Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Hockey hugs return to Long Island!
The hex is broken at UBS Arena after the New York Islanders (7-11-5) FINALLY captured their first win at their new barn in a 4-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils (10-11-5) on Saturday Night.
“I'll give the fans credit for the win. They stuck with us through the whole game. I was sitting in the office and you could hear the thunder of the fans in the locker room, coaches room. That's why Islanders fans are special. We're gonna dig ourselves out of this.” - Barry Trotz
Here is the cinematic recap:
Coming up, a return to health helps propel the Islanders’ first home victory. A scoring drought comes to an end, two former Devils score against their former club, and Walhstrom is forcing his way to more time on ice. Plus, a look back at a classic Smitty interview and Shannon Hogan’s karaoke performance.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: The Islanders looked more like themselves on Saturday returning nearly to full health with Brock Nelson and Casey Cizikas back in the lineup. They now only remain without Ryan Pulock who has yet to start skating. It was the first game since November 16th that a game wasn’t missed due to Covid-19. Anthony Beauvillier was a healthy scratch from Saturday’s contest, and although Matt Martin isn’t 100%, he was also considered a healthy scratch.
Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves on 32 shots to claim his seventh win of the season. Noah Dobson, Andy Greene, Zach Parise, and J.G. Pageau each scored, and Mathew Barzal and Oliver Wahlstrom had multi-assist nights.
🥺 I GOT A FEELING: Parise finally potted his first goal 23 games into his Islanders tenure (on his late father’s, JP Parise, birthday) to give the Islanders the lead late in the second period.
PRETTY EMOTIONAL: "There's not a day that goes by I don't think about him,” Parise said about his Dad. I had a good feeling coming to the rink today, for whatever reason, knowing it was his birthday. Had a good feeling all day, so for me, it was pretty emotional when that puck went in and of course, my mind goes right to him."
Teammates expressed how excited and relieved they were to see Parise score his first goal as an Islander. It was also the game-winner, Parise’s 77th career game-winning goal - among active players, only Alex Ovechkin (118) and Jeff Carter have more.
FIRED UP: "That fires our group right up, Barzal said after the game. He gets the monkey off his back and hopefully, now he can get rolling."
A LOT OF PRESSURE: "You could just see it in his face after," said Greene during an intermission interview with Islanders radio. "He's a guy who puts a lot of pressure on himself, he works extremely hard. He's had a lot of chances and they haven't gone in for whatever reason. It was great to see that one go in and hopefully that gets him going here now."
🤜🏼 FORCING HIS HAND: Wahlstrom finished Saturday night with just 9:49 of time on ice. Only Ross Johnston received fewer minutes (9:38). Despite the lack of ice time, he tallied two assists for his third consecutive multi-point game, and now has three goals, eight points in his last five games.
GOOD PLAYERS NOT PLAYING: "Yeah, absolutely. As I was walking out, Kimber (Islanders Director of Communications) can verify this, I looked at him and said ‘I felt like I played him a lot more than that.’ Trotz said when asked about Wahlstrom’s playing time. “If that’s totally accurate that’s probably on me. He's playing a straight-line game, he’s using people, awareness is getting better, (his) head is up. We have good players not playing. This is the backpressure you have when you have an almost healthy lineup. Wally will have to continue to produce and play well, and so will other guys."
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders head back to Detroit on Tuesday to take on the Red Wings for one of their two remaining away games in the month of December.
📊 STANDINGS:
🌎WALLY’S WORLD: Eyes on Isles contributor, Michel Anderson, points out that Wahlstrom has been one of the most effective forwards in the last 13 days:
“Since the month of December, Wahlstrom is one of the most effective forwards in the NHL. His Pts/60 rank 6th. Take away players who've only played once and he's third after Jake Guentzel and Sebastian Aho (CAR).”
😅 NOT THIS TIME: If it made you a bit uneasy that Devils’ rookie goaltender Akira Schmid was making his NHL debut on Saturday, it had a reason to be. The Isles had lost their last three games to starting goalies making their first NHL appearance (Aaron Dell, Ilya Samsonov, and Michael Hauser). Before Saturday, their last win against a first-time netminder was against Buffalo’s Andrey Makarov (4-4-2015) in his only NHL game.
👩🏫 SOUND SMART: Via Eric Hornick’s The Skinny, Barzal extended his point streak to six games (1-8-9) and his assist streak to five games (eight assists. Dobson has three goals in the last four games after scoring only four times in his first 97 games. Dobson is the first Islander defenseman since Nick Leddy (2018) to score in three consecutive home games. Parise’s goal was his 8th career shorthanded goal and the first-shorthanded game-winner by an Islander since Josh Bailey did so in Tampa Bay on December 9, 2019. The Isles have scored 17 goals in the last five games after scoring only ten times in the prior ten.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: Happy Birthday, Billy Smith! The Hall of Fame goaltender turned 71 on Sunday and to celebrate, we take a look back at this interview the 1983 Conn Smythe Award winner gave after the Islanders captured their fourth Stanley Cup. In the post-game, ‘Smitty’ admits to just a little embellishment to earn a 5-minute major penalty against Glenn Anderson in the third period.
“When I hit Gretzky in Edmonton, he rolled around and cried like he was dying. So when he (Anderson) hit me tonight, I said ‘hey I might as well do the same thing’ so that’s what I did, I threw myself on my back and squirmed …all I want to tell the people in Canada and all over the world, two can play that game.”
🔗 Islanders topple Devils for first win in UBS Arena, by Ethan Sears, NY Post: “On Saturday night, the Islanders got to hear that throwback noise at their new home — finally — as they completed a 4-2 comeback win over the Devils.”
🔗 WILL ISLANDERS DEAL TO SALVAGE PLAYOFF HOPES? by James Nichols, The Fourth Period: “Per a source, the Islanders were engaged in a discussion with the Arizona Coyotes this summer about Jakob Chychrun. The 23-year-old defenseman has struggled this season with just two goals and seven points in 25 games skating for the NHL’s last-place team. Chychrun would fill the glaring need of a puck-moving defenseman the Isles surely lack after trading Devon Toews and Nick Leddy in back-to-back off-seasons, however, the source indicated that while the Coyotes were willing to entertain inquiries, the price is considered “astronomical.”
And we leave you with this…in honor of yesterday being Frank Sinatra’s birthday, we share with you Shannon Hogan belting out the lyrics to “New York, New York” during Saturday’s game against the Devils, and now it might have to stick around for a while.
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