A New Way To Lose
Isles allow two goals in 45 seconds; Fall 4-3 to Canucks
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Losing in disappointing fashion is nothing new this season, but the Isles cooked up a different way to do it Thursday night against the Canucks. They scored the first goal, (normally a good sign), scored a late-period goal (which they rarely do), and even grabbed an early third-period lead.
But then in 45 seconds, poof, it was gone. A one-goal lead became a one-goal deficit and the equalizer wasn’t to be. The Isles were good in spurts, but not good enough to say they deserved two points - and for the second consecutive game, the defensive-minded Isles lost after holding the lead in the third.
Coming up, the ‘Identity Line’ was reunited, but for how long will it last? Plus, Adam Pelech is a top defensive defenseman, Noah’s impressive arc this season, and Mike Bossy’s No. 22 was retired 30 years ago. But first, a recap of last night’s loss to open the homestand.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: The Islanders allowed two third-period goals in 45 seconds and fell to the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 at UBS Arena on Thursday night. After Anthony Beauvillier gave the Isles a 3-2 lead at 1:49 of the third, Nils Hoglander and Vasily Podkolzin scored less than a minute apart to give Vancouver the lead. Thatcher Demko made 24 saves for the Canucks (27-23-6), winners of four of their past five games. Noah Dobson tallied his 10th goal of the season and Kyle Palmieri scored for the sixth time in nine games for the Islanders (20-23-8). Semyon Varlamov made 34 saves in the loss. The Islanders had earned points in 11 consecutive games against the Canucks (7-0-4) before Thursday’s loss.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔶 Late in the second, the Islanders tied the game at 2-2 with a set play off the face-off. JG Pageau won the draw and Adam Pelech sent a pass to Palmieri who raced to the left circle to get himself into shooting position for the one-timer. Fun Fact: All five skaters for the Isles on this goal have a surname that starts with “P.”
🔷 Beauvillier stole the puck on the forecheck, then showed speed, patience, and great stickhandling to deke Demko. The goaltender still got a piece of the puck with his right pad, but the puck trickled over the line (with an assist from Brock Nelson and his nudge on Brock Boeser) for a 3-2 lead early in the third period.
🔻 The 21-year-old Hoglander scored his ninth goal at 9:34 of the third finishing off a pretty pass from Conor Garland by shoveling the puck past Varlamov who read the pass late and wasn’t able to slide quick enough to his right for the save.
🔻 45 seconds later, after Scott Mayfield failed to get a puck deep in the neutral zone, Bo Horvat carried the puck down the left board and backhanded a pass to an incoming Podkolzin who beat Varlamov short side for the game-winning goal.
3 REACTIONS
❶ COSTLY: “Turnovers are like ex-wives, if you have too many, they cost you a lot,” said Barry Trotz during the post-game.
❷ GOOD SPURTS: “We had some good spurts where we were really going but then a couple of letdowns, especially in the third that led to a couple of goals against, said Noah Dobson. “I think we just got to try and find that effort when we are going good for a full sixty.”
❸ CATCHING UP TO THE TRAIN: "Varly was pretty good for us," Trotz said. "He kept us in the second period, when we kept turning the puck over he made some pretty good saves. He's moving better. I think he's catching up to the train a little bit of how much time he's missed this year with stops and starts. He's starting to look like the Varly we all know and love. He had a really strong game for us in LA, we just didn't give him any support."
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders continue their six-game homestand with a matinee game against the St. Louis Blues. Puck drop is at 12:30 p.m.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: Mathew Barzal (lower-body) and Zdeno Chara (upper-body) each missed their third consecutive game. Both are considered day-to-day, but no timetable for their return was provided.
🚨 TOGETHER AGAIN: The Islanders’ ‘Identity Line’ was back together on Thursday night against the Canucks as Matt Martin returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the final two games of the team’s five-game road trip.
