Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The season re-started with a satisfying win as the calendar year came to an end. In their first action since December 19th, New York delivered one of their more complete efforts of the season, defeating the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 at UBS Arena.
Mathew Barzal was the best skater on the ice. Playing in his first game since December 11th, “Barzy” looked energized from the start, shooting early and often and was among four Islanders to record a multiple-point game in the win.
Coming up, Barry Trotz compares his team to an 18-wheeler, but is concerned about the wear and tear of a condensed schedule. Plus, Josh Bailey is in elite company, and a fun look back at Barzal’s between the legs goal.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Mathew Barzal tallied three points (a goal, two assists) as the Islanders (9-12-6) beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 on Thursday night at UBS Arena. Kieffer Bellows, Josh Bailey, and Noah Dobson each recorded multi-point games while Anders Lee added a power-play goal. Ex-Islander Kyle Okposo scored a power-play goal, and Malcolm Subban made 28 saves for the Sabres (10-17-5). Seymon Varlamov stopped 36 of 37 shots faced for the Isles who are 3-0-1 in their last four games at home after going 0-5-2 to open their new arena.
🔑 KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 Dobson was able to gain speed up the ice and pass to Bailey who stayed wide enough to create space before sliding the puck to a trailing Barzal who unleashed a shot over the glove of Subban for a 1-0 Isles lead.
🔻 It was a strong first for the Islanders until Matt Martin took a tripping penalty with 1:50 to play in the period. With the man advantage, Okposo was able to convert a Varlamov rebound to tie the game. The goal was Okposo’s 7th of the season and third against the Islanders in 17 games.
🔶 Bellows, not known for his skating or puck-handling, carried the puck into the zone and took advantage of the Sabres’ defensemen backing up to wind up a wrister that beat Subban stick side for a 2-1 lead. It was his second goal in as many games.
🔷 On the Power-Play, Bellows’s pass hit Lee in the skate, but the Islanders captain was able to gain control of the puck and lift a no-look back-hander over Subban to give the Islanders a 3-1 cushion heading into the third period.
🔶 Dobson capped off a big night with this shot from the point that went off the blade of Subban’s stick and through his legs to give the Islanders a 4-1 lead. Dobson is tied for the NHL lead in goals by a defenseman in December (4) with Erik Karlsson, Viktor Hedman, Cale Makar, and Evan Bouchard.
3 REACTIONS
❶ FEEL AGGRESSIVE: "Early on I just wanted to start shooting," said Barzal who had a team-high eight shots on goal. "Things had been going good, but I just been moving it and finding guys, so I wanted to make them respect me a little bit out there. Early on you get some shots and you just feel aggressive and I kept it through the full 60 and just need to do that consistently."
❷ SOME URGENCY: "He's making a case for himself," Trotz said of Bellows. "Every time that you're in there bank some good cred and when you do, we can't take you out of the lineup. He's doing that. He's playing with some urgency, we need people to step up when other people have been out and he's doing that."
❸ PLAYING WITH POISE: “What you're seeing with Noah is he's growing as a player," Trotz said about Dobson’s recent play. "On Barzy's goal, he carried the puck, he drove to the net, he executed the play systematically. We'd call that a four-and-three systematic type of play and he did. That's what you want. He's playing with a lot of poise. He's a real important, young player for us."
⏭ NEXT UP: No partying for most of us anyway this New Year’s Eve, but that’s especially true for the Islanders and their next opponent with an early start time tomorrow. The Isles will host Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers at UBS Arena Saturday afternoon at 2 pm.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: It was all about who was in and out of COVID-19 protocol before the game. The new quarantine rules allowed Cal Clutterbuck and Zach Parise to join Robin Salo and Matt Martin as players activated out of COVID-19 protocol, but Sebastian Aho was added to the list before the game. Clutterbuck and Parise were able to go in and out of the protocol without missing a game.
From the taxi squad, Cole Bardreau, Austin Czarnik, and Michael Dal Colle were added to the roster and defenseman Grant Hutton was recalled from AHL Bridgeport following the Aho news. Kyle Palmieri (lower body), was placed on injured reserve.
🚚 PLAYOFF PUSH: Despite how dire the standings look and how many teams the Islanders need to overtake, Barry Trotz provided reasons for optimism on Thursday, citing his team’s track record and ability to have sustained success. Trotz, however, did acknowledge the toll a condensed schedule could have on the team, having played the fewest games in the league heading into Thursday.
18 WHEELER: "What I like about this group, we’re sort of like an 18-wheeler," Trotz said. "When we start to be moving in the right direction, we’re hard to stop just because we get all four lines playing the way they’re capable of, being consistent in our decision-making and our commitment, and getting good goaltending. All the aspects of the game. And we usually have some sustained success.”
SCHEDULE MAKING: "The one thing that is a little bit of a concern — and it may get straightened out with some of the rescheduling of the games — just because we’ve played less games than other teams, we’ve got to make good on it," Trotz said. "We could end up with a week where we’re playing five games in seven nights. And that takes its toll. Hopefully, the schedule-maker can find enough dates to spread it out.
📚 SOUND SMART: When it comes to assists in franchise history, Josh Bailey is in elite company. His two-assist performance on Thursday moved him up to fourth all-time, passing Hall-of-Famer Clark Gillies. Per The Skinny, Gillies had been fourth on this list since Mike Bossy passed him during the 1982-83 season. No other Islander had been in the top four of assists since Bossy passed Billy Harris on March 2, 1982.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On December 30th, 1980 the Islanders trounced the Colorado Rockies 9-3. Butch Goring had a hat trick as Bob Nystrom, Anders Kallur and Steve Tambellini scored in a nine-minute span of the first period to give Islanders a 4-0 lead.
From the New York Times, “The Colorado Rockies proved again tonight that they are not a low-altitude hockey team. Surrendering goals at a rate of about one every five minutes, the team from mile-high Denver lost, 9-3, to the Islanders at the sea-level Nassau Coliseum, where they have yet to win in 17 attempts.”
🔗 Islanders make bunch of roster moves in advance of Sabres game by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin, Zach Parise and defenseman Robin Salo were activated out of COVID-19 protocol. Forwards Cole Bardreau, Austin Czarnik and Michael Dal Colle were added to the Islanders’ NHL roster from the taxi squad and defenseman Grant Hutton was recalled from AHL Bridgeport. Kyle Palmieri (lower body), who missed just his second game despite being hurt in a 3-1 win over the visiting Bruins on Dec. 16, was placed on injured reserve.”
🔗 Barry Trotz's '18-wheeler' Islanders geared up for playoff push after 10-day layoff by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Still, Trotz was optimistic the Islanders, if healthy, could mount a long-shot playoff push. "What I like about this group, we’re sort of like an 18-wheeler," Trotz said.
🔗 Islanders get four players back from COVID list by Ethan Sears, NY Post “All things considered, the announcement put the Islanders in a better place, roster-wise, than they were coming into the day. It meant they played the Sabres missing only Brock Nelson, Anthony Beauvillier, Oliver Wahlstrom, Ryan Pulock and Aho. And in the NHL right now, playing down just five starters and in front of a capacity crowd is a luxury not everyone has.”
And we leave you with this …. during the second intermission, MSG ran a feature on Mat Barzal’s between-the-legs goal of the year candidate from last season. The segment included social media reactions from across #IslesTwitter.
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