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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
There are bad games, there are stinkers, and then there’s whatever some of us watched for the first 40 minutes last night. If you couldn’t find or stream the game on ESPN+, I envy you.
The Islanders showed life when the game was over, only after the thin crowd had dispersed and most of you flipped over to something less aggravating.
Remarkably, there had been only one game all season where the Islanders hadn’t been within a goal at some point during the third period. It was the first time in fourteen games that the Isles trailed for the entire third period. In other words, they were due for a clunker, and they sure delivered one.
It’s the type of listless loss in front of a sparse, booing crowd that, under some circumstances, would put everyone on the hot seat - the GM, the coach, players.
That’s unlikely to be the case here, not with so much season left to play and the built-in excuse of not having three key players just now starting to get back on the ice. It’s only early December, but that felt like a meaningless game when it wasn’t. However, that future may not be far off unless the Islanders, now losers of 8 of 10 games (2-5-3), don’t find a way to turn things around quickly.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Vince Dunn had a goal and two assists, Joey Daccord stopped 27 shots, and the Seattle Kraken beat the New York Islanders 5-2 on Thursday night. Tye Kartye, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Shane Wright and Jaden Schwartz also scored for the Kraken, who have won two straight Noah Dobson and Maxim Tysplakov scored in the third period for New York. Ilya Sorokin made nine saves on 13 shots through two periods as the Islanders lost for the eighth time in 10 games (2-5-3). Marcus Hogberg made his season debut when he replaced Sorokin to begin the third period and made 10 saves in relief [ESPN].
KEY MOMENT(s):
🔻 Dunn extended Seattle’s lead to 3-0 at 3:55 of the second period with a slap shot from the high slot. A Shane Wright snapshot made it 4-0 soon after.
🔻 The Isles scored twice to cut the lead to 4-2 and were pressing with the net empty for a third, but Dobson could not keep the puck in the zone, and Jared Schwartz narrowly beat him down the ice for the empty net goal.
3 REACTIONS
❶ NOT GOOD ENOUGH: “It wasn't good enough,” Ryan Pulock said. “It felt like we just weren't quite connected tonight. We were slow, reacting at times, and we dug ourselves a hole. I think if there's a positive take from it, we didn't quit and we kept fighting in the third but now we got to regroup here and bring a lot better Saturday.”
❷ CONCERNING: “Any time go down four-nothing at home, it's concerning,” said Kyle Palmieri, sporting a bloody and swollen lip. “We just have to find a way to regroup and get ready for the weekend.”
❸ NO MORAL VICTORIES: “There are no moral victories in this game, so we have to come back against Carolina on Saturday and be ready for that game, said Patrick Roy. “We can't be happy about our game, and no one in this dressing room is happy about the game. But, I mean, we have to be ready now, what can we do better in the next game to win that game? And that's all that matters.”
GAME IMPACT SCORE
⏭ NEXT UP: After a practice day on Friday, the Islanders have back-to-back games this weekend against the Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators.
📊 STANDINGS:
📰 NEWS: Defenseman Adam Pelech participated in the morning skate on Thursday for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury on Nov. 1. Pelech wore a protective face shield, an orange non-contact jersey, and a 5 o’clock shadow. Before the injury, Pelech was averaging 20:01 TOI.
HOGBERG RECALLED, SEES ACTION
Semyon Varlamov missed the morning skate with a lower-body injury, so Marcus Hogberg was recalled from Bridgeport on an emergency basis. Hogberg is 2-5-3 this season in Bridgeport with a 3.26 GAA and a .898 SV%. Trailing 4-0 entering the third, Hogberg relieved Ilya Sorokin and was spectacular, stopping all 11 shots he faced. It was his first NHL action in over three years.
Blown Opportunity
After being a healthy scratch for two games and the topic of candid conversation before games, Patrick Roy offered Pierre Envall an opportunity to see if the message had gotten through. Engvall was reunited on the second line with Brock Nelson and Kylie Palmieri, a line he has succeeded with since joining the Islanders at the March 2023 trade deadline.
“I was very clear with him this morning,” Roy said. “… And I told him that I want him to be around the net. I want him to drive that net. He played so well against Vancouver and Seattle and Calgary [in mid-November] — that’s the player I’d like to have on my team. I was very clear on what I want.
“I want to give him a fair shot there, and it’s in his hands.”
Unfortunately, he did not make the most of his chance. By the second period, Engvall was demoted to the fourth line. Asked if he had done what he asked after the game, Roy responded: "Do I have to answer that? I didn't see the spark that I was hoping to see. I'll leave it at that...That was a tough question."
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📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Ryan Pulock assisted on the second Islander goal for his 200th NHL point. He joins Denis Potvin, Stefan Persson, Tomas Jonsson, and Noah Dobson as the only defensemen to record their first 200 points as Islanders.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On December 6, 2016, the Islanders improved to 4-0-1 in their last five games with a 4-2 win over the New York Rangers at Barclays Center. Andrew Ladd scored in the second period, and Jaroslav Halak stopped 36 shots in the win. John Tavares, Jason Chimera, and Scott Mayfield also scored.
🎧 Talkin’ Isles: Darius Kasparaitis “Darius Kasparaitis joins Greg and Cory for Ep. 65 of the podcast. The former Isles defenseman talks about his upbringing in Lithuania (1:49), the culture shock of moving to Long Island (7:43), his famous big purchase in his rookie year (9:30), playing a five-OT game as a member of the Pens (22:06), how he got pranked as an Isles rookie (22:56), spending time on LI in his post-playing days (26:43)”
🔗 Pierre Engvall’s fate lies in Islanders’ big second line opportunity by Ethan Sears, New York Post “The rejoining of Pierre Engvall with Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri on the Islanders’ second line for the first time since last April is not just about throwing a potential life raft to a player whose season has gone completely sideways.”
And we leave you with this … perspective.
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