Ok, Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Two games, two defeats, a slew of call-ups, COVID protocols, and even a false-positive. It was anything but a normal hockey weekend, with the joy of a new arena being realized just as ominous clouds hover over the team’s season.
The Islanders were beaten for the sixth straight time on Sunday, looked bad doing it, and may have come out even worse than when they started. We’ll recap the second-ever game played at UBS Arena as a familiar foe returned to Long Island in unfamiliar territory. PLUS the director’s cut of Brendan Burke’s remarks revealed, sweet Season Ticket Holder gifts and more.
At least the MSG broadcast crew is healthy and can carry a good kind of beat 🥁. Nice form, Shannon Hogan.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Still undermanned, the Islanders (5-8-2) were shut out 3-0 by the Toronto Maple Leafs (13-6-1) for their sixth straight loss. The Isles lost Brock Nelson after the first period due to injury, Robin Salo reminded us all that he’s still just a rookie, Richard Panik continued to be a positive presence on the ice, and Ilya Sorokin did all he could to keep the Isles in contention, making 37 saves on 40 shots, despite coming up short of a win.
Mitch Marner opened the scoring and added another later in the third period for his fifth and sixth goals of the year, and Ondrej Kase added another goal in between. Joseph Woll (2-0-0) earned his first career shutout and second career win in his second career game. The Islanders have scored just six goals during their six-game losing streak.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔻 On a 4-on-3 power-play, Barry Trotz elected to put four forwards on the ice. That decision didn’t pan out as Jake Muzzin sprung Marner who beat Sorokin with a backhand goal to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.
GOT TO EXECUTE: “We're trying to score some goals here, so we put our best people out there,” Trotz said. ‘They've got to execute, that's on them a little bit to make sure we execute that and see if we can get something going here.”
🔻 Late in the first period, Brock Nelson was hit to the boards by Muzzin awkwardly and felt something wrong. Nelson, who was playing his 316th consecutive game, skated off gingerly and did not return after the collision.
🔻 Early in the third period, Nick Ritchie won a battle against Grant Hutton, getting the puck to David Kämpf who fed the puck to Kase for the goal.
🔻 Late in the third period, Salo loses Marner in the slot cashing in on a pass from Michael Bunting to pad the Leafs lead at 3-0.
3 TAKEAWAYS
❶ POWER(LESS) PLAY: The Islanders surrendered their third short-handed goal of the season and are now in a three-way tie for the second most short-handed goals against in the NHL. The Islanders have been outscored 3 to 1 on their own power play in November (in 21 opportunities).
UNFORTUNATE: “We work on the power play a lot,” Anthony Beauvillier said. “We had some good looks in the past. We’re trying to get it going. We’re obviously working on it and it’s unfortunate. We’ve got to clean that up, but I think we’ve had some good looks on the power play lately and we have to just keep building our game.”
DECISIONS: “I thought our power play was good last night,” said Trotz. “Today not so much. A lot of times it’s execution and effort. If one of those two things are failing, you get bad results… even on the short-handed goal, we don’t execute it, we handcuff people and it allows the penalty killers to reset.”
❷ DROUGHT: Goal scoring continues to be an issue as the Islanders were shut out for the second time in the 2021-22 season. Over their six-game losing streak, they have been outscored 27-6.
SHELLSHOCK: “It is what it is,” said Matt Martin. “We have to come ready to play with whoever is out there. Obviously, this isn’t what we envisioned coming into this season with our record.”
❸ BAD LUCK: Early in the third period, Zach Parise feeds Beauvillier for a breakaway opportunity in what could have been a momentum-shifting play, and the puck rolled off his stick before he could get a shot off.
COOKIE CRUMBLES: “It seems when we think we’re going to get something going our way, it hasn’t been,” Trotz chuckled. “It’s been difficult, no question. We needed something to jump on, Beau had an opportunity, and we missed the net. We had a great look, if we score there, maybe we get some energy there.”
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders have two days off before hosting the New York Rangers at UBS Arena on Wednesday night. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS
🤕 BANGED UP: We didn’t learn much about Nelson’s injury. When Trotz was asked if there was an update, he could only say “just lower-body, hopefully, we’ll have an update tomorrow or the next day.”
KEEP GRINDING: “At the end of the day we need each other, that's everybody, Hutton, Salo, Andreoff, Panik and we just have to find a way, keep battling, keep grinding and dig ourselves out of this thing,” said Martin. “It hasn't been ideal, it hasn't been what we wanted, but all we have here is each other and we just have to keep pushing forward.”
🤦🏻♂️ FALSE POSITIVE: The good news is that Beauvillier received a false positive on Saturday and was good to go for Sunday’s game. The bad news, Kieffer Bellows tested positive and was placed in Covid protocol.
🎩 A TIP OF THE CAP: Brendan Burke released the full version of his prepared remarks that he had to cut short due to face-off. In them, there’s a line that says “From the Lighthouse Project to Barclays Center, there is an entire generation of Islanders fans that don’t know what a time when the Islanders home wasn’t in question. Exhale. It’s over, it’s all over.”
The “It’s over, it’s all over” is a subtle nod to Howie Rose. Those words were part of his final call as the Islanders play-by-play announcer, reacting to John Tavares’ Game 6 2OT goal versus the Florida Panthers in 2016 that advanced the Isles in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 23 years.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick via “The Skinny,” it’s the first time since 2010-11 that the Isles have lost six straight in regulation. Robin Salo is the first NHL player since Ryan Murray (2/21-2/23/2013 for Carolina) to play at least 21 minutes in each of his first two NHL games.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On November 21st, 2019, the Islanders defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in overtime at the Barclay’s Center. The OT win propelled the Isles to 16-3-1 and solidified points in 16-straight games. Brock Nelson scored two goals, including his second OT winner in as many nights.
🔗 Opening night at Islanders’ new arena was for those who made it happen, by Mollie Walker, NYPost: “From the years of wrestling with the inadequacies of Nassau Coliseum to the forced move to Brooklyn, where Barclays Center face-planted as a hockey venue — with obstructed sight lines and shoddy ice quality — the sold-out grand opening of the Islanders’ $1.1 billion UBS Arena on Saturday night marked the dawn of a new era.”
This was also Molly’s first column, congrats!
🔗 7 Facts: Grant Hutton, by Sasha Kandrach, NewYorkIslanders.com: “Grant Hutton made his NHL debut on Saturday night at UBS Arena. Get to know Hutton as in the latest edition of 7 Facts. “
🔗 Islanders fans stun with chilling national anthem rendition as new UBS Arena opens, by Ryan Gaydos, FoxNews: “Raviv was the first person to sing the national anthem before an Islanders game in the new arena. New York played 13 road games before the team finally dropped the puck in its new arena Saturday night against the Calgary Flames.”
And we leave you with this …. Isles season ticket holders started receiving gifts on behalf of ownership. Included in the beautifully packaged box is a 2021-22 Inaugural season patch, an opening night plaque, a scarf, a 3D crystal of the rink in UBS Arena, and personalized thank you letters!
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