Good Morning, Islanders Country.
This game might have sent you to bed early, but with a smile on your face.
There are fast starts and then there’s what happened last night in Vancouver. With Barry Trotz’s post-game comments fresh in their minds following last week’s embarrassing loss to the Seattle Kraken, the Islanders came out flying, finding another gear with their new lines and before you knew it, it was bang-bang-bang, a 3-0 first period lead that would extend to 5-0 en route to a 6-3 win.
The Barzal contingent wants to know what all the complaining on social media was about.
Coming up, an unorthodox line shuffle pays dividends and Robin Salo’s development plan. Plus, a look back at a wild comeback vs. Detroit and Frans’ “Danish backhand of judgment” makes its Olympics debut.
But first, let’s recap last night’s dynamite win on TNT.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: The Islanders scored five goals in the first period, including three in 31 seconds, in a 6-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks (21-21-6). Anders Lee and Casey Cizikas each had a goal and an assist, Cal Clutterbuck had two helpers, and Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves for the Islanders (17-17-6), who had lost three of four. Jaroslav Halak surrendered five goals on 12 shots and was then replaced by Thatcher Demko, who made 14 saves. Zach Parise played in his 1,100th game and opened the scoring at 3:25 of the first period, Brock Nelson and Anders Lee scored 13 seconds apart in the blistering first period.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 Noah Dobson displays grade-A playmaking ability getting the puck toward the front of the net and Zach Parise taps it home to give the Isles a 1-0 lead just 3:25 into the first period.
🔶 Later in the first period, Beauvillier makes an excellent move to gain the ice and connects tape-to-tape with Cizikas for what would become the game-winning goal.
🔷 At this point in the game, the Islanders didn’t know they would need it, but Barzal gives the Islanders a bit of insurance displaying some craftiness to beat Halak over his right shoulder to make it 5-0. He turns and points to his friends and family in attendance after scoring the goal.
🔶 The Canucks opened the third period how they ended the second, continuing to push back after a fast Islanders start. Sorokin was tested early and often in the third period, including this save point-blank on Alex Chaisson that could have made it a one-goal game with plenty of time left in the final frame.
3 REACTIONS
❶ PROVE OURSELVES: "We were embarrassed with our performance in [the Seattle] game and we wanted to come out and prove to ourselves that we're a good hockey team and a lot better than that," Cizikas said. "We did that tonight."
❷ START HOT: "Anytime you get three in the first four minutes, especially after a tough loss against Seattle, coming back from the break, we knew we had to start hot and get going," Barzal said.
❸ ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES: "We have to be flexible enough and resilient enough to roll with the punches when they come at us," Trotz said about the lead shrinking in the third. "You have to get comfortable when the games are tight. Today we got off to a quick lead and then it started tightening up a little bit and we became comfortable again. I liked the demeanor on the bench and our commitment level."
⏭ NEXT UP: After an off-day on Thursday, the Islanders play back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday in Edmonton and Calgary.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: The Islanders’ lines found a new identity - soft of. Barry Trotz upended three of his four combinations on Wednesday, including inserting Cal Clutterbuck on the top line with Lee and Barzal.
"It hasn't been working for us," Trotz said. "We haven't had consistent production through our lineup, so it was to put some people in a position where they can add a little more, I'll say weight, on all the lines, especially what we call our top-two lines and just balance them out with a little more four-line mentality."
With Kyle Palmieri on paternity, Ross Johnston was back in the lineup, but playing alongside Brock Nelson and Josh Bailey while Anthony Beauvillier joined fourth-liners Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas. Only the Wahlstrom-Pageau-Parise line stayed intact.
"Casey's line has an identity, why can't we have that through our whole team?,” added Trotz. “One of the ideas was to spread it out and put people in a position for some battle level and weight on each line and hopefully have some success."
🔵 BLUELINE DEVELOPMENT: Barry Trotz confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that rookie defenseman, Robin Salo, has been sent to the AHL to play with the Bridgeport Islanders. The transaction comes as a result of a healthy Ryan Pulock returning to the varsity squad. In his latest with Newsday, Andrew Gross speaks to the different paths defenseman take on their way to the NHL.
