It Starts with One
Isles begin home stand with a point, but feel they deserved more in 2-1 SO loss to Dallas; Simon Holmstrom returns; 1,000,00th fan at UBS Arena
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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
We deserved better.
That was Lane Lambert’s take on the Islanders effort in last night’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars. There was a bit of anxiety in the UBS Arena air leading up to this game, the first of a season long five-game home stand.
It’s a crucial stretch for the Isles. Yes, you take one game at a time, but this group needs to string wins together to makeup for the recent missteps on the road and to keep pace with other teams in the Metropolitan Division.
The first period is often a strong indidcator of which Islanders team you’ll get on a given night and although they did concede the first goal for the fifth straight game, they were the better team for much of the opening period.
From start to finish, the Isles played a strong game - there’s was that little bit of extra effort and desperation that creates scoring chances, like this play from Hudson Fasching setting up JG Pageau in the third period.
They Isles needed to elevate their game against the first-place Stars and did, generating 37 scoring chances to the their 24 and spending the majority of the game in the Dallas zone. The difference was that Jake Oettinger was every bit as good, if not better than, Ilya Sorokin on this night and the Isles continue to lack the scoring touch, having scored just four goals in their last three games.
Coming up, Simon Holmstrom returns to the lineup, and Anders Lee talks about life as the captain. Plus, the Isles welcome their 1,000,000th fan to UBS Arena, advanced stats put Ilya Sorokin as the Vezina favorite, and Bryan Trottier sits down for a Q&A session.
Let’s dive in.
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