New York Islanders vs Washington Capitals Postgame Recap, Reaction, Highlights | 10/31/
You’re listening to Up the Turnpike with hosts Mitch Anderson, Mattalier. [Music] Hello and welcome to the Up the Turnpike postgame show. What is going on? I am Matt Ori. I’m joined as always by my good friend Mitch Anderson. Mitch, back in the wind column, baby. Feels good. Doves all around, baby. Yeah, whatever. How are you doing? I am doing well. Had some Halloween candy. Uh we got a couple bags and had some leftover, so I indulged in that in the third period and uh watched the Islanders win a hockey game tonight. So, good day all around. Yeah, absolutely. Good day all around. We still have lots of candy left over. It’s amazing. So much. I can’t wait. I can’t wait. you’re going to take advantage of that. So yesterday, Mitch, we were talking because we expected Cal Richie to make his NHL debut. That did not happen last night because uh of flights, so we had to wait an extra day. Cal Richie into the lineup. So something additional to watch for as Matthew Barcel also returned too. Have to shout that one out. Yes. Right. So you have Callum Richie and Matthew Barzel jumping into the lineup that weren’t there yesterday. So we can play a full 12 forwards already. That’s a win. We don’t have to play seven defenseman, also a win. Um but we’re playing against a really good Washington Capitals team. So it it was and on the road as well and we’ve looked bad. So this was going to be a challenge. And we’re going to Sroken, right, who has not been playing well whatsoever. So there were a lot of question marks around what the Islanders could do today. And uh I thought they they did obviously very very well. Yeah. After they it felt like they survived the first period. So we I think we start there. Uh the Islanders I don’t think played well outside of Ilia Sroken. And you mentioned like major question marks with Sroen coming into this game. Had his best game of the season. Looked really really good today. Very happy for him. Uh but 13 shots from Washington in that first period. Uh the Islanders also took a penalty in that first period. So they went to a pretty early penalty kill situation and it felt you know Siroken came up with a big save after big save. Uh Butch Goring at the end of the first was like I think he said 30 3030 which just kept saying Ilia Sroken’s number because they could have easily been down two nothing after the first period. Yeah, we forgot we also get Butch Gory on the broadcast. you know, wild upgrade from yesterday’s newsfest at ESPN. Yes. So, count that one as a major win. Uh to me, Mitch, like I said, you had the penalty in the first from Casey Zikas and 13 saves from Ilas Aroken. No goals for either side, but those are my takeaways from the first. Anything else? Oh, just how badly they played in the first period. that I don’t know about you, but when or and just even you at home like watching that going like this is going to be a long goddamn day if this is how they’re playing on on a backtoback right on the road. Um you want to come out on a road game, especially on a backtoback on the second leg. You want to come out and have good first period. get the game done basically and not wait for and park the bus through the rest of it, but give yourself an ability to take a little bit of a breather as the rest of the game goes as you’re going to be tired. But that wasn’t the case. They were absolute dog in that first period. Nine high danger chances for 90% high danger chances for percentage for the Washington Capitals in all situations. 2.1 expected goals for in all situations and Ilia Sroken stopped them faking all. Yeah. So, shout out to Ilia again. Was really good today. Glad to see that. In the second period, the uh Washington Capitals would get on the board with their first goal of the game. Tom Wilson scores on just a wideopen rebound attempt pretty much. Yeah, there’s nothing much that could have been Well, Schaefer kind of lost Wilson there as you can see. And and if you watch the replay or if you watch the actual goal itself, you he lost track of where um Wilson was and that extra little step made all the difference and gave him that extra separation. Yeah, I was going to say I the reason why I paused it on the second replay is I thought Heidman and Schaefer didn’t communicate well in that spot and then it kind of ends up I’ll let it roll while I talk about it. Schaefer kind of ends up in the middle in no man’s land a little bit and just you know uh Tom Wilson’s a righty so it bounces perfectly to him and Srogan had no chance on that one. Yeah. Of all of stupid goddamn people it’s Tom stupid Wilson who’s having a really productive year. Yeah. Six goals already on the year for Tom Wilson. Screw that guy. Screw that guy. He’s such a dingus. Oh damn it. So we have a bad first period. We’re down one nothing at that point. I was feeling pretty, you know, like, oh, here we go again. It’s going to be another L. But the Islanders really kind of did did a good job of changing the momentum a little bit through the rest of that second period. Yeah. First way when you’re able to score a short-handed goal, which Simon Holmstrom and JG Pou, they just keep continuing to team up on these ones. We’ll pull it up. Uh JG Pou, we’re going to get a look right here. Holstrom gets it and away they go. And look, it’s a twoon two. Even you can even call a threeon two at that point. May maybe the third player is kind of in line with Simon Holst. So it’s a twoon two. There’s no reason for PJO to get completely lost in coverage here. They’re they’re outmanning us and he still gets it. Absolutely lovely stuff from those two guys. Holstrom just on a silver platter for um for Jean Gabriel Pou there and he’s now got according to Heathn Hawk six points in his last six games. Does Simon Holmstrom? Hell yeah. Love that for Simon Holstrom cooking that line. Lee Holmstrom and JG Pio at center looks really good right now. Um I like that line a lot. Talked about that a lot this past week. Um but they would review it. The Capitals challenged it for offside. Uh that it was a long long long look and I thought maybe they could have brought it back but that was so bang bang I almost don’t mind that they let it play out. It was it was really tight. I had to duck out right when they were doing the review. Like my wife like ran out of the house and tried to like wave me down to be like, “Hey, they called