Struck Down
Frustrated Isles struggle in Tampa; lose third straight
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The Islanders took on the Tampa Bay Lightning for the first time since their Game 7 loss in the 2021 Stanley Cup Semifinals, losing 4-1 to the two-time champs. The Isles have now lost three games in a row and have been out-scored 12-1 over their last seven periods of play, leaving onlookers wondering what needs to change to get them back on track.
They remain in last place in the Metropolitan Division, though they’ve played the least among of games in the Metro. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, as Andy Greene played his 1,000th game, J-G Pageau and Ryan Pulock hit personal marks, and Mathew Barzal had a heck of a goal to start the game.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: As promised, there were personnel changes, and there could have been more. The Islanders were without Casey Cizikas (illness), Kieffer Bellows returned to the lineup and Sebastian Aho made his 2021-22 debut playing in place of Noah Dobson. The Isles started off on the right foot with Barzal netting an early breakaway goal to open the scoring. However, it was all downhill from there.
The Islanders continued to not look themselves against a Tampa team that is now 6-0-2 in their last eight games. Unable to slow down the Lightning offense, Tampa piled on in all situations, burying the Islanders in the third period with goals from Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔶 Zdeno Chara and Pat Maroon dropped the gloves seconds into the game, marking their fifth ever fight. Chara played with a chip in his shoulder all night, landing himself in the penalty box for 17 minutes by the night’s end.
🔷 Mathew Barzal opened the scoring 2:53 into the first roofing this breakaway goal on a backhand after a great heads-up play from Zach Parise to spring him free. It was the first goal for the Isles in 90 minutes and 49 seconds.
🔻 Just 23 seconds later, Aho coughed up a puck in his own zone, giving Mathieu Joseph and the Lightning a free pass to tie the game.
🔻 Still a one-goal game in the third period, Point extended the Lightning lead to 3-1 at the 13:28 mark, gathering a loose puck in front of the net and scoring from the low slot after Aho tried to kick it free.
3 TAKEAWAYS
❶ NOT-SO SPECIAL TEAMS: The Islanders’ special teams continue to struggle, unable to get quality chances on the advantage, and soft plays when down a man (or when just getting back to even strength). Seconds after killing a penalty, Scott Mayfield and Josh Bailey couldn’t corral a loose puck and Anthony Cirelli snapped it past Semyon Varlamov for a 2-1 lead.
❷ YO-HO, AHO: The debuting defenseman didn’t look particularly good in his return to the lineup, making a few mistakes and looking rusty throughout. However, he did log the most ice time of any Islander, with 23:20 by the games’ end.
❸ WAHLLOWING ON THE BENCH: Oliver Wahlstrom played the least of any Islander in this game, logging just 8:31 of ice time on Monday night and if Cizikas had played, he likely wouldn’t have been in the lineup according to Barry Trotz.
NOT PRETTY: “He's forgotten some of his details in the last little while. It hasn't been real pretty. They're just obvious things that should not happen.”
MINUTES DOWN: “He was a guy that might not have been in if Casey wasn’t out, but Casey was out so he got an opportunity to get in there. He was much better today, but his minutes were down.”
⏭ NEXT UP: Islanders wrap up a back-to-back set and play the final game of their 13-game road trip against the Florida Panthers. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast exclusively on ESPN+.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS
👏 AND(Y) MANY MORE: You may have heard, Andy Greene played in his 1,000th career NHL game last night. There was an outpouring of appreciation for Greene in recent days and the team put out this video during the first intermission with a mix of current and former teammates congratulating him on the milestone.
🙌 MILESTONE MEN: On a night where Greene played in his 1,000th career game, there were two other notable achievements. Pageau played in his 500th career game, Pulock played in his 263rd consecutive game, breaking Denis Potvin's club record for defensemen.
🎣 BIG CATCH: There have been several obvious reasons why free agents rarely wanted to come and play on Long Island throughout the years. The Islanders had no money, the team stunk and they played in a dilapidated building. Mercifully, none of those are barriers still exist and Islanders owner Jon Ledecky expects UBS Arena to be a recruiting chip to lure future free agents.
HECK OF A BUILDING: “The great thing about Lou Lamoriello, here’s a guy that could have built a visitors locker room that stunk,” Ledecky said during an exclusive interview on Hockey Night in New York. “Instead he built a very good visitors locker room because those guys are going to come in and say ‘wow this is a heck of a building. I want hope one day I can be a New York Islander.’”
ENVY OF THE LEAGUE: “To go from that to the envy of the league, to the envy of the players, New York Islanders players are puffing their chest out saying ‘we’ve got the best building in the National Hockey League.’ Pretty cool.”
WHAT WORKS: “(We asked) what would be good for you and how would you like to get to the building and what do you want inside. … It’s great to learn from the other buildings what works and what doesn’t work.”
🎤 CHICAGO OPENS NY ARENA: The first event at the Islanders’ new home will be on Friday, November 19th as the UBS Arena Foundation launches and hosts their first event including performances from the iconic rock band, Chicago, as well as the Northwell Health Nurse Choir. For more information, including how you can purchase tickets, you can visit the UBS Arena website.
📚 SOUND SMART: Greene is the ninth player to reach 1,000 career games while playing for the Islanders, the other eight are a mix of Hall of Famers, Isles legends, and hockey journeymen.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On this date, Anthony Beauvillier scored his first career hat-trick, in a 7-5 win over the Rangers in Brooklyn. The victory was the eighth consecutive win against the Blueshirts as the Isles moved to 7-0-0 all-time against them at Barclays Center. “Coming into that game, I was just trying to have fun and compete and just stay to my identity," said Beauvillier. "Obviously, it's fun. A little relief there. I'm happy we got the win.”
🎧 PROGRAMMING NOTE: Tune in to the Nassaumen Hockey Podcast’s postgame report following tonight’s game with the Florida Panthers. James and Jon will recap the Isles’ back-to-back games before a full-length episode airing Thursday morning.
🔗 Islanders finally almost ready to open UBS Arena, by Peter Schwartz, WFAN.com “Call it a yellow brick road or a long and winding road or whatever, but the wait for a new arena and a permanent home on Long Island is finally over for the Islanders and their fans: UBS Arena is set to open on Saturday for the home opener against the Calgary Flames”
🔗 After Islanders End 13-Game Road Trip, a New Home Arena Awaits, by David Waldstein, The New York Times: “The unusual scheduling was necessary because the Islanders are moving into a new arena in Elmont, N.Y., and extra time was needed to finish it. Months ago, when it became clear that construction would continue past October, the N.H.L.’s traditional opening month, the Islanders asked the league to make accommodations. So the equipment bags were loaded and the Islanders were sent on a tour of North America, where they would play almost exclusively in arenas they had not seen in over a year, in front of mostly hostile fans.”
🔗 Islanders Barry Trotz reveals what he meant by “personnel changes”, by Michel Anderson, Eyes on Isles: “Leading up to the New York Islanders game in Tampa, coach Barry Trotz indicated that he was thinking about making “personnel changes” to the lineup. What that meant was anyone guess really. Now on Monday we seemingly know what he meant. Now, I say “seemingly” because we won’t actually know until puck drop in a few hours, but At the team’s pre-game practice, Dobson was skating with the extras. So it seems that Noah Dobson is out and that Sebastian Aho is in.”
And we leave you with this …. Actor Peter Scanavino may be from Staten Island but has some Long Island fandom in him. Scanavino who stars as Detective/ADA Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr. in the long-running NBC crime/legal drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, was fashioning blue suspenders with an orange tie on Monday.
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