Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The Islanders started a goaltender who hasn’t played an NHL game in over two years, a sign that the meaningful games part of the season is over, right?
Yes, the Islanders are now 11 points behind the Washington Capitals (the closest they’ve been since mid-November) with a game in hand with 14 to play, but there’s no realistic shot at the playoffs, right?
I mean, the chances of the Islanders having something to play for when they meet the Capitals on April 26th and 28th are about as good as you tossing your hat onto the ice and having the player that just scored a hat trick catch it with his stick.
Coming up, Corey Schneider plays and wins an NHL game for the first time since 2020, and PK Subban goes after Oliver Wahlstrom. Plus, Trots hits 50, and Isles/Rangers alumni get set to square off for a good cause. But first, a recap of Sunday’s win.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Cory Schneider made 27 saves in his first start since March 6, 2020, as the Islanders defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-3 on Sunday at the Prudential Center in Newark. Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the game’s first three goals for a natural hat-trick, the second of his career and first with the Islanders. Kyle Palmieri added the insurance goal in the third period and Adam Pelech matched his career-best with three assists for the Islanders (32-27-9). Nico Daws made 25 saves for New Jersey (24-39-6) and Jesper Boqvist, Tomas Tatar and Nico Hischier scored for the Devils who have lost five of their last six.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 Kyle Palmieri came down the left side, slowed up slightly, and then ‘lightly sauced’ a perfect pass to JG Pageau streaking between the circles to score with a quick wrist shot to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead.
🔶 A strong move to the top of crease by Anders Lee (with Zach Parise’s stick) led to an easy back-hand goal by Pageau who crashed the net and was left all alone to the left of Nico Daws.
🔷 Replay showed Lee without a stick circling back to the bench and getting an assist from the fellow lefty shooting Zach Parise before heading back on the hunt and ultimately creating the power-play goal at 14:00 of the first.
🔶 At 14:58 of the second period, a natural hat-trick for Pageau, his first for the Islanders and second of his career (in the regular season) - both have occurred in New Jersey. Pageau parked in front of the net with little resistance from NJ and Adam Pelech found him with a hard centering pass.
3 REACTIONS
❶ OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: "I'm just grateful for the opportunity," 36-year-Cory Schneider said after the win in his first start since the 2019-20 season. "You just don't know after last year and you're not sure where your future is in your career at that point, and if you'll ever get another opportunity.”
❷ RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME: "I got a few bounces, I guess tonight I was in the right spot and the puck landed on my stick," JG Pageau said on his hat-trick. "Our line has been doing a good job the past few games getting some goals and even some disallowed. I think you have start to worry when you don't have chances and we've had chances as of late, so we'll keep trying to build on that and it's been working."
❸ FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME: "There's a love for the game," Bary Trotz said of Schneider’s performance. "He probably wanted a little bit of redemption, if you will, because he's gone through some injuries, rehab and all this all the stuff that people don't realize that players go through that can derail your confidence, can derail your career, all that and he's battled through a lot of stuff. And everybody's really happy for him."
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders continue their five-game road trip on Tuesday night when they take on the Dallas Stars. Face-off is set for 8:30 PM.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: With Ilya Sorokin improving, but not yet ready to return, Barry Trotz surprisingly decided to give Semyon Varlamov the night off and start back up Cory Schneider. For the 36-year-old goaltender, Sunday was his first NHL start of the season and the first in two seasons with the Islanders’ organization.
In The Athletic, Kevin Kurz wrote about Schneider’s personal journey through injury and family tragedy to get back to the NHL.
Schneider’s last start came on March 6, 2020, in a 4-2 win as a member of the New Jersey Devils. In the AHL, Schneider was 10-10-3-1 with a 2.68 Goals Against Average (GAA) with the Bridgeport Islanders this season.
💥 CLEAN OR NOT CLEAN: Devils forward Jack Hughes didn’t come out for the third period after taking this hit from forward Oliver Wahlstrom. New Jersey defenseman PK Subban then came after Wahlstrom as the play moved in the opposite direction and earned a game misconduct at 4:36 of the second period.
“He was very fortunate he got kicked out of the game, Barry Trotz said after the game. (Islanders enforcer Ross Johnston was in the lineup on Sunday and certainly would have sought out Subban if he hadn’t been given the game)
“I thought Wahlly played through him, Trotz added. “I thought Hughes tried to jump back and avoid the hit and so it looks worse than it really is.”
🏒 KILLIN’ IT: The Islanders have one of the better penalty kills in the league, ranking fifth in the NHL ahead of Saturday’s game at 140-for-167 (83.8%). What’s equally, if not more impressive as the PK unit(s) have been better since losing two of the team’s better penalty killers.
Per Andrew Gross in Newsday, the Islanders are 22-of-25 (88.0%) in the eight games since Cal Clutterbuck left the lineup. They are 17-of-19 (89.5%) in six games without both Clutterbuck and Scott Mayfield. The Isles went 2 for 2 on the penalty kill Sunday and have now killed off 11 straight penalties.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, either Semyon Varlamov or Ilya Sorokin had been the goalie for the Isles in every game both this season and last season; every other NHL team had used at least three goalies during that span. It's the longest streak of only using two goalies for the Isles since Chris Osgood and Garth Snow split the net for all of 2001-02, and most of the 2002-03 season. Cory Schneider broke Steve Weeks' Islander record for most games as a backup before appearing in a game. Weeks was the backup for the first 10 games of the 1991-92 season.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On April 3, 1982, Bryan Trottier became the second player in New York Islanders' history to have a 50-goal season as the Islanders defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.
With the win, the Islanders set a franchise record of 118 points in a season with one game left to play. For Trottier, had been stuck at 49 for 10 games before reaching the milestone. It would be the only time Trots scored 50 in his Hall of Fame career.
🔗 Islanders' penalty-kill key component of recent success by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Somewhat counter-intuitively, though, the Islanders have not faltered against the power play despite the absences of key penalty killers Cal Clutterbuck and Scott Mayfield. Clutterbuck, who requires shoulder surgery, is out for the rest of the season. Mayfield has a lower-body injury that will likely sideline him the rest of the way as well.”
🔗 Goalie Cory Schneider’s shock start sparks Islanders’ win over Devils by Ethan Sears, New York Post “When he has been up from AHL Bridgeport and with the Islanders this season, Cory Schneider, dispensing with the formality of possibility, has often donned a baseball cap on the team’s bench. There’s been little reason to believe the team would play him ahead of Ilya Sorokin or Semyon Varlamov, even when one or the other has been on short rest.”
And we leave you with this ….On Saturday, April 23rd, Alumni throughout team history including Pierre Turgeon, Benoit Hogue, Darius Kasparaitis, Mariusz Czerkawski, and more will face off against New York Rangers Alumni in an exhibition supporting the Northwell Health Foundation.
To learn more about tickets, click HERE
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