The New York Islanders hosted the New York Rangers for the first time at their new arena. The Rangers win against cross-town rival Islanders, with a 4-1 victory in a fairly even matched game. Here are the highlights of what took place.
The Islanders started out the game strong and physical. They out hit the Rangers 31-23, showing they were not backing down from a hot Rangers team. After the first period, the Rangers started playing harder and better, causing the Isles to start slipping and missing opportunities.
Image Courtesy of bluelinestation.com
The Rangers went 1-4 on the power play, #20 Chris Kreider being the lone power-play scorer. Kreider leads the team in goals (14) having scored another goal just over 11 minutes into the third period. He also leads the team with nine power-play goals.
Chris Kreider and mo. 17 Kevin Rooney scored two goals each. This was the first time Rooney scored two or more goals in a game.
Andy Andreoff. He scored his first goal of the season, having not scored a goal since the 2017-2018 season when he played for the Los Angeles Kings. No wonder why he kept the puck.
The fans. Both the Islander and Ranger fans were great. The Islander fans let the Isles here it when their play was slacking. The boos could be heard loud and clear. Of course nobody can forget about the the “Potvin sucks” chant. Classic! This is how New York fans roll. If the team does great, they cheer. Loud. If the team does bad, fans boo. Loud. Welcome to New York.
The Isles power play was horrible. There is no other way to say it. They went 0 for 6 and had so many chances to either keep themselves in the game or possibly win.
The Isles seemed to lose sense of who they were as a team when they started giving up the puck in the neutral zone and giving the Rangers more scoring chances. This happened a few times. A couple of times it led to goals.
The Isles playing turned sloppy, but so did some of the calls (or lack of) from the referees. There seemed to be a few calls by the refs that were either bad calls, one in particular in the third period. with 1:51 left in the game, Alexis Lafreniere and Jean-Gabriel Pageau both got five minute majors for fighting. Lafreniere should have received another two minute penalty for tripping, but there was no call. He could have also received an instigator penalty because after he tripped Pageau, he went right after him, causing the fight and the major penalties.
With this loss, the Isles have lost seven in a row. This is not what Isles fans want to see. The Islanders have been good recently, so seeing this winless streak is rough. As for the Rangers, their off to a great start with a 12-4-3 record, only being two points back from the Carolina Hurricanes and the Washington Capitals. Will the Isles bounce back and play the hockey they know how to play? Will the Rangers keep up this hot streak to work their way to the playoffs and a possible Stanley Cup that Rangers fans so desperately want? Everyone will be watching.
Featured Image Courtesy of www.icethetics.co
Game Stats Courtesy of www.nhl.com
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