point and probably could have found a way to get two”. “In spite of what the shots might’ve said, I thought we had a good third period and were in their end a lot and wearing them down”.

The Islanders will present a pretty stiff challenge on Thursday night because with Tavares in the lineup they can be one of the best offensive teams in the league. With the Devils on their fourth power play of the game, Kyle Palmieri’s shot was blocked and the rebound came to Zajac, who sent it past Halak for his fifth of the season.

With all the success the Islanders’ fourth line has had, Capuano has made a point of keeping the trio together instead of breaking them up. We had a few people check on him, he had more checkups, tests on him.

“A tip off to the side threw me off just enough where I had to squeeze my knees and make sure it didn’t go through my legs”, Schneider explained. They’ll chip pucks and grind you down. Jaroslav Halak (23 saves) was equal to the task through 40 minutes and the Isles’ top-ranked penalty kill was strong, but that left less time to dictate play and push for a two-goal lead.

BRIEFS: The Devils played their first regular-season game at Barclays Center after the Islanders moved to the Brooklyn arena this season from Nassau Coliseum. In addition to Tavares – who has a team-high 11 points (5 goals, 6 assists) – the Islanders scratched LW Taylor Beck and G Jean-Francois Berube.

While the Islanders are getting their best player back on Thursday, Montreal will continue to be without its best player, starting goaltender Carey Price. LW Eric Boulton and D Thomas Hickey are out with lower-body injuries….

Hynes gave similar brief answers to the seven other questions he was asked in his postgame news conference, but didn’t say directly that he was upset with his team’s play. New Jersey scratched F Stefan Matteau.