Good Morning, Islanders Country.
I grew up in Brooklyn. My college roommate is from Long Island. I’m on a group chat with him and his family, all big Islanders fans. It’s not the most active chat, but at different points of the season, we air our grievances or irrational reasons for optimism. Last night, shortly after they closed out a 3-2 win in Florida, they shared this image which encapsulates the continuous loop of this season.
We’re not at the “We’re So Back” turn, but we’ve put on our blinkers. Maybe it is so over, but the standings say otherwise, which is pretty astounding given what we’ve watched transpire over the last two weeks. Despite their best efforts, the Islanders are most certainly not out of the playoff picture.
The fact that my heart wasn’t pounding in the final minute is an indication that my mind is not allowing me to believe they have a chance to make the postseason. I won’t be fooled again! Having said that, the win and a very friendly out-of-town scoreboard have the Isles four points out of a Wild Card spot and just five points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for 3rd in the Metro with two games in hand.
As I wrote on Thursday, a win in Florida would bring hope, a win in Tampa would bring some momentum, and from there, we see what happens. The Isles finally played a mentally tough, gritty game—a game that matched the moment. They have to do it again on Saturday for it to mean anything, and if they do, the cycle of thinking things could be different will start all over again.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves, including 15 in the third period, as the Islanders picked up a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday night. JG Pageau had a goal and an assist, Mathew Barzal scored his career-best 23rd goal, and Casey Cizikas had two assists for the Isles (31-26-15), who had lost seven of their past eight (1-6-1). In the game, Cal Clutterbuck became the first player in NHL history to record 4,000 hits. Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist for the Panthers (46-22-5), who have lost six of seven (1-5-1). Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves.
KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 After Aleksander Barkov gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead, Mathew Barzal set a career-high in goals at the 8:43 mark when he redirected a shot from Noah Dobson to the game.
🔶 JG Pageau found a loose puck at 10:42 and swept a shot under the arm of a sprawling Stolarz. The Panthers challenged for goaltender interference for the second time, but this time, the call stood after a video review.
3 REACTIONS
❶ TEAM EFFORT: “That was the performance we needed. It was good for the confidence of our guys,” Patrick Roy said after the win. “Today was a really good team effort.”
❷ REALLY SOLID: “Stellar. Huge saves, big moments,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said of Semyon Varlamov. “Played the puck well, was really solid back there. He was a key part of that win.”
❸ WE JUST BATTLED: “I know there’s probably some people out there that wrote this one off when we were down 2-1 there,” Mathew Barzal said. “We just battled. That was 60 minutes of pure battle and war.”
GAME IMPACT SCORE
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders are in Tampa Bay on Saturday night to take on Nikita Kucherov and the red-hot Lightning. Puck drops at 7:00 PM EDT.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: There was only one lineup change, with Matt Martin drawing back in the lineup for Simon Holmstrom. The Isles only have seven points in their last 10 games, and they’ve all come with Semyon Varlamov in net. The 35-year-old backup to Ilya Sorokin is 3-0-1 in his last four starts, while Sorokin has lost six straight. Expect Patrick Roy to go back to Varly on Saturday night in Tampa Bay.
The Hit King
Cal Clutterbuck's hits just keep on coming. On Thursday night, the veteran forward became the first player in NHL history to record 4,000 career hits. He entered the game against the Florida Panthers at 3,997 and reached the milestone early in the second period. This is the second major milestone for the 36-year-old this season. He played in his 1,000th career game on Nov. 22 vs. Philadelphia.
Fittingly, he was cut from Sam Reinhart’s high stick late in the third period, which gave the Islanders four minutes of power-play time and helped milk the clock before the Panthers could pull their goalie and try to tie the game
"It's a big number," Clutterbuck said. "To be the first to do it, I mean, when you're the first to do anything in the National Hockey League, I think it's a special moment. I just try and go out there and do my job. It's part of my job and if anything, it's sort of a validation that I've been doing it well for a long time."
Setting a new Bar
It took six seasons from his Calder Trophy rookie year, but Mathew Barzal set a new career-high with his 23rd goal of the season in the second period to tie the game at 2-2. After 22 goals and 63 assists in 2017-17, Barzal had not scored 20 goals since, though it likely would have happened had it not been for the shortened seasons in 2019-20 and 2020. With 10 games left, he’s 11 points behind his career-best point total also set in his rookie season.
“He’s getting better and better every game, not just offensively but defensively. That’s what Barzal wants too; he wants to be a complete player,” Roy said after the game when talking about Barzal’s game. “It’s good for our team.”
Hanging Rough
In The Hockey News, Stefen Rosner, on-site at Thursday’s game in Sunrise, FL, tells us about an intriguing piece of art that hangs in The Amerant Vault, a premium lounge at the Panthers Arena. It’s of legend Roberto Luongo looking at the puck in the net after John Tavares’ wraparound goal in Game 6 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoff series between the teams. Why would a lowlight in franchise history hang in a prominent location? We do not know.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, the Isles have allowed 100 goals in the second period, the first time they have allowed 100 goals in a period since the second period in 2017-18 (108). For the first time in 13 years (2010-11—Blake Comeau, Michael Grabner, Matt Moulson, and John Tavares), the Isles have four players with 23 goals.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: It’s not our style to highlight opposing team goals, let alone the New York Rangers, but we’ll make an exception for ‘The Great One.’ On March 29, 1999, Wayne Gretzky scored the 894th and final goal of his illustrious NHL career against the Islanders at Madison Square Garden.
With the goal, Gretzky also passed Gordie Howe for the most professional hockey goals of all time (WHA and NHL, including playoffs) with 1,072. On the ice for the Islanders, of course, was Zdeno Chara wearing No. 3.
🎧 Weird Islanders: The Podcast! Dan and Kevin Schultz from VintageIceHockey.com take a look at some Islanders minor league affiliates of the past and the surprising players who skated for them. From the notable New Haven Nighthawks of the early 70's, to their long association with Fort Worth, Texas, to a championship club in Indianapolis to short stops in unique places like Kentucky, Utah and Lowell, Mass, the Islanders have had minor league teams of all stripes in a lot of places.
🔗 Wayne Gretzky Recalls First Encounters with Zdeno Chara and the NY Islanders by Michael Stahurski, Eyes on Isles “The very first game I played against him, I watched him in warmup and remember thinking ‘wow,’” Gretzky said. “I went into the coach's office, and I don’t really say a whole lot, and I said to Coley [Colin] Campbell (the NY Rangers head coach during the 1997-98 season), I said ‘listen, every time that number 3 is out there, get me out there.”
🔗 Cal Clutterbuck gets milestone hit in Islanders’ victory by Ethan Sears, New York Post “After recording his milestone 4,000th hit, building on an NHL record he set last year, Cal Clutterbuck sat at his locker in the bowels of Amerant Bank Arena, his lip swelling and blood visible on the side of his neck.”
And we leave you with this ….the MSG crew with the great Bobby Orr before the game.
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter for regular updates until the next newsletter.
And please check out our newsletters about the Knicks and Mets, too.