Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Ilya Sorokin didn’t have to be the best player on the ice the entire game, but he was anyway, rising to the occasion at critical junctures, making clutch saves and leading the Islanders to a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at UBS Arena.
Coming up, Barry is back behind the bench and Big Z reaches new heights. Plus, MLK Day success, Bossy racked up the hat-tricks, and the long-overdue jersey retirement of the NHL’s first Black player. But first, let’s recap last night’s win.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Behind 26 saves from Ilya Sorokin, the Islanders (12-13-6) defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 at UBS Arena on Monday night. Casey Cizikas and Matt Martin scored their first goals of the season, and Brock Nelson and Anthony Beauvillier each added a goal for the Islanders who are 5-1-1 in their past seven games. For the Flyers (13-18-7), it was their eighth straight defeat, going 0-6-2 in that span. With the win, New York moved within 16 points of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and within three points of the sixth-place Flyers.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 The game was scoreless 46 seconds into the second-period when Sorokin showed off his acrobatic athletic ability, making a sprawling save on Scott Laughton.
🔶 Shortly after the Islanders killed off his penalty, Josh Bailey picked up the puck in the neutral zone, gained the blue-line and subtly dropped it back for Nelson who kicked up the leg and sniped a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net. The goal was Nelson’s team-leading 11th of the season for a 1-0 lead.
🔷 Later in the period, Robin Salo did a great job of skating the line left-to-right and finding an opening to get off a shot that was deflected by Czikas between the circles to extend the lead to 2-0. It took a while to know whether it was Cizikas’ first of the year or Salo’s first of his career. Ultimately, the goal was credited to Zeeker.
🔶 After a fluke goal made it a 2-1 game at the end of two periods. Nelson drove hard to the net and drew a penalty, but the power-play wouldn’t be needed. Oliver Wahlstrom kept the play alive before Beauvillier swatted it in for a 3-1 lead at 4:44 of the third period. Matt Martin would later add tge fifth empty net goal of his career to seal the victory.
3 REACTIONS
❶ DON’T LOOK UP: "Standings are tough to look at, you can look at them one way and be upset, or take it game-by-game," Casey Cizikas said. "That's what we're doing here. Each game is the most important game of the year for us right now and at the end of the season if we keep playing the way we are, if we keep growing as a group, we're going to like where we're sitting."
❷ SOROKIN SAVES: "The story was right there," Trotz said of Sorokin's second period play. "Ilya Sorokin with a couple of outstanding saves. If they score a couple on that, our bench deflates and it didn't. He held in there and then we were able to capitalize on a couple of chances and that turned the game around."
❸ WINNING FORMULA: “All four lines were going tonight," Beauvillier said. "That's our identity, that's how we have to play every night, that's how we've had success in the past and how we're going to have success moving forward.”
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders and Flyers are back at it tonight, this time in Philadelphia, in a game originally scheduled for Nov. 30.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: It was breaking news (at least to us) moments before face-off as Barry Trotz walked his way onto and then back behind the Islanders bench for the first time in 2022. "It felt very strange, it felt like about a year ago I've been in COVID protocol or behind the bench with obviously all that's happened in my life with my family, so it was good to get back," Trotz said after the game.
Assistant coach Lane Lambert, who had coached the previous three games, had spoken to the media earlier in the day and had no updates on Kyle Palmieri or Ryan Pulock, who remain on injured reserve.
👏🏼 BIG MILESTONE: Zdeno Chara played in his 1,636th NHL game on Monday passing Scott Stevens for second all-time among defensemen. Chris Chelios leads with 1,651 games played. Chara played 1,023 games with Boston, 299 with Ottawa, 55 with Washington and currently 259 in his two stints (20+ years apart) with the Islanders. Andy Greene, who’s played in his 1,000th game earlier this season, called Chara’s longevity “jaw-dropping.” “You just look at 600 more [than me], that’s a great career in this league, right,” Greene said. “We know what Z has been able to do through two or three or four different types of eras where the style of the game has changed a couple of times.”
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, the Isles have won their last five games on MLK Day, including last season's home opener. The last home loss on MLK Day was to Barry Trotz' Nashville Predators in 2012. Lou Lamoriello earned his 1,507th win (including playoffs) as a general manager, breaking a tie with Glen Sather for 2nd place (behind David Poile).
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On Jan. 17, 1981, Mike Bossy set a new NHL single-season record with his eighth hat trick in a New York Islanders' 6-4 win over the Washington Capitals. This gave him 48 goals in 47 games as he was on his way to becoming just the second player ever to score 50 goals in 50 games.
Here are all three goals:
🔗 Islanders not overwhelmed about the road ahead by Andrew Gross, Newsday “The Islanders, still with nine games to be rescheduled after large-scale team COVID-19 outbreaks through the end of November and December, play their league-low 31st game on Monday. They enter the game 18 points out of a wild-card spot. Saturday’s loss to the Capitals dropped the Islanders to 2-10-2 against teams holding playoff spotsin the Eastern and Western Conferences. They have been outscored 46-21 in those games.
🔗 Zach Parise’s strong play earns Islanders’ Player of the Week by Leen Amin, Elite Sports New York “Although he didn’t score a goal this week, the veteran forward looked good offensively, notching two key assists that allowed the Islanders to earn a win against the Devils. He also held his own defensively in that one. Parise showed off his versatility this week, playing as a RW against the Devils and then as a LW against the Capitals.”
And we leave you with this …. yesterday was Martin Luther King Day, and later tonight the Boston Bruins will retire the jersey No. 22 of Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player. Asked about O’Ree in January 2021, Barry Trotz said “I wouldn’t like you if you don’t like Willie O’Ree. He’s such a great person and a good role model for the game."
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