🚨 ISLES FIX GIVEAWAY AND SPECIAL OFFER 🚨
In partnership with FE, an officially Licensed Product of the NHL that produces premium quality hockey fan gear made from 100% recycled performance fabric, Isles Fix will give away one New York Islanders coach’s jacket to a PAID subscriber.
All Isles fans and readers can get 25% off using promo code “ISLESFIX25” at checkout!
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
This well-known paradoxical truth is appropriate for describing the state of the New York Islanders but not as apropos as how Kyle Palmieri summed up the emotions after another blown third-period and terrible loss. “I mean, feels just as shitty as the last time, and somehow, I guess, shittier at the same time.”
Well said, Palms
The Detroit Red Wings were 0-8-0 when they were down after two periods this season, but that lack of comeback prowess was no match for the Islanders’ futility in protecting leads. This perplexing and frustrating team carried a lead into the third period for the second consecutive game and didn’t earn a point.
Alexander Romanov’s broken stick was bad luck, but allowing the game-winning goal in the final minute was just bad, but nothing we haven’t seen before, even if the exact circumstances are different. The team has now allowed 29 third-period goals, the most in the NHL.
Roy was asked in the post-game if he sees the same things leading to the blown leads, and his answer was effectively no, that it’s a mix of a lot of things, including not being able to score a goal with a lead to change the complexion of the game. “It has been different every night,” said Patrick Roy. “Last time in Calgary, it was penalty killing; they scored on their power play. Tonight was a broken stick.”
At this point, the third-period collapses are self-fulfilling prophecies. The players are human. The simplest explanation for what’s happening is that the team lacks confidence and likely subconsciously lets negative thoughts seep into their minds, just as we do when watching the games.
When you expect things to go wrong, you perform in a way that increases the likelihood of things going wrong. It often feels or looks like bad luck, but it’s the culmination of many little things over time.
The only way to overcome this malaise is to gradually build confidence game-by-game until they believe they can hold leads and close out games. Until then, look for more of the same, even if it appears different.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Lucas Raymond scored with 51 seconds remaining, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the New York Islanders 2-1 on Thursday night. Jonatan Berggren also scored to help Detroit snap a three-game losing streak. Alex Lyon finished with 22 saves. Simon Holmstrom scored for the Islanders, who have lost five of their last six games. Ilya Sorokin stopped 29 shots.
KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 Holmstrom got the Islanders on the scoreboard at 5:51 of the first period with a deflection of Scott Mayfield’s wrist shot from inside the blue line.
🔻 With under a minute to play, Raymond took a pass from Dylan Larkin and scored from the left circle, lifting the puck past Sorokin's glove for the GWG.
3 REACTIONS
❶ ABOUT EXECUTING: “We know we have to be better,” Kyle Palmieri said. “It's about executing. [It was a] bad break on the broken stick, but even still, we had chances to put the game away. I had chances on my stick to give us some cushion, and didn't get the job done.”
❷ NOT GOOD ENOUGH: “It's just not good enough,” Noah Dobson said. “Up 1-0… we have to find a way to close it out. We definitely can't afford to not even get a point out of it, so we have learn from it and get back.”
❸ TWO GREAT FINISHES: “I give both our goal-scorers a lot of credit for those finishes because Sorokin looked like the top goalie in the League," Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “I thought it would take an ugly goal or a good bounce, but we had two great finishes.”
GAME IMPACT SCORE
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders return home to UBS Arena on Saturday night for a match-up against the St. Louis Blues. Face-off is set for 7:30 PM EST.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: The Islanders didn’t make any lineup changes for last night’s game in Detroit outside of Ilya Sorokin being between the pipes. Defenseman Alex Romanov played his 300th NHL game
In the New York Post, beat writer Ethan Sears searched for answers as to why the Islanders power-play remains futile, ranking 31st in the league and scoring at an abysmal 12.28 percent clip ahead of last night’s game.
Not surprisingly, the answers were a little bit of everything.
◾️ FLAT-FOOTED: “Obviously, when things aren’t going well, you want to get pucks at the net, said Kyle Palmieri. “But I think if we can do better at timing, guys getting to the net at the same time, I think some of those second chances are there. We’re just maybe a little too spread out or flat-footed when those opportunities come.”
◾️PUCK RECOVERY: “Have a little bit better job. If we take a shot, we need to be better on our puck recovery, and from our puck recovery, we need to recreate something out of this,” said Patrick Roy. “Not give them a chance to be set and create some offense off that.”
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Thursday’s loss in Detroit was the third time in less than a calendar year that the Isles had allowed a go-ahead goal in the last minute of regulation (and the first time under Patrick Roy):
Curtis Lazar 11/28/2023 at NJ 19:37
Alexandre Carrier 1/13/2024 at NSH 19:52
Lucas Raymond 11/21/2024 at DET 19:08
Ilya Sorokin was in goal for all three of these games.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On November 22, 1995, the Islanders snapped a five-game home winless streak with a 5-2 win over Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings at the Nassau Coliseum. Darius Kasparaitis broke a 1-1 tie 26 seconds into the third period when he hip-checked “The Great One” along the boards, forcing a turnover. Kings’ goaltender Kelly Hrudey stopped Travis Green’s shot, but Kasparaitis converted the rebound for the lead.
The goal followed a hilarious interview during the intermission between Kasparaitis and Stan Fischler, with the Islanders’ defenseman explaining why it’s so hard to hit Gretzky.
🔗 Islanders still looking to spark struggling power play by Ethan Sears, New York Post “The Islanders essentially have set up their power-play units as a mirror of their top two lines, with Anders Lee, Bo Horvat and Jean-Gabriel Pageau together on one and Max Tsyplakov, Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri together on the other. Both lines have played well at five-on-five.”
🔗 Islanders let another one get away, fall to Red Wings on two third-period goals by Andrew Gross, Newsday “They couldn’t for a third straight time in the third period, so that became the overriding theme of this disappointing 1-2-2 trip that concluded with a brutal 2-1 loss to the Red Wings on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena. Somehow, this one felt just the same as their previous two games, yet worse.”
And we leave you with this ….Saturday is Hockey Fights Cancer night at UBS Arena, and last month, the Islanders and Northwell Health treated 10 breast cancer survivors to a Day of Beauty and luxury at the Garden City Hotel.
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.