Islanders Weekly Recap

The Islanders maintained their hot streak throughout the first two games of a three game road trip this week. A 3-1 victory over the Blackhawks and a 5-2 win against the Blues saw the Islanders extend their win streak to five games. Unfortunately, the streak came to an end in a 3-0 loss to the Red Wings where nothing went right. The loss ended the week on a sour note, but this was still a highly encouraging string of games for the now 7-5 Islanders.

Versatility in Wins

What’s most interesting from the two wins of this week is the vastly different styles of games. Against the Blackhawks they won in typical Islanders fashion with a low scoring, defensively dominant game. They held the Blackhawks to only 22 shots on net and shut them out in 5v5 action. The only fault in their defense came from a late power play goal scored by Jonathan Toews. But the Islanders held it together and kept Chicago off the board with the net empty, with Zach Parise making a high effort play to get the puck out of the zone and into the empty net for the game sealing goal. 

Then against the Blues, the Islanders succeeded through a more offensive game. A 4-0 scoring run courtesy of Palmieri, Nelson, Bailey and Lee in the second period fueled their victory. Their defensive game was a little more faulty in this one, but the combined effectiveness of that second period scoring run and Ilya Sorokin carried them to the victory. It’s a true mark of a good team to be multi-dimensional and find a variety of different ways to come across wins. 

Sorokin Strikes Again

Much like last week, Ilya Sorokin proved to be a big difference maker for the Islanders in this slate. He didn’t face many challenges against the Blackhawks and saved 21 out of 22 shots on net. Against the Blues, he came up clutch several times to prevent the game from getting out of hand. With the Islanders down 1-0 early, Jordan Kyrou set up Jake Neighbours for what should’ve been an easy tip in. Instead, Sorokin stretched out his right leg to keep the puck out and prevent a multi-goal deficit. That was just one of 32 saves Sorokin made to keep the Blues to only two goals on several good chances throughout the game. Sorokin has a 2.12 GAA and .933 save percentage across nine appearances in the 2022-23 season. 

Saturday Stinker

The Islanders Saturday afternoon game against the Red Wings was nothing short of a disaster. It was a story of what can go wrong will go wrong. The Islanders were penalized five times throughout the contest and allowed the first goal of the game during a 5 on 3 chance. They did have three power play chances of their own, but produced nothing and allowed a shorthanded breakaway goal. 

Semyon Varlamov had to temporarily leave a strong start due to an injury that came about from a Parise check to Lucas Raymond. The first chance Sorokin had to face in relief came within the first minute of his entry into the game via the aforementioned short handed breakaway. And on top of it all, the Islanders suffered their first shutout of the season courtesy of Ville Husso. This game was ugly, but the team’s strong stretch of play over the last week and a half makes this loss a lot easier to forgive and forget. They’ll look to get back on track when they host the Calgary Flames at UBS Arena tonight. 

3 Stars of the Week 

1. Brock Nelson: 2 goals, 2 assists (Game winning goal vs. Blackhawks, go ahead goal vs. Blues)

2. Ilya Sorokin: 54 saves on 58 shots, 2 wins

3. Anders Lee: 2 goals, 1 assist (PPG vs. Blackhawks, power play assist vs. Blues)

Credits

Featured image courtesy of Twitter/NYIslanders

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