Wake-up Call
Line shuffle after sluggish first ignites Isles to 6-2 win vs. VAN; Wotherspoon's homecoming, Barzal keeps on scoring
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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
If the first period frustrated you enough to call it a night, you woke up delighted and surprised to find out what you missed. The Islanders came out the way they did Sunday against the Seattle Kraken, which is to say they were flat and flat-out bad, not registering their first shot until 5:08 of the first period and finding themselves down 1-0 on the road to a struggling team after one.
But then Lane Lambert, as you may have turned in, shook up three of the four lines as a wake-up call for his group, and it worked. "More grabbing attention," Lambert said. "I felt like we could play better, and so did they."
The 20-year-old fourth-line center tied the game, the old fourth-line center, now on the top line, sniped a goal, the new-look power-play converted, one hometown kid scored his first NHL point, and the other can’t stop scoring goals.
"Maybe I am looking to shoot a little more. "It doesn't feel like that mentally, but maybe I am pulling the trigger a little quicker than the past.” - Mathew Barzal
Barzal now has a team-leading 10 goals over the last 21 games and is on a career-best four-game goal streak. Plus, he really enjoys playing in front of his family and friends, becoming the first player born in British Columbia to record points in his first eight games against the Canucks (2-10-12).
Coming up, a first look at the new PP units in action and a homecoming worth the wait for Parker Wotherspoon. Plus, an intriguing target goes on the waiver wire, an inside look at Offside Tavern’s new inside look, and JG Pageau does something that has only been done four times before in team history.
Let’s dive in.
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