Good Morning, Islanders Country.
If what we watched on Saturday night was a result of the Islanders’ new aggressive, offensive style, then it was a very promising first NHL win as a head coach for Lane Lambert and his New York Islanders. The Isles scored seven goals for the first time in 103 regular season games as they routed the Ducks 7 to 1, improving to 5-0-2 against Anaheim in their last seven matchups on LI.
Coming up, Wally starts the year off right, and Robin does something that hasn’t been done since Denis Potvin! Plus, Brock has reasons to celebrate, Barzy shows off his wheels, and we say goodbye to a short-lived idea.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: Cal Clutterbuck was activated from injured reserve, and Oliver Wahlstrom returned to the lineup after being held out of the season-opener. To make room for Clutterbuck, D Sebastian Aho was placed on IR with an upper-body issue retroactive to last Saturday, leaving the Islanders with just six active defensemen. Aho will have to remain on IR for at least seven days.
🏒 BREAK FREE: Oliver Wahlstrom made his season debut and scored on a breakaway goal with a backhand that extended the lead to 3-0 in the first period. It would be a boost to the forward group if Wahlstrom can develop into a consistent scorer this season. After the game, Lane Lambert spoke to the impact of early success and building confidence early in the season.
“Obviously, it’s going to help him a lot,” Lambert said of Wahlstrom getting on the scoresheet with a goal and an assist. “That’s one of his strengths is to be able to score. But I look at the overall game, and the little things — he was very good on the walls getting pucks out, solid defensively. … It was a good night for him.”
😱 SAL-OH! On Saturday, Robin Salo scored twice and went +4, becoming the first defenseman other than Denis Potvin to reach at least those totals in the same game. Potvin did it three times, most recently on December 11, 1982.
🇫🇮 FINNISHED: Former Islanders forward Michael Dal Colle’s career on Long Island came to an end this summer when the Isles opted not to resign him. Dal Colle was signed to a PTO by the Ottawa Senators but failed to convert that into a contract. Now, his NHL career has come to an end (for now) as he’s headed to Liiga, Finland’s highest professional league, to play for TPS.
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders are back on home ice Tuesday night as they play host to the San Jose Sharks at UBS Arena. Face off is set for 7:30 PM
📊 STANDINGS:
🥳 BROCKTOBER: The October birthdays continued for the Islanders. A couple of days after Scott Mayfield turned 30 and Nikita Soshnikov turned 29, Brock Nelson turned 31 on Saturday. It’s been a busy few weeks for the Nelsons. Brock and his wife Karley welcomed their fourth child on September 27th.
🚙 BEAMER: Last year, the Islanders announced a partnership with BMW that allows guests who arrive to UBS Arena in a BMW to receive complimentary parking for all events. Well, it appears the Isles $80M man is taking advantage of that perk. Mathew Barzal posted a pic of his new ride for the season.
📚 SOUND SMART: Five of the seven Islanders goals on Saturday were scored by defensemen, with Scott Mayfield and Robin Salo scoring two each. It marked the first time since January 12, 1993, that two Isles blueliners had multi-goal games. That night Vladimir Malakhov and Scott Lachance each scored twice in an 8-2 Islanders win over the Calgary Flames at the Nassau Coliseum. It was the first time any Isles defenseman had scored twice since Nick Leddy on October 25, 2019, in Ottawa.
🗓 THIS DATE IN ISLANDERS HISTORY: 30 years ago, on October 17, 1992, the Islanders defeated the New York Rangers 6-3 in the home opener at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Six different Islanders scored goals (Benoit Hogue, Vladimir Malakhov, Brian Mullen, Steve Thomas, Bill Berg, and Derek King). Glenn Healy made 30 saves to improve the team’s record to 2-2-1.
🔗 Young Islanders Oliver Wahlstrom, Anthony Beauvillier start strong, by Kevin Kurz, The Athletic: “They’re continuing to instill good habits and continuing to build their games, and that will allow them to grow and give them opportunity out there,” Lee said.
🔗 NY Islanders fans sound off; the pre-game siren won't be coming back, Eyes on Isles: “It didn't sound the way it was supposed to sound. "Experts" on social media point to the fact that Tonelli didn't have to crank the siren over and over again, just once or twice would've done the trick. But instead, JT kept doing it over and over again and the sound got progressively worse.”
And we leave you with this…Isles Nation spoke, and the Islanders organization listened. The team heard fans sound off their displeasure in the pre-game cranking of the air-raid siren and put out a humorous video before face-off showing Sparky the Dragon disposing of the shiny object in the UBS Arena trash.
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