Ready to start Holiday Shopping? You can get 10% off Vintage Ice Hockey apparel by using promo code “Isles Fix” at check-out. Later today, we’ll announce the paid subscriber who won the November giveaway and can choose a $75 gift card or an in-stock jersey.
Free shipping off all US orders; shop VintageIceHockey.com
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
(an earlier version went out in error; minor updates have been made)
The Isles have blown leads in games they should’ve won.
This wasn’t one of them.
You wouldn’t expect a game where you blow two third-period leads and get outshot 43-16 to be a turning point, but maybe, just maybe, the fact that the Islanders somehow came out on the long side of a 5-4 OT win allows them to start playing less tight and more confident when holding the lead late in games.
It can’t hurt.
“We needed to rebound, we needed to bounce back. I was happy for our players to get rewarded because there was a lot of commitment. We blocked a lot of shots, we did what we needed to do in order to win a hockey game in this building.” - Lane Lambert
Despite everything that has happened during this stretch, the Islanders have points in seven of their last eight games (4-1-3) and have lost just once in regulation during that span (allowing a goal with 23 seconds left vs. NJ).
They’re also 8-1-3 when leading after two periods. It feels like it should be much worse than that, right?
🎧 Isles Fix Podcast
Make sure you are subscribed to the Isles Fix Podcast Network featuring The Red Line hosted by David Tuchman and Phil Farber on your favorite platform.
Before the start of the third, Isles fans were wondering what their soul-crushing team would have in store for them. This defied their wildest imaginations.
Two nights after being seconds away from securing a point, the Islanders were 2.5 seconds away from earning two when Carolina stunningly tied the game.
Mathew Barzal was asked if he was feeling more joy or relief.
It was an easy answer.
If they had lost a game like that after losing the previous one, things could have started to unravel more than they have already this season.
Instead, the Isles head to Florida with the wind at their back and a chance to build some momentum and perhaps use a game where they found a way to win to find a way to keep leads in the third period.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Mathew Barzal scored 2:46 into overtime as the New York Islanders overcame blowing two third-period leads and defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 at PNC Arena on Thursday night. Barzal and Noah Dobson each had three assists for the Isles (9-7-6), who received goals from Bo Horvat, Pierre Engvall, Simon Holmstrom (SHG) and Kyle Palmieri (PP). Semyon Varlamov was solid, making 39 saves in the win as the Isles improved to 4-1-3 over their last eight games. Sebastian Aho tied the game at 4-4 for the Canes with 2.5 seconds remaining. Jordan Staal had a goal and an assist, and Pyotr Kochetkov made 12 saves for the Hurricanes (13-8-1), who had won two in a row.
KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 Kyle Palmieri put the Isles up 4-3 on the power play at 6:41 when he tipped Dobson’s point shot before tapping in his rebound. The play was reviewed, but the call stood, and the Isles returned to the power-play.
🔻 In the waning seconds, Sebastian Aho found a blocked shot in the crease and was able to stuff the puck underneath Varlamov and into the net to tie the game.
🔶 Barzal came down the left side and fed the puck to a trailing Dobson, who sent it right back to Barzal for a one-timer below the face-off dot to win the game.
With his fourth career OT winner, Barzal became just the third player in team history to record at least four points, including an overtime goal in a game, joining Ray Ferraro (who did the broadcast) and Hall of Famer Pierre Turgeon.
3 REACTIONS
❶ MONKEY OFF THEIR BACK: “Obviously feels nice, not even so much for me, just for our group. Kind of got the monkey off our back,” said Mathew Barzal. “It's been a few games now where we've had the lead and weren't able to finish it off. So nice to get the monkey off the back for sure as a group.”
❷ BETTER AND BETTER “He clearly showed some breakaway speed and finished it,” Lane Lambert said about Simon Holmstrom. “He scored some big goals for us. He’s extremely smart when it comes to reading plays on the penalty kill, and I think he’s just getting better and better in that role.
❸ A GREAT FEELING: “You’re leading 4-3 and you give up a goal like that and you don’t want to lose the game,” Semyon Varlamov said. “You lose the game and everybody’s miserable, right? We wanted to make sure we got a ‘W.’ It’s a great feeling.”
GAME IMPACT SCORE
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders wrap up their three-game road trip when they battle the Florida Panthers on Saturday night in Sunrise. Face-off is 6:00 PM EST.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: Islanders captain Anders Lee became the 12th player in team history to skate in 700 career games. Matt Martin missed his fourth straight game as Julian Gauthier stayed on the fourth line for the third game in a row. Defenseman Samuel Bolduc drew back in the lineup as Grant Hutton was a healthy scratch. In his second game as an Islander, Mike Reilly played 13:05 TOI.
◾️ In The Athletic, Dom Luszczyszyn released the new updated player cards for every team in the NHL. Not surprisingly, Noah Dobson has the highest player rating on the team and has a whopping amount of $6.8M surplus value when you consider his market value vs. on-ice value.
That value is according to Net Rating, our all-in-one player value stat that’s based on each player’s Offensive and Defensive Rating. The card showcases all the stats that determine how strong each player’s ratings are on and off the puck, a weighted combination of their production (goals, assists, expected goals, blocks, penalty differential) and their play-driving (on-ice expected and actual goal stats). It also shows each player’s market value based on their on-ice value.
◾️ Friend of the newsletter and longtime New York sports radio personality Peter Schwartz has launched a new Islanders podcast, brilliantly entitled "Double Chili,” a weekly show with great guests beginning next week. Good luck!
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Simon Holmstrom is now tied for the NHL lead in shorthanded goals (3), including two against Carolina, and he has matched his rookie year total of 6; he is the only player in the NHL with at least six goals but no assists.
Holmstrom is the fourth Islander to have three career shorthanded goals before his 23rd birthday (Bryan Trottier/Josh Bailey-4, Denis Potvin 3) and joins Bailey as the only ones to do that in a single season.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On December 1, 2018, the Islanders made a raucous return to a refurbished Nassau Coliseum for their first regular season game there in 1,316 days and defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2. Anders Lee and Anthony Beauvillier scored in the second period to tie the score, and Casey Cizikas scored the go-ahead goal, playing 4-on-4 in the third.
🔗 UBS Arena to host PWHL games in 2024: Islanders’ home participating in new women’s league by Joe Pantorno, AMNY “The New York Islanders are going to have some co-tenants at UBS Arena as the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) will hold four of its home games for the New York City side at the NHL arena, the venue announced on Thursday.”
🔗 NY Islanders captain Anders Lee embraces the tough moments ahead of 700th game, Eyes on Isles “When Lee takes the ice tonight in Carolina, the 15th captain in Islanders history will become the 12th Islander player in franchise history to skate in 700 games with the team. Next on the list is another fellow captain, Patrick Flatley, who played in 712 games across 13 seasons on Long Island and was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 2011.”
And we leave you with this …. four Isles meetup groups in one section!
(@IslesMeetup_CLT, @IslesMeetup_RVA, @Islesmeetup_RDU and @IslesMeetup_PTI
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter for regular updates until the next newsletter.
And please check out our newsletters about the Knicks and Mets, too.