Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Well, that was ugly. The best thing you can say is that it was over quick. If you had TV to watch, needed to do laundry, or just wanted to catch up on sleep, last night was your chance. My friends that are Rangers fans didn’t even bother to send me an obnoxious text. That’s when you know things are bad.
“If you create some garbage on the ice, then you better clean it up,” Barry Trotz said after the Isles’ 6-3 loss. His team was guilty of littering last night.
“If you make a mistake, you got to be urgent getting back and you need to clean up your own mess, Trotz added.” His team didn’t give up many chances (allowed 23 shots), but the ones they did were “Grade A,” generated from “catastrophic” mistakes leading to the lopsided result.
After playing two highly competitive, highly entertaining games vs. the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, the Islanders were a no-show against their biggest rival, turning UBS Arena into a party for the Blueshirt fans that scooped up tickets to watch their first-place team against a team playing out the string.
Coming up, COVID isn’t done with the Islanders quite yet and William Dufour signs his entry-level contract. Plus, we remember the Isles’ last playoff win versus the Blueshirts, a streak of games versus 100-point teams, and Arthur Staple with his ‘Weird Islanders’ starting six. But first, a recap of last night’s loss.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Andrew Copp registered a natural hat trick in the first period and Chris Kreider scored his 51st of the season as the Islanders fell to the Rangers 6-3 on Thursday night at UBS Arena. Artemi Panarin had four assists and Adam Fox added three for the Rangers (51-21-6) who have won seven of their last eight. Alexandar Georgiev had 26 saves in the win. Brock Nelson scored twice and Josh Bailey added a goal and an assist. Semyon Varlamov made 17 saves for the Islanders (35-32-10) who lost for just the third time in their last 11 at home (8-2-1).
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔻 Already leading 2-0, Andrew Copp extended the lead and registered a natural hat trick in the first period by completing a give-and-go with Ryan Strome to put the Rangers up 3-0 with 1:47 to play in the opening period.
🔷 The Islanders showed signs of life early in the second period when Brock Nelson one-timed Josh Bailey’s pass for his 35th goal of the season. Nelson would later score his 36th with a power-play goal in the third period.
🔻 Any Isles momentum was wiped out late in the second when, with Kyle Palmieri serving a minor penalty, the Rangers converted on the power-play with Chris Kreider able to sweep in a rebound off the stick of Adam Fox for a 4-1 lead.
3 REACTIONS
❶ TOUGH TO HANDLE: "It's a good team and they have a lot of skilled guys and they're good on the transition," Brock Nelson said. "They're tough to handle. Starting in their own and they can make plays come out with an odd-man rush and you have to be on your toes and keep in front of you and they played well."
❷ CHEATING THE GAME: “I just thought we had some guys cheating the game, Barry Trotz said. You look at the number of shots, they didn't have a lot of a lot of shots, they didn't have a lot of chances compared to some other games, but when we gave them a chance it was pretty grade-A and it was pretty catastrophic.”
❸ IN JEOPARDY: “We have certain protocols in our own zone,” Barry Trotz added. “There’s certain things you have to do. That’s why it’s a system. And if you’re not gonna play the systematic way, then you put everybody else in jeopardy.”
⏭ NEXT UP: The Isles visit the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon for their first game against 2021 first overall pick Owen Power who scored his first NHL goal on Thursday. Puck drop is scheduled for 12:30 PM.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: Islanders recalled Otto Koivula on an emergency basis before last night’s game against the New York Rangers. Koivula's recall was due to an upper-body injury to Anthony Beauvillier and Jean-Gabriel Pageau being put into COVID-19 protocol along with Associate Coaches Lane Lambert and Jim Hiller.
The Islanders and 2020 5th-round pick William Dufour agreed to terms on a three-year, entry-level contract. The 20-year-old Dufour leads the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in goals (52) and points (109). The 109 points set a Saint John Sea Dogs franchise record for a single season previously held by Jonathan Huberdeau of the Florida Panthers.
Those that want to damper the excitement will bring up his age and that he’s playing in his fourth QMJHL season, but Dufour was on an upward trajectory before this year. Back in October, in The Athletic, prospect writer, Corey Pronman did a re-draft of the 2020 class BEFORE Dufour’s record-breaking season took shape. Dufour was selected 55nd overall in the re-draft, a nearly 100 spot jump.
Dufour was a former high pick in his QMJHL draft who was traded by two contenders in the past two seasons …Dufour is a creative player, showing good stick skills with flashes of very good. He has the patience and vision to find seams in the offensive zone, and set up tough plays. He has a hard shot, with his shot grade ranging between 55 to 60. He gets hard area goals but is able to score from mid-distance.
For more, watch Michel Anderson’s reaction to the Dufour signing:
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, the Isles have faced three consecutive opponents who already had at least 100 points – it's only the third time that has ever happened; the Isles hosted opponents with at least 100 points in consecutive games for the first time in club history. If Washington reaches 100 points before facing the Isles on April 28th the Isles will play their final five games against opponents with at least 100 points (which would be only the second time in NHL history that has happened – Montreal did this in 1971-72).
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: Another NHL season will come and go without an Isles-Rangers playoffs matchup. It has now been an incredible 28 years since the two rivals met in the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs. For the last Islanders playoff win against the Rangers you have to go all the way back to April 9, 1990, when the Islanders defeated the Rangers 4-3 in 2OT on Brent Sutters’ PP goal.
The Isles trailed 3-1 in the third period in this game which is also remembered for defenseman Jeff Norton being taken off the ice on a stretcher when he was rammed from behind into the boards by Troy Mallette near the end of the first OT. The Rangers forward was given a five-minute major leading to the GWG.
🎧 Weird Islanders: The Podcast! - Episode 9 - Staple’s Starting Six (with guest Arthur Staple) with Dan Saraceni and Michael Leboff “Along with Dan and Mike, Staple takes us through an entire starting lineup of guys who spent less than 20 games in the blue-and-orange but who all took their own unique paths to and from Long Island. We cover surprise NCAA catch Kevin Czuczman, deadline acquisition Tyler Kennedy, high-draft-pick-turned-sell-high-trade-chip Griffin Reinhart, and many, many more.”
🔗 Return of Islanders-Rangers playoff rivalry will have to wait by Neil Best, Newsday “Far be it from me to question the wisdom of the hockey gods, with all they have done for us over the decades. But c’mon, this is ridiculous. How in the name of J.P. Parise is it possible for the Isles and NYR not to have met in a playoff series since 1994?”
And we leave you with this ….all fans in attendance of last night’s game took home the First Responders Patch created by Lauren Skura. Skura's patch is inspired by the Star of Life, the trademark symbol used to identify the emergency medical services system, that depicts a snake wrapped around a pole. To tie the patch to the Islanders, Skura replaced the pole with a hockey stick and incorporated blue and orange colors in her creation.
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