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Contributions from Brendan Burke, Stan Fischler, Chris King, and Jiggs McDonald.
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A portion of the proceeds goes to the Islanders Children’s Foundation.
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
We understand that many of you watched the entire game last night because you couldn’t sleep after seeing what happened to Edwin Diaz, but at least the Islanders put you to bed in a little better mood.
The game started out bad enough; just 25 seconds in, the Islanders were trailing 1-0 against an Anaheim team that, despite their overall record, was 5-2-2 in their previous nine games. The sigh of relief you felt after Kyle Palmieri scored to tie the game didn’t last long due to some Trevor Zegras magic, and the hope of burning the Ducks early was gone.
But the Isles would bury them late.
Is one game too soon to get really excited about the Palmieri-Nelson-Engvall line? Five unanswered goals followed, led by a new line put together by Lane Lambert, which had Brock Nelson centering Palmieri and Pierre Engvall. The line combined for four of the six Isles goals and eight total points. Nine different Islanders found the scoresheet on Wednesday.
The last three games have been quite the turnaround for Engvall, who, after sitting long stretches of games due to unfamiliarity with the team’s structure, has now scored in three straight. More importantly, Lambert may have certainty, at least in the short term, for another line as he searches for the right combinations since JG Pageau returned from injury.
We can say they’re all ‘playoff games’ and ‘must-wins’ the rest of the way, but games against bottom dwellers really are. The Isles got the first one against Anaheim and will try to get another two points against the worst team in the Western Conference, the San Jose Sharks, on Saturday.
Coming up, Josh Bailey is a healthy scratch, as Ilya Sorokin was back in the net on consecutive days. Plus, the salary cap will inch higher, Matthew Maggio hits the 50-goal milestone, and Ruslan Iskhakov makes you say ‘wow’ again. We also take a look at the remaining strength of schedule and remember the ‘Heals and 'Flats’ show that ran in the early 90s on SportsChannel.
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