Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Six wins in a row followed six periods without a goal.
Before the game, the stat being talked about was how the Isles were 8-0-0 when scoring the first goal. Well, you can’t score the first if you don’t score any.
The last two games had to be humbling for the Isles, who were flying high for two weeks, but now find themselves needing to regroup in a hurry with back-to-back matinee games awaiting them on Long Island and in NYC this weekend.
This game always felt like a tricky spot, flying back east to face a suddenly hot Buffalo team to close out a road trip, but still, this was about as flat as you could look for sixty minutes. When captain Anders Lee, who has been criticized for being too positive after losses, says the team wasn’t nearly good enough, you know the performance was plain lousy.
Patrick Roy called his team flat, as they never seemed to have their legs and after a stretch where all four lines were connecting during the win streak, they all played as if they had never been paired together. As he did on Monday, Ilya Sorokin kept them in the game for a period, but the Isles failed to convert on their few chances and the power play again failed to give them that emotional boost that they were lacking throughout the night.
The scoreboard was a mixed bag, with the sinking Detroit Red Wings losing again, meaning the Isles remain in a playoff spot. The Philadelphia Flyers lost as well, but the Tampa Bay Lightning came back from down 2-0 early to defeat the Rangers 6-3 and are now four points up with the Isles.
This is how it’ going to be for the next month. Ups and downs and lots and lots of scoreboard watching. We better get used to it.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 21 saves as the New York Islanders were shut out for the second consecutive game, this time by the Buffalo Sabres, 4-0 at KeyBank Center on Thursday. Luukkonen now has five shutouts this season, which is tied with Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko for third in the NHL. Zach Benson had his first two-goal game, and Owen Power had two assists for the Sabres (32-30-5), who have won three in a row and are 8-3-1 in their past 12 games. Ilya Sorokin made 33 saves for the Isles (29-22-14), who have been shut out in consecutive games after winning six straight.
KEY MOMENT(s):
🔻 After Anders Lee took an interference penalty, Victor Olofsson scored on the power play at 4:28 of the second period with a wrist shot that went off Sorokin’s arm, off the post, and in for the game’s first goal.
🔻 Sorokin left a rebound off a Connor Clifton shot, and Dylan Cozens was there for the rebound to make it 2-0 at 8:15 from the hash marks.
3 REACTIONS
❶ TOOK IT TO US: “They came out hard and took it to us right off the hop,” Bo Horvat said. “Sorokin is unbelievable; it could have been a lot worse.”
❷ OVERCOMPLICATED: “I feel like we over-complicated things,” Roy said. “The message before the game was to make things simple and move the puck quick, but tonight our legs were not there and our execution was not there.”
❸ NEED TO REGROUP: “The first game coming back east is always a tough game,” Roy said. “That’s the beauty of this league, it makes you humble pretty fast. You’re flying high, winning six in a row, you think you’re under control. But after losing two in a row, we need to regroup.”
GAME IMPACT SCORE
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders head back to New York for back-to-back matinee games against the Ottawa Senators at UBS Arena on Saturday and then versus the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: Forward Matt Martin was back in the lineup on Thursday after missing Monday’s 3-0 loss in Los Angeles with a lower-body injury. Martin has five points (2G, 3A) in 42 games this season.
Save of the Night
Early in the season, it seemed Ilya Sorokin was having a save-of-the-year candidate each night. However, it’s been a while since last year’s Vezina runner-up. In the first period, the 28-year-old went right to left and made a leg-splitting glove save on Peyton Krebs to keep the game scoreless.
“Ilya is one of the best goalies in the league, so we knew we could count on him,” head coach Patrick Roy said. “We need to be better, especially on the road we have to be better than what we did tonight.”
Slow Going
Prior to last night’s loss, where the Islanders went 0-for-4 on the power play, the team had converted just five of 33 chances on the power play (15.15 percent) in their previous 10 games, according to Ethan Sears in the New York Post.
After Wednesday’s practice, Patrick Roy sounded confident that they could turn things around with some minor tweaks. “I like to have a little more net presence. I like to move the puck a little quicker,” said Roy. “I feel like sometimes we slow down the play a little too much. If we could attack the net more, and when we had success, that’s what we’ve been doing.”
“I just feel like we were slow with it, defenseman Noah Dobson said of the power play against the Kings. “We weren’t as crisp. They just kept us to the outside, and we weren’t really able to get too much. It’s definitely something we know we gotta be a little bit better next game. I’m sure the guys will respond.”
They haven’t just yet.
The Zeeker Connection 🇸🇪
Last night wasn’t the best for the Swedish Connection or any of the other three lines. In fact, Patrick Roy twice had Simon Holmstrom serve penalties despite his early season short-handed success.
However, since the line changes, Holmstrom and Pierre Engvall have received most of the attention because of the country of origin they share. However, it’s Toronto native Casey Czikas who is making everything go.
"He's a good vet; it's a very huge help," Roy said of Cizikas. "He's fast, he's intense, is very reliable defensively, and makes those two guys play free. They could try things offensively and be creative. That's what I love."
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, The Isles were shut out in consecutive games for the first time since February 13-15, 2020, when Nashville (Juuse Soros) and Vegas (Marc-Andre Fleury) blanked them in consecutive road games. After a scoreless first period, the Isles have outscored their opponents 56-38 in the first period (fewest allowed in NHL) but have been outscored 89-67 in the second period (have allowed the most 2nd period goals in NHL) and 82-72 in the third period and overtime this season.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On March 15, 1979, future Hall of Famers Lanny McDonald and Billy Smith squared off near the end of a 6-2 Islanders win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Nassau Coliseum. The Isles jumped out to a 5-0 lead as Bryan Trottier registered a hat trick. Denis Potvin scored a pair, his 26th and 27th of the season, including an empty-netter short-handed after Smith was given an extra two minutes for what led up to the scrap with McDonald.
🎧 The Red Line: On the Rebound “The boys talk about Mathew Barzal’s bad penalties, the need for Ilya Sorokin to steal a game, and Kyle Palmieri’s fantastic season. Meanwhile, Tuch talks about Isles playoff odds, and the guys take questions from their social media mailbag and talk about possible off-season moves.”
🔗 What the Islanders are up against in a four-team playoff-spot dogfight by Ethan Sears, New York Post “As much as the Islanders have helped themselves over the past couple weeks, they also have received significant help — most notably from the Red Wings, who appear to be in a mode of utter self-combustion, but also from the Lightning and the Flyers.”
🔗 The NY Islanders season was saved by the trade deadline being pushed back in 2024 by James Malone, Eyes on Isles “The NY Islanders had an unclear direction throughout January and February. After the New Year's Eve loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team's record was 17-10-9. At the time, we normally could not formulate a proper determination about the team since the season was still too early”
And we leave you with this …. Thursday was Pi Day, and the NHL Network came up with this creative way to celebrate, with a cameo from our Thomas Hickey.
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