Boxed In
Isles take too many penalties; blow third period lead; can't wrap up season sweep of the Rangers
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Good Morning, Islanders Country, and Happy Festivus to those that celebrate.
Oh, there are some grievances worthy of airing out after last night.
The Islanders led 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2, and despite their undisciplined play, had put themselves in a position they’ve excelled at this season - closing games.
Before Thursday, the Isles were 11-0-0 when leading after two periods of play and had out-scored opponents 44-33 in the final 20 minutes. However, the Rangers have been a very strong third-period team in their own regard, having also outscored opponents by the same 44-33 margin in the third - and on this night, they scored the only three of the period.
With an opportunity to complete a season sweep of the rival Rangers, the Islanders couldn’t generate offense and couldn’t stay out of the penalty box, and the Rangers took advantage. While the Blueshirts were just 1-for-6 on the power-play on paper, that power-play time allowed them to gain and keep momentum as the Isles had just 18 shots on goal compared to the Rangers’ 34.
The team talked about building confidence off of this five-game road trip. They played competitive hockey against some very good teams, but it’s hard to take too many positives out of collecting just four points in five games, winning just one.
Before the Holiday break, there’s a game tonight against a Florida Panthers team that has given them fits in recent meetings. Last weekend, the team responded after their 5-4 loss in Arizona with a win in Vegas. They’ll need a similar bounce-back performance to be in a playoff spot come Christmas after being knocked out of the 8th spot after their loss was coupled with a Washington Capitals win.
Coming up, Pageau plays in his 600th, and Zeeker leaves early. Plus, Wynshinski has the perfect Christmas wish for the Isles, Romy scores his first for his new team, the origin of the Santa Brawl is documented, and the Isles get jinxed!
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Kappo Kakko scored with just 2:47 left in regulation to give the New York Rangers their first lead of the game as the Blueshirts went on to defeat the New York Islanders 5-3 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Barclay Goodrow had a goal and two assists, Julien Gauthier had a goal and an assist, and Igor Shesterkin made 15 saves for the Rangers (19-11-5). Anders Lee opened the scoring for the Islanders in the first. Mathew Barzal scored on a breakaway in the second period, and Alexander Romanov scored his first goal of the season for the Islanders (18-14-2). Ilya Sorokin made 29 saves.
KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 Barzal continued his great play against the Rangers with a beauty of a breakaway goal at 2:39 of the second period to give the Isles a 2-1 lead. Josh Bailey forced a Kakko turnover at the blue line, and Barzal turned on the speed to break free, deke Shesterkin and score on the backhand.
🔻 Goodrow tied it 3-3 at 3:00 of the third period, scoring on a deflection of Gauthier's shot from above the left circle.
🔻On the GWG, the puck jumped over Barzal’s stick, allowing K'Andre Miller to center the puck out of the left corner right to Kakko, who one-timed a shot past Sorokin to give the Rangers their first lead of the game.
3 REACTIONS
❶ TURN THE PAGE: "You expect to close it and that's what we were trying to do," JG Pageau said. "It didn't go our way we have to turn the page and learn from it. We're back at it tomorrow.”
❷ BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL: "We were behind the eight ball quite a bit with how much we were in the box," Anders Lee said. "Our killers did a phenomenal job to kill that last one off at the end, and they were just able to get a puck and pop one."
❸ WAS A GOOD SPOT TO BE: “Up 3-2 on the road is a good spot to be,” Maybe Mathew Barzal said after the game. “I don’t really know what to say. It obviously sucks… The puck just rimmed around. I tried to get a stick on it. It just kind of jumped. I don’t know what happened. They just kind of swatted toward the net and it was a lucky bounce so that’s really it.”
📰 NEWS: Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau played in his 600th NHL game last night and registered two shots on goal. It was his 165th regular season game with the Islanders since being acquired from the Ottawa Senators.
◾️ With Cal Clutterbuck already on IR, center Casey Cizikas left the game at 13:46 of the second with an undisclosed injury. There was no update provided from Lane Lambert after the game putting Zeeker’s status for tonight’s game in doubt against the Florida Panthers.
