The Islanders didn't make it easy, but they managed to end the week 2-1 after taking four points from Nashville and Minnesota, and dropping a goalless effort to Edmonton. Sean and Arthur chat on what happened and what's ahead for the blue & orange.
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Four games in seven nights. Three cities. Two overtime games.
One more injury on the blue line.
By the time Connor McDavid and the Oilers showed up for a Halloween matinee at UBS Arena, the Islanders had nothing left in the tank. And it showed.
Pete DeBoer didn’t hide from it. Edmonton won 4-0, Tristan Jarry needed only 18 saves for his second straight shutout, and the Isles were blanked for the first time all season. It was the kind of afternoon where every mistake got punished, and every chance went nowhere.
“We looked a little fatigued tonight as a group. I think when you're fatigued mentally, you make some mistakes you don’t normally make, and physically you make some mistakes you don't normally make. We won some hard-fought games here recently. We played extra time in overtime on the road, and we looked like we were a fatigued team today.”
-Pete DeBoer
Some of it was beyond their control. The Isles played without Ryan Pulock, who got hurt on his second shift in Minnesota, and then lost Emil Heineman to a five-minute major and game misconduct just 2:22 in. That left them with 11 forwards for nearly the entire afternoon.
Some of it wasn’t. Seven penalties. Six Edmonton power plays against the best power play in hockey. A 10-minute misconduct to Scott Mayfield. DeBoer called it self-inflicted, the same phrase he used after Dallas, and he was right both times.
Here’s the thing, though: zoom out, and the week wasn’t a disaster. The Isles went 2-2, won in a building that had beaten them for nine years, and took down the Central-leading Wild without Pulock. At 7-5-2, they sit fourth in the Metro.
