Signs of Relief
The winless streak ends; points in four straight
Good Morning, Islanders Country
The Islanders won a hockey game.
Players smiled, fans cheered and this guy was all of us.
The bewilderment, the disbelief, the relief - all of it.
11 game winless streak.
4 game point streak.
It was far from a perfect effort, but a win is a win (as far as we can recall) and the Islanders needed it in the worst of ways. Coming up, a pair of gold medalists make history in the broadcast booth, there may be a different type of buzz when the Isles play the Rangers in March and Barry Trotz’s thoughts on the Isles Twitterverse. But first, a recap of an Islanders win for the first time in over a month.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: The Islanders earned their first win in 12 games beating the Ottawa Senators 5-3 at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday. Anders Lee notched two goals for the 28th multi-goal game of his career, and Oliver Wahlstrom and Kieffer Bellows both tallied a goal and an assist; Bellows’ marker being his first of the year. J.G. Pageau scored for the second consecutive game and Ilya Sorokin turned away 30 of 33 shots for his sixth win of the year.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 It was a very uneventful first period, but the Islanders would have found themselves trailing if it wasn’t for this sensational blocker save by Sorokin on Tim Stutzle.
🔶 Lee opened the scoring with a “spin-o-rama” pass to himself. The Isles captain spun around and was able to collect his forehand off the boards and backhand the puck into the net before Filip Gustavsson could get back to the left post.
🔻 Scott Mayfield took a bad high sticking penalty that drew blood on the face of Josh Norris resulting in a double-minor. Norris got cleaned up, went back on the ice, and scored a power-play goal to tie the game at 1-1.
🔷 At the 14:06 mark of the second period, Wahlstrom regained the lead for the Isles, corraling a pass from Bellows and making a sweet move to fake out Gustavsson for his eighth goal of the season. Just 27 seconds later, Lee would score his second of the game, picking up the puck after a weird bounce off the backboards for a two-goal lead.
🔶 After a Nick Holden shot redirected in off Noah Dobson's skate to cut the lead to 4-2, Pageau won a face-off, found a spot at the edge of the crease, and knocked in a rebound during a 4-on-4 to make it 5-2 at 12:26 and put the Isles firmly in control.
3 REACTIONS
❶ TAKE A BREATH CAP: The sigh of relief that Anders Lee showed after giving the Islanders the lead could be felt throughout all of Isles nation. But once he got one, then came another. Those two goals could be huge for Lee, whom the Islanders really need to get going as they continue to climb out of the hole they dug themselves.
“It’s a sense of relief. It’s been a tough stretch. We stuck together. That’s a subconscious move there. We needed a bounce and I got one off the back wall.” - Lee on the team winning and him scoring
❷ PLAY THE KIDS BARRY!: As noted by many, Kieffer Bellows had his best game of the season and was rewarded for it with a two-point effort. Oliver Wahlstrom scored another goal and continues to heat up with three goals in his last three games. And credit to Austin Czarnik. Sure he’s not a kid anymore (Czarnik is 28) but with two assists on the night, he played his best game in an Islander uniform and looked very comfortable alongside 20 and 26.
“Do I want him to be a top-line winger? Absolutely. And I hope he gets there.” - Trotz on Wahlstrom’s game evolving and playing him all over the lineup
❸ CAN DO IN CANADA: The Islanders had another breakout offensive performance north of the border. The five-goal outburst was the second time they’ve scored five or more in their three games against Canadian-based clubs this year.
The Isles are 3-0-0 in games played in Canada, compared to 3-10-5 in the United States. They have not won on American soil since October 24th.
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders look to make it two in a row and get their first win on home ice as they head back to Long Island to take on the Nashville Predators on Thursday night at UBS Arena. Face-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: The Islanders win in Ottawa allowed fans to momentarily take a step back, put on the orange and blue glasses and find reasons for optimism. They’ll forever count in the standings, but if you put aside the four losses when the team’s lineup was depleted due to Covid-19, the Isles have picked up points in 11 of the 17 games they’ve played this season.
This MSG Network graphic had more for the ‘glass half full’ crowd:
🍀 ERIN GO BRAGH: The LIRR should be festive on St. Patrick’s Day this year. The NHL announced that the Islanders vs. New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden, originally scheduled for November 28th, is now scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 17th at 7 p.m. ET.
📺 GIRL HOUR: With Cheryl Pounder making her debut as a TSN game analyst for Senators broadcast and AJ Mleczko working the game for MSG Networks, it is believed to have been the first NHL game in which both lead analysts were women. Oh, and they're both Olympic gold medalists, although only one brought it to the game.
📚 SOUND SMART: Via Eric Hornick’s “The Skinny,” the Isles have been outshot 75-43 in the first period of their last seven games. Kieffer Bellows scored the game-winning goal, three of Bellows' six career goals have been game-winners. The Isles did not have a 2-goal lead at any point in their winless streak.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On December 7th, 1996 the Islanders retired the No. 9 jersey of Clark “Jethro” Gillies and raised it to the rafters. Gillies scored over 30 goals for four straight seasons (starting in 1975-76) as part of the "Trio Grande" line with Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier. In the latter half of the 1976-77 NHL season, Gillies was named team captain before relinquishing the “C” to Denis Potvin before the 1980 season. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.
🎧 Nassaumen Hockey Podcast, with James Nichols and Jon Zella: The show breaks down the Islanders ending their losing streak, the win in Ottawa, and dives into how the team can turn their season around.
🎧 No Sleep Til Belmont: A show about the New York Islanders with Arthur Staple, The Athletic “Arthur is joined by The Athletic’s new Islanders beat writer, Kevin Kurz, to talk about his new role, his thoughts on the Isles, and the fanbase. December’s guest cohost, Scott Gordon, joins the show and discusses managing expectations when guys return to the lineup and maybe try to do too much.”
🔗 Barry Trotz receives valuable information on COVID shutdowns from Ottawa coach D.J. Smith by Andrew Gross, Newsday “D.J. was fantastic," Trotz said before Tuesday night’s game between the teams at Ottawa's Canadian Tire Centre. "I called him during our shutdown. I knew he had gone through it. As coaches, you want to know as much about the situations that the athletes are in. He was really good at reaching out and expressing some of that and I’m seeing some of that."
And we leave you with this …. it seems Barry Trotz does read what fans are saying after all. He alluded to it in the postgame that he and the team were reminded plenty on social media about the long losing streak. Now, this begs the question….what is Trotz’s burner account?
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