◾️ Kyle Palmieri (upper body) was held out for the third straight game and has missed 13 of 14 overall. Meanwhile, Cory Schneider backed up Ilya Sorokin, with Semyon Varlamov remaining unavailable.
◾️ Sorokin is likely to be back in net tonight vs. Florida. Varlamov and the other injured Isles will have some time to recover with the NHL holiday break, and the Isles next game is not until Tuesday, Dec. 27th, vs. Pittsburgh.
📝 WISH LIST: You don’t get everything you wish for on your holiday wish list. The Islanders might not either, but Greg Wyshinski, in his latest with ESPN, says Jakob Chychrun would be a perfect fit on the Islanders’ blue line.
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders are back on the ice and back at home at UBS Arena as they take on the Florida Panthers before heading into the holiday break. It's 90s Night at UBS Arena, and game two for the fisherman. Puck drop is 7:30 PM
📊 STANDINGS: With the Washington Capitals 3-2 OT win in Ottawa, they have jumped over the Islanders into 5th place in the Metro and occupy the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
🎅🏻 SANTA, BABY: After the game, MSG Network aired The Santa “Brawl” – A Holiday Tale, about the infamous dress-like Santa Claus promotion on December 23, 2003. The special includes interviews with the three friends who orchestrated the now infamous moment, Andy Francess (Isles fan), Rob Guercio, and Mike Yee (Rangers fans), as well as Alan Hahn (former Newsday Islanders beat reporter at the time) and Chris Botta (former Islanders VP of Communications).
If you missed it, you can watch it HERE to learn how this spectacle came to be.
Btw, if you know the kid going after the Rags fan, they’re still looking for him!
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Alexander Romanov scored his first goal as an Islander and his first for anyone since March 12th, when he scored for Montreal against Seattle. Romanov is the 390th player in club history (including Billy Smith) to score a goal for the Isles.
🗓 THIS DATE IN ISLANDERS HISTORY: On December 23, 1978, Bryan Trottier recorded six points in a period, setting a franchise record that still hasn’t been touched. Trottier’s three goals and three assists were a part of his historic eight-point performance in a 9-4 trouncing of the New York Rangers. A two-goal, five-point night by linemate Mike Bossy was almost an afterthought.
🔗 Zach Parise is having a great season so far for the New York Islanders, Puck Prose, Vinny Parise: “One player who has really helped them out is Zach Parise. He is not the player that he was in his New Jersey Devils days or early Minnesota Wild days but he is still impactful. He is 38 years old and is having a really solid season, his second with the New York Islanders.”
🔗 Nelson Has Become X-Factor For Islanders: ‘When He Excels, Our Team Excels’, by Stefen Rosner, NYIHockeyNow: “After a career-high season in 2021-22, with 37 goals, 22 assists, for 59 points in just 72 games, Brock Nelson showed that he could be more than just a streaky goal scorer for the Islanders.”
And we leave you with this…this game wasn’t lost in the third period; it was lost during the second intermission!
Between periods, Shannon Hogan interviewed Mathew Barzal and brought up how a season sweep of the Rangers would be “icing on the cake.” To Barzal’s credit, he didn’t respond, but the damage had been done. After the game, Shannon took the blame.
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Shannon Hogan is an embarr.asment. Hickey is a welcome addition
.....while there WERE too many legitimate infractions, SOMEthing needs to be DONE about this STUPIDITY relating to 'delay-of-game' calls (as NOTED by my 'FOTI' complaint, recommendation) - for Dobson to STILL have been called despite it going out CLOSE to the REDline - putting them down TWO players to provide for a Smurf 5-on-3, and their SECOND such (as it Aho? Believe so) later appeared to DEFINITELY have been DEFLECTED.....it's an INSULT to those of us who actually UNDERSTAND what's BEST for the game, and REMEMBER when it was applied with FAR more discretion.....