EDI WEEKLY RECAP | FEB. 2021

The Islanders started their week off right by grabbing a 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres to extend their point streak to 7 games (4-0-3) in those 7 games. The Islanders did not have their best first period as Buffalo had a slight edge but,they came out with a 2 goal lead on goals from the captain Anders Lee, his 5th of the year from Bailey and Barzal extending his personal point streak to 9 games. Then just 1:46 later Jean-Gabriel Pageau would charge up the right side and take the space given to him by Rasmus Dahlin and snipe one over the left shoulder of Linus Ullmark giving the Islanders a 2-0 lead in which they would hold for the remainder of the first period. Just 28 seconds into the second period Adam Pelech would head off for tripping and the lethal Buffalo powerplay would get to work, VIctor Olofsson would get the Sabres on the board with a rocket of a one timer past Semyon Varlamov 1/11 into the powerplay making the score 2-1. Towards the middle of the second period Brandon Davidson would head off for holding sending the revamped Islanders power play to work, while the Islanders first unit was largely ineffective leading to 2 clears for Buffalo, the Islanders second unit would enter the zone and set up Brock Nelson for his 3rd of the year with al 3 of his goals coming on the powerplay thus far, the assist on the Nelson PPG came from Oliver Wahlstrom with the secondary assist and the primary assist on a gorgeous cross ice fed giving the Islanders a 2 goal lead after 2 periods of hockey. The third period would be all Islanders as the Islanders put on a defensive clinic against the Sabres, not only did they control the pace of play they also did not allow a shot on goal in the period leading them to a well played 3rd period in which the Islanders played the “Islander Way” leading them to a 3-1 victory in game one of this back to back set with the Buffalo Sabres.

All I have to say about this game is “Ilya Sorokin take a bow”. Ilya Sorokin stopped all 20 shots he faced tonight which may look an easy shutout from a surface level but he made a number of impressive saves especially on cross crease opportunities. The Islanders again led 2-0 in the first after Anders Lee would open scoring by deflecting home his 6th of the season off a beautiful feed cross ice from Noah Dobson. Just around seven and a half minutes after J.G. Pageau would charge down the left side and snipe one over the shoulder of Carter Hutton to give the Islanders a 2 goal lead which would stay largely the same due to the sensational play of Ilya Sorokin who made some incredible saves including a save on a breakaway against Taylor Hal in which he made it look borderline routine. Just past the midway point of the 3rd period Adam Pelech would take his second penalty of the game and head off this time for slashing, the lethal Buffalo powerplay would go to work and score what looked to be the proximate goal to tyng this game up. Barry Trotz would go on to challenge the play which was clearly offside as Taylor Hall had made an ill advised drop pass to Victor Olofsson just before he was across the blueline making the play offsides and taking what seemed to be the Sabres first goal off the board. From that point on the Islander took all of the air out of the game and at 19:59 of the third period the Captain Anders Lee would strike for his second of the game into an empty net giving the Islanders a 3-0 lead which would become a 3-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in the first career win and shutout for Ilya Sorokin in a well played hockey game for the New York Islanders.

This game was a game the Islanders will certainly see as a game they want back, the Islanders played well enough to win but to put it simply the Pittsburgh Penguins played better, Pittsburgh scored early into the game as Sidney Crosby would tip in his 6th goal of the season giving the Penguins a 1 goal lead, then we would play over 40 minutes of hockey without a goal for either side in what was a tight checking game where every inch mattress. The penguins would crack through for 2 more goals in the third period coming from the stick of Jason Zucker and Brian Rust (EN) their 4th and 6th of the year respectively. The lone bright spot of the game was a goal by Brock Nelson his 4th of the year on the powerplay which was assisted by Bailey and Leddy. It was a rough night for New York as they took a 4-1 loss in a game had they shown up and played to their top ability they could have easily won.

The theme of the night was hope, the Islanders again played well enough to win or at least grab the “loser point” on Saturday night but again they fell short in what was another gut wrenching defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins, before the game the Penguins put on a ceremony to celebrate the 1,000 game of the illustrious career of their Captain Sidney Crosby. The Islanders got off to a hot start but as the game went on Pittsburgh settled in more and more into the game, Pittsburgh would Notch the opening goal of the game when defenseman Kris Letang would score his first of the season assisted by Malkin and Crosby. Just around three minutes later the Isles would strike back and get their first goal of the game from Jordan Eberle, his seventh of the Year assisted by Anthony Beauvillier who notched his first point back since returning from injury. The Islanders got off to a hot start in the third asBrock Nelson notched his fifth of the season giving the Islanders a 2-1 lead, it would all go south from that point on, as Mike Matheson would Notch his first goal of the season tying the game at 2 with just under 13 minutes to play in the third. Finally with just about six and a half minutes remaining, Kris Letang would score his second of the game which would become the eventual game-winning goal as the Islanders dropped another game to the Pittsburgh Penguins in disappointing fashion.

The week ahead starts with the Islanders with a big game against the Buffalo Sabres, as they look to build upon their two wins in which they gave up one goal in the two games combined, there's no doubt that last week was a disappointing week for the New York Islanders and their schedule this week consist of a Monday night 7 game against the Buffalo Sabres, a 7 p.m. game against the Boston Bruins on Thursday, a 7 game against Pittsburgh on Saturday, and a 5 p.m. matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, all games will be played at the Nassau Coliseum as the Islanders look to regain their winning ways this week and begin a new point-streak with a nice win tonight against the Buffalo Sabres. Michael Dal Colle was placed on injured reserve for New York, he most likely not be available for this week, you can expect to see Austin Czarnik, Leo Komarov, Dymytro Timashov, or Kieffer Bellows. This week's player to watch is Brock Nelson, Nelson scored twice this last week with one in each game in PIttsburgh.