The New York Islanders opened up their 2023-24 season when they hosted the Buffalo Sabres at UBS Arena. There was no shortage of drama in this game, with a 2-2 tie being taken late into the third period. Some late-game heroics from Casey Cizikas got the Islanders their first win of the season with a 3-2 final score. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the Islanders opening-game performance.
The second line combination of Pierre Engvall, Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri had tremendous success in the latter half of last season. It was this line that made the biggest difference in the early going of the first game. Nelson scored the first Islanders goal of the season, firing a laser from the circle. Palmieri was credited for a goal later in the first when a Nelson shot deflected off of his skate. Seeing this line maintain their high level of offensive play was a highly positive development in this game. It was especially great to see Nelson quickly put aside any doubt about him slowing down this season. After an explosive night-one performance, he seems to be ready to put up his third straight 30-goal season.
While the first line didn’t find the scoresheet in the first game, they did have a quality performance together. Bo Horvat led the team in ice time, won 58% of his faceoffs and registered eight shots on goal. Mat Barzal also looked great in his first appearance on the left wing, getting off three shots in the game. Simon Holmstrom had a very quiet performance but didn’t look bad in his debut playing on the first line unit. Overall, this was the kind of game everyone wanted to see out of the first line. If they continue to play like they did against the Sabres, they’ll find the scoresheet more often than not.
One of the biggest question marks heading into the new year was, without a doubt, the power play unit. After game one, that has not changed very much. In talking about the positives, there were some cleaner zone entries as well as some quality puck movement. However, a lot of the same struggles from last season are still present. They ultimately registered just three shots across three chances and went scoreless in a very close game. It’s too early to overreact to one game, but this game did not do much to inspire confidence after last year’s disastrous power play output.
A significant factor in the Islanders first win of the year was the team-wide discipline. For the first two and a half periods, the team did not take a penalty. Even when they did get into a little bit of penalty trouble later in the third, it only resulted in barely over a minute of power play time for the Sabres. Keeping a highly capable power play unit off the ice was a huge help to Sorokin and the defensive unit. Trying to maintain this kind of discipline going forward will be a big contributor to their defensive-oriented game.
Featured image courtesy of X/@NYIslanders
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