Good Morning, Islanders Country.
One year ago, Anders Lee suffered a season-ending ACL injury. One year later, the Islanders captain scored his first career hat-trick (after a record 29 two-goal games without one) bringing a smile to his face and all of those who know just how hard he worked to get back to this point. “I think Anders is very respected in that room and they were very happy for him, Barry Trotz said during the post-game. I don’t think there was a person there that wasn’t happy for him.”
Throughout rehab, he pushed himself to the limits, leading by example while influencing and inspiring others however possible. Back with his team and back on the ice, Lee is still inspiring. This time, with his recent play which has him finding his old scoring touch and on a 30-goal pace.
Coming up, Barzy was back at practice, but Big Z might be the one ready to return. Plus, the MSG broadcast crew undergoes a one-game makeover, the Isles achieve a special teams’ first and Bow-tie Bill acquires the final piece of the puzzle. But first, a recap of last night’s win.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Ilya Sorokin recorded his sixth shutout and Anders Lee scored his first hat-trick as the Islanders (22-24-8) routed the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-0 at UBS Arena on Thursday. With six shutouts, Sorokin is second in the NHL in shutouts behind Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames (eight). Ryan Pulock and Anthony Beauvillier each had three assists and Brock Nelson had a highlight-reel goal to open the scoring for his team-leading 22nd of the season. Josh Bailey ended a 18-game goal drought with a second-period goal and JG Pageau scored a 4-on-3 short-handed goal. Joonas Korpisalo made 27 saves in his first game since Jan. 31 for the Blue Jackets (28-26-3) who have now dropped four in a row.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔶 Ilya Sorokin didn’t need to make many big saves, but in the first period with the game still scoreless, Sorokin stopped Boone Jenner on a breakaway while the Islanders were on a power-play to keep the game scoreless. Sorokin is now 10-1-2 on home-ice since December 9th with a 1.67 GAA and a .935 save percentage.
🔷 Goal of the year? This was magnificent from Brock Nelson with the Isles on a 5-on-3 power-play. When was the last time you saw a player skate backward between two defenders, turn around and score a goal? Just great stuff from Nellie.
🔶 At the 6:08 mark of the second period, Josh Bailey ended a 18 game goal drought. Kyle Palmieri made the play, attracting two defenders and keeping his balance to get a pass to Bailey who slipped the puck through Korpisalo's legs for a 2-0 Isles lead.
🔷 Later in the period, the Islanders pressured the puck and forced a turnover in the Columbus zone. Anthony Beauvillier found an incoming Adam Pelech who then dropped a pass to Anders Lee for his first goal of the game.
🔶 The Blue Jackets took a penalty in the final minutes, allowing Lee to take the ice with a chance for his first career hatty. With his teammates looking for him, it was a fortuitous bounce that found his stick and an empty net for his first three-goal game.
3 REACTIONS
❶ GOOD BOUNCES: "It's a combination of finding your spots and good looks," Anders Lee said. "You look at some of those ones tonight the puck finds you. It's about putting yourself in a position to get a good bounce and it's a couple of nights in a row of getting a good bounce."
❷ STICKING WITH IT: "It felt good," Josh Bailey said on ending his 18 game scoreless streak. "When you go through stretches like this through the course of your career, you just stick with it, there's only one way through it, you can't get around it, you just have to keep working. It was a good opportunity to play with Pageau and Palmieri tonight."
❸ PLAYING WITH CONFIDENCE: "We've seen more of that in the last year or two, maybe more this year," Ryan Pulock said of Adam Pelech’s aggressiveness. "He's playing with a lot of confidence and he deserves to. He does his job every night and when you're that good defensively it gives you that confidence to maybe try a little more offensively than maybe you're used to, or actually having the confidence to do it. You're seeing him do that, building off the elite defenseman that he is."
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders wrap up a back-to-back set when they host the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night at UBS Arena. Face-off is at 7:30 p.m.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: Forward Mathew Barzal missed his sixth straight game with a lower-body injury but did join the team on the ice for the morning skate and stayed on to get some extra work on afterward. Zdeno Chara also remained out of the lineup.
"They’re probably both close," Barry Trotz said. "In Z’s case, he will be probably available for tomorrow. We just wanted to give him one more day with his injury going into a back-to-back. Barzy, we wanted to find out a little bit so we’ll see where he is tomorrow."
With Barzal remaining out, Otto Koivula played for the second time in three games. The 2016 fourth-round pick has played five games this season and 17 in his career for the Islanders. Trotz chose to play the young center rather than moving Zach Parise to the middle. Kieffer Bellows was a healthy scratch.
📺 THE REPLACEMENTS: Broadcasting legend Jiggs McDonald was on the call for the Isles game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday due to a TNT travel conflict for the busiest man in play-by-play, our Brendan Burke.
That wasn’t the only change to the broadcast booth. AJ Mleczko was beside Jiggs as Butch Goring had scheduled shoulder surgery on the 42nd anniversary of his trade to the Islanders. Shannon Hogan was also out of the lineup (non-Covid illness), meaning Bill Pidto was called up to fill in as host. Anson Carter served as a studio analyst.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, JG Pageau’s 3-on-4 goal was the first for the Islanders since the NHL started recording the stat in the 2009-10 season. The Isles are the first NHL team to score 3-on-4 and 5-on-3 in the same game since the league started recording the stats in the 2009-10 season.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: It’s the gold standard for trade deadline deals. On March 10, 1980, General Manager Bill Torrey acquired the “final piece of the puzzle” acquiring 29-year-old center Butch Goring from the Los Angeles Kings for forward Billy Harris and defenseman Dave Lewis.
"My initial reaction was one of anger and disappointment," said Goring decades later. "I got here and I realized I was going to an awfully good hockey club. That made it a lot easier to handle. This was a team that had a chance to win a Stanley Cup. Once I was able to get the emotions out of it, I realized it was a tremendous opportunity."
With Goring (wearing No. 21) filling the role of No. 2 center, the Islanders are 8-0 with four ties in their final 12 regular-season games, then went on first of their four consecutive Stanley Cup championships. Goring had 19 points in the post-season.
🎧 Hockey Press Pass with Chris Botta: TSN’s Jamie McLennan “Playing for Al Arbour and getting the nod to go into games after Ron Hextall got Game Misconducts. Transitioning from popular teammate to successful broadcaster. The goalie market at this year’s NHL trade deadline.”
🔗 ‘He still has to work back’: Islanders’ Anders Lee finding his game 1 year after ACL injury by Joe Pantorno, AMNY “The Islanders’ playoff hopes are hanging by a thread — roughly 3% — during a tumultuous season that has provided hurdles at every twist and turn. Lee himself has tried to work his way back to the consistent 20-plus-goal scorer that he was before the 2020-21 season, dealing with a bout of COVID in the process of his full rehabilitation.”
And we leave you with this …the trade for Butch Goring isn’t the only notable trade the Islanders made on March 10th. A year after acquiring Goring, Bill Torrey made another deal at the deadline. This time, the Isles sent Glenn (Chico) Resch, their goaltender for seven seasons, and Steve Tambellini, a second-year center, to the Colorado Rockies. In return, they got Mike McEwen, a defenseman, and Jari Kaarela, a rookie goalie.
''This is the distasteful part of the business,” Arbour said. “I've been here eight years, and Chico seven. He seemed part of the organization.”
''But Chico took it surprisingly well, while Steve was visibly upset. There were tears in his eyes. Chico, of course, had indicated he wasn't planning on playing with us next year anyway.''
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