“Dobson, the 12th overall pick in 2018, has fully blossomed into a two-way threat in his third NHL season without spending a minute in the AHL. Burroughs, at 26, has finally earned a full-time role with the Canucks, his third NHL organization after the Islanders selected him in the seventh round in 2013.”
“And Salo, a second-round pick by the Islanders in 2017 in his first season of North American hockey, is back with the organization’s AHL affiliate in Bridgeport as Ryan Pulock’s return to health has left him without a roster spot for now.”
Salo’s return to Bridgeport has many Islander fans scoffing at the management of the roster. However, prior to the above-mentioned crop of defenseman, it wasn’t too long ago that the Isles top-pairing Pulock was honing his craft in the AHL as well.
"I went through three, four years of really trying to establish myself with some time up and then back to the minors. It can be frustrating at the time it happens but, I think, if you have the right mindset, it only really helps you develop your game. (Salo) will keep building on that and he’s going to be an NHL player for a long time."
Trotz and Lou Lamoriello saw 18 games of Salo on NHL ice in which he scored his first NHL goal and added three assists. He certainly showed flashes of offensive ability and despite some hiccups in his own end, showed he’s growing his defensive game. It may serve Salo best to perfect those skills at the AHL level while the Islanders make a last-ditch effort at a push for the postseason with a complete roster that has returned to complete health for the first time in a long time.
Kevin Kurz recently wrote about something similar regarding Oliver Wahlstrom and even went as far as to note Trotz’s former players Jakub Vrana and Andre Burakovsky who are enjoying NHL success today. A bit of patience with Trotz and his method to mold Salo should make the juice worth the squeeze.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in “The Skinny,” last night was the first time the Isles scored three times in 31 seconds in nearly 40 years! It was their fastest three goals since Denis Potvin (15:15), Bryan Trottier (15:25) and Bob Bourne (15:42) scored in a 27-second span against the Rangers on October 23, 1983, making last night the second-fastest three goals in team history. It was also the 2nd-fastest in the NHL in the last 28 years (Los Angeles scored 3 in 30 seconds on October 12, 2019, vs. Nashville).
The Isles scored five goals in the first period for the first time since March 3, 1996, vs. Winnipeg. It was only the third time this season that an NHL team scored at least five goals in the opening session.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On Feb. 9th, 2018, the Islanders rallied to stun the Detroit Red Wings 7-6 in overtime on owner Jon Ledecky’s birthday. “The Skinny” from that night was jam-packed. The Islanders scored four power-play goals in a span of 3:37 following a match penalty assessed to Detroit's Tyler Bertuzzi.
It was the first time in Islander history that they have scored four power-play goals in a period. Nelson had two goals in the third period and then capped his second career hat trick with the overtime winner. Mathew Barzal assisted on the winning goal as he re-wrote the NHL record, becoming the first rookie in 100 years to record three 5-point games (Joe Malone in 1917-18) and the first rookie in NHL history to record two 5-assist games.
🎧 Talkin’ Isles Episode 19: AJ Mleczko - Olympic Gold Medalist and broadcaster AJ Mleczko joins episode 19 of the podcast. Mleczko talks about getting into hockey as a young girl (2:30), the lead up to the 1998 Nagano Olympics (9:30), winning the first gold medal in women's hockey with Team USA (15:05), breaking into broadcasting (27:35), the booth vs. between the benches (35:05), being a part of an all-women's broadcast crew (41:29), memories from covering the Islanders (49:54) and more.
🔗 TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR THE ISLANDERS, by James Nichols, The Fourth Period: "I’m [ticked] off right now,” said Trotz. “I’ll let the emotion hopefully go away. I’ll re-assess our team. We’re going to need more. We’ve got to put in a better effort.”
🔗 Islanders’ Barry Trotz seeks new formula as second half begins, by Ethan Sears, NY Post: “Everything is under examination for the Islanders at the moment. According to coach Barry Trotz, that includes his own decision-making.”
And we leave you with this …. there’s death, taxes, and Frans Nielsen scoring on the backhand. The former Islander center pulled this very familiar move out of his old bag of tricks to help Denmark secure the 2-1 upset over the Czech Republic at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
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