"They’ve been a really good identity line from the minute I got here," coach Barry Trotz said. "And before that. They did it on their own. They were a major factor all the time. I thought this year, coming out of it, for whatever reason, we had a couple of long playoff runs, our whole team never got on to our identity."
Ross Johnston was out of the lineup after playing the games in Anaheim and Colorado. Johnston had two primary assists against the Ducks and might find more time playing on the fourth line depending on whether or not Lou Lamoriello decides to move unrestricted free agent Cal Clutterbuck at the trade deadline later this month.
"Early in the year, they didn’t get there," Trotz said. "Slowly but surely, they’ve gotten to their identity. And when they have their identity, we have our identity, it’s pretty simple."
🏒 GET DEFENSIVE: @JFreshHockey put out the top ten ‘defensive defensemen’ in the NHL in terms of their projected individual impact on even-strength defense.
No surprise to see Adam Pelech in the top spot*, made even more impressive that he has played most of the season without Ryan Pulock by his side. Pelech's steady defensive play has long been appreciated in Islanders circles and this year, perhaps due to these types of stats, resulted in him being recognized as an All-Star.
*(We won’t talk about No.2 on the list )
🤝 GOOD DEAL: Earlier this week, we bemoaned the Devon Toews trade so it’s only fair that we spend some time on the trades of defensemen that have worked out. After requesting a trade, On June 24, 2017, fan-favorite Travis Hamonic and his cap-friendly contract was traded by General Manager Garth Snow to the Calgary Flames for a first-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft and two second-round picks.
The first-round pick became Noah Dobson. Last night’s MSG graphic illustrates the arc Noah has been on this season, cementing him as a major piece moving forward.
The second-rounders were used on Ruslan Iskakhov and Samuel Bolduc. Iskhakov is playing for Adler Mannheim of Germany's professional hockey and has tallied 2 goals and 9 assists in 11 games. Bolduc had six goals and 8 assists in 24 games with Bridgeport last season but hasn’t been able to repeat that campaign. In 40 games, Bolduc has one goal and one assist and is a minus 6.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Noah Dobson is the first Isles defenseman aged 22 or younger to score at least ten goals in a season since Bryan Berard had 14 in the 1997-98 season.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On March 3, 1992, the Islanders retired the No. 22 of the best pure goal scorer in hockey history, Mike Bossy. The winger played his 10-year NHL career on Long Island where he recorded 1,126 points (573G, 553A) in 752 games. The eight-time NHL All-Star is the franchise leader in goals and is second in total points.
George Vecsey in the New York Times wrote, “Mike Bossy was a wing the way Tom Seaver was a pitcher, the way Walt Frazier was a guard. He played for the finest New York team in the past quarter-century. It makes no sense at all to throw ticker-tape off the roof of a suburban ranch house, or the arches of a fast-food stand, but there are rafters at the Nassau Coliseum, and tonight Mike Bossy's No. 22 was retired, hoisted into the eaves, alongside the No. 5 of Denis Potvin that was retired a month ago.”
🔗 Islanders getting much-needed offense from defensemen by Andrew Gross “One of the issues for the Islanders this season has been a lack of offensive production from their defensemen. But one reason for optimism coming off their five-game road trip and into this six-game homestand was more aggressive play from the Islanders’ blueliners and a correlated uptick in points.”
🔗 Islanders’ Brock Nelson on pace to score 30 goals this season by Ethan Sears, New York Post “The 30-year-old, whose career-high in goal scoring is 26 (in both 2015-16 and 2019-2020), is on pace to blast past that mark. Through 41 games entering Thursday, he had hit the back of the net 19 times, putting him on an 82-game pace of 38. Despite Nelson missing nine games earlier this season between injury and COVID-19, he does at least seem like a sure bet to hit 30.”
And we leave you with this ….to commemorate “Pride Night” at UBS Arena, for the first time in Islanders’ history, all the dashers were switched to rainbow to support the members of the LGBTQIA+ Community.
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