Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The Islanders were chasing this one from the start and just couldn’t catch up.
2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 3-2, 4-2, 4-3 … final horn.
The Isles played their best offensive game of the season and it netted zero points. They hit a season-high shot total and a few posts, but in the end, it was a game of near-misses and missed opportunities that left the Islanders shaking their heads in a 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild at UBS Arena on Sunday night.
Coming up, Barry Trotz is longing for consistency and just how much ‘Barzy’ and ‘Ebs’ miss each other. Plus Chara’s first NHL goal (23 years ago!) and a plaque dedication is unveiled in the Great Hall. But first, let’s recap last night’s ‘we deserved better’ loss to the Minnesota Wild.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: The Islanders outshot the Minnesota Wild 43 to 21, but lost their second straight to drop below .500 (15-16-6), falling 4-3 to the Wild (27-10-3) at UBS Arena on Sunday night. Brandon Duhaime, Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Matt Boldy were the goal scorers for Minnesota who are 8-0-1 during a nine-game point streak. Kaapo Kahkonen made 40 saves in the win.
For the Islanders, Brock Nelson scored his team-leading 14th goal while Ross Johnston scored his first of the season and first since 2019, playing for an ill Casey Cizikas. Oliver Wahlstrom added a power-play goal and Ilya Sorokin had 17 saves. The Islanders are 2-14-2 and have been outscored 62-30 against teams currently in a position to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔻 Kirill Kaprizov redirected Matt Dumba's shot to make it 4-2 at 11:27 of the third period to give Minnesota their third two-goal lead of the game.
🔶 As they did all night, the Isles battled their way back. On the power-play, Oliver Wahlstrom’s diving effort pulled New York back within a goal with four minutes to play in the third period.
🔻 Playing 6-on-5, the Isles had sustained pressure and had a series of quality opportunities, including this slap-shot by Josh Bailey, which was denied by an aggressive Kaapo Kahkonen coming out above the crease.
3 REACTIONS
❶ NOTHING COMES EASY: “We had tons of chances, said Barry Trotz. We deserved a point tonight. We really did. It's not coming easy for us. They're ending up a bit easy for the opposition right now."
❷ A LOT OF POSITIVES: “I thought we played a pretty good game, you play like that, and you'll probably win more than you lose,” Brock Nelson said. “Tonight, we just weren't able to, a slow start and that was the difference. A lot of positives, a lot of good things offensively, we'll try and keep that momentum and win a couple of games before the break.”
❸ KEEPING IT SIMPLE: “I felt good and the momentum carried me through the game,” said Ross Johnston in his return to the lineup. “My game is pretty simple, get in, make hits, and sometimes opportunities present themselves, whenever I'm in I like to keep my game simple."
⏭ NEXT UP: Last night was supposed to be the second half of a back-to-back, but mother nature had other ideas. The Isles host the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday followed by the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday after Saturday’s game was postponed due to the winter storm. These are the final two games before the All-Star Break.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: The theme after the morning’s skate was consistency - consistency in the lineup leading to consistency in performance. Unfortunately, Trotz's most consistent line, the ‘Identity Line’ wasn’t intact as Casey Cizikas missed the game due to a non-COVID-related illness.
“For me, be consistent right to the break here and then come out of the [All-Star] break, we’re on the road and gonna have to string some wins together,” Trotz said. “Plain and simple, it’s more the consistency. Know what we’re gonna be as a team night in, night out. If we do that as a team, we’re gonna have success.”
🥅 NET PICKING: Ever since Seymon Varlamov returned from his early-season injury, the goalie rotation has been fairly consistent, and while Varly hasn’t been bad, he hasn’t been as good as Ilya Sorokin and the time may be coming where the netminder playing best gets the nod going forward.
Before the game, Trotz was asked if he was looking to run with one goaltender or if the condensed schedule and back-to-backs don’t make that possible. “I probably am leaning towards one more than the other, said Trotz. ”I really felt we needed both goalies going through this stretch…if I have my preference, I’ll probably lean to the guy who’s hot now going forward for the most part.”
😢 THE JORDAN BLUES: In recent days, a frequent topic of conservation has been Barry Trotz’s search to find the right chemistry amongst his top lines. In The Athletic, Kevin Kurz quotes both former Islander Jordan Eberle and Mathew Barzal, showing the connection and chemistry the team lost when Eberle was left exposed in the expansion draft and selected by the Seattle Kraken.
Barzal on Eberle:
“His skill level is extremely high. I watched him actually last (Sunday) night play against Florida — he created probably eight or nine chances. He’s a guy that every time you give him the puck in space, you’re probably not going to lose possession and he’s probably going to make a play. There’s not many guys in the league that have that IQ off the puck. That’s something that he’s really good at just for getting open and being sneaky. That’s probably why it worked.”
Eberle on Barzal:
“Mat’s a pretty special player. He’s one of the best skaters in the league and one of the best passers. I just tried to find him with the puck. I think him and I think the game similar and that helped us have some chemistry. And then the fact that with (Lee), we played 2.5 years pretty full together, and when you get a chance to play with two guys that long you’re going to gain a bunch of chemistry. We enjoyed each other’s company, too. We hung out quite a bit and had that camaraderie off the ice, too. A lot of things went into how we had success together.”
Eberle is second on the expansion Seattle Kraken in both goals and points with 12 goals and 13 assists this season.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in “The Skinny,” the Isles’ season-high 43 shots were their most ever against the Wild, and the most against a Minnesota team since they had 45 vs. the North Stars on January 18, 1977. The Wild are 12-1-2 vs. the East, including 7-0-0 against the Metro this season. The crowd on NFL Championship Sunday was 15,518, the first non-announced sellout at UBS Arena.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On January 29, 1999, Zdeno Chara scored his first NHL goal in the third period of a comeback 4-4 tie for the Islanders against the Phoenix Coyotes at the Nassau Coliseum. It also marked his first multi-point game as Chara later assisted on Robert Reiche’s game-tying goal with 1:42 left to play in the third period.
🔗 Islanders welcoming lineup consistency after rocky first half of season by Ethan Sears, New York Post “It’s nobody’s fault that the Islanders haven’t been able to roll out a consistent lineup for much of the season. They can’t control COVID-19 outbreaks or injuries, and even discounting those, it’s taken time to find the right combinations. But their forward group is healthy now, and it looks like they can come into each game with a steady 12-man group.”
🔗 Three Islanders players trending in the right direction by Michel Anderson, Eyes on Isles “The New York Islanders need to turn things around ASAP or the season will be over quickly. (Although, depending on who you ask the season is already over.) To help turn things around, the team needs better contributions from a number of players. Guys looking for a jump could check in with one of these three guys who are in fine form at the moment”.
And we leave you with this …. During the second period, the Islanders played a video message celebrating the legacy of late owner Charles B. Wang. In the video, Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky praised Wang for his role in keeping the Islanders in New York and getting UBS Arena built at Belmont Park.
A plaque was unveiled for Wang in the main concourse, just off Great Hall.
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