it a good goal.” Um I had to go pick up uh Elliot over at their friend’s house from trick-or-treating. But I do like what PSV saying here is saying I would have bet a Bitcoin, which is like $160,000 Canadian, one Bitcoin, that that play was off sides. Um turns out it wasn’t. So maybe Fortuna’s balance in our favor. Doesn’t matter. It’s in. Let’s go. Yeah. No, without a doubt. And I it was more so like, oh, I just don’t feel like the owners are going to catch the spree, right? Because that’s how I thought most of the game was going. Um, while the goalie was coming up big, they’re down one- nothing. It just felt like they they were struggling to get anything going. And of course, they finally score and it’s going to be taken off the board. It wasn’t. Yeah. And they go to a power play right after that. And I thought, okay, like now you make them pay. Unfortunately, tonight, Mitch, though, they were 0 for six on the power play or 0 for five technically. power plays I watched were absolutely dreadful. Doing absolutely nothing with it whatsoever. Um it maybe not wasn’t the worst power play outing we’ve ever seen from this team, but it was just more garbage. I don’t understand how this team with like different players, different coaches just can’t put together a cohesive like a league average. Can’t do that. No, they can’t. And honestly, I thought the second unit looked better. And the second unit had a Cal Richie on it, Mitch. Yeah, Cal Richie looked really good on that power play just in terms of his his puck possession and how he was able to to open up at least passing lanes for himself. Yeah. And and his puck distribution was good on the half wall. Uh he was great. Absolutely great. Not really a ton of power play because it is the second unit, but they were the better of the two. They were getting in the zone more frequently and cleanly whereas the first one could not. I I don’t understand why they kept going to the first one when the second one was rolling. So yeah, I thought it was there were some really positive signs from Kyle Richie specifically on the power play. My question to you is is what is it with these young kids in Washington taking multiple penalties. Matthew Barzal in his debut with the Islanders and now Karichi took two penalties. Uh arguably could have been called for a third right after the second expired. So, uh, you take the good with the bad as, you know, someone who’s 20 years old and making his, uh, I owners debut. I will say Tom Wilson did a little bit of a, oh, whoopsy daisy on that one uh, that one interference call for Plunk. Yeah, exactly. Little bit. Little bit. But they don’t score. Tied 1-1 after two periods of play. Kind of feel okay, right? Like because it felt like they were outplayed for the first period. Obviously, Washington gets on the board, but Islanders tie it up late in the second. They had a power play opportunity, some momentum starting to change. And in the third period, Bo Horvette doing Bo Horvette things. Mitch, this guy is just so freaking good. Absolutely. That that shot, that’s what we wanted to see for a long time out of Bo Horvette. Um, nice twoon-one developing here. a great pass behind him and tons of time for Logan Thompson to get set and and and stop that shot, but he just couldn’t do it. He’s square and centered to the shot and he just couldn’t stop it. It is so goddamn good for Borbat. Yeah, the release was impressive to me on that one. Yeah. And that’s that’s supposed to be his bread and butter. Like you’re you’re his release is supposed to be absolutely lethal and it is, but it just we haven’t really seen, you know, a 40 gold ball before that. I’m not saying he’s going to do 40, but at at the rate they’re using him and at the rate he’s putting him in right now, maybe he’s converting on his opportunities. It felt like last year a little bit snake bitten and he started the year that way, too. And then once that first one went, it’s like the damn broke and they just keep coming every night. Yeah, I like this here from SS Bouncer saying, “Of course on Halloween, Boo Horvad gets the winner.” I love it. Boo Horvat, please. Love it. So, Islanders up 2-1. They’re playing with a lead. Um, there was an Andersly tripping call that they had to kill off. Good kill from the Islanders. And they would end up scoring an empty net goal. Matthew Barzelle, who made his return to the ice, puts one in the empty net. 3-1 New York Islanders win. Yeah, Isles did a good job collapsing down the middle. Barzy extra step to go around a player to make sure he really gets it, you know, a clean look. So, it’s exactly what you want to see. Love it. Love it. Love it. Some box score numbers before we get to our guessing game. Shots on goal ended up being even 23 apiece. Faceoff percentage Islanders 62.7% just because I’m curious. I’m going to pull up the PJO numbers because I am pushing that uh agenda. He won 83.3% of his face off tonight. 83%. Uh Bo Horvat 77.8%. Holy crap. That that 80% is worth a first round pick this year alone. Yeah. I don’t want a 2027 first. We’re talking 2026 first round picks, baby. That’s he don’t like he he’s winning you more than twothirds of his draws, right? Like more than threequarters of his draws. Yeah, he’s been awesome. Uh power play. Each team over on the power play. Islanders did get a short-handed goal. So, they killed four and got a short-handed goal. You take that from the penalty kill tonight. Uh 10 penalty minutes to the Islanders. Eight hits. 1412. Capitals with two more. Islanders more blocked shots. 1613. Giveaways close. 24-22. Washington with two more. And takeaways were even at four a piece. Like that’s one of the the things that we saw the other day against Carolina. They weren’t blocking any shots and Carolina was blocking everything. Now they they flipped it and look at that. You ended up winning. Ah, well, what a shocker. Yeah, love it. Love it. Oh, okay. Um, ice time. I’m going to say it’s Bo Horvat. Correct. Team ice time. 20 minutes 34 seconds for Bo Horvat tonight who was uh very good. Very, very good. Yeah, he was very good at center doing everything. Matthew Barzella coming back in after missing last game. You know, maybe a little bit of a hangup there, but least amount of ice time I assume is Kyle Mlan again. No, Anthony Dclair. 9 minutes 13 seconds. Oh, fairly anonymous night from Anthony Duclair. Yeah. So, PS is saying here in the comments, Dclair’s nine minutes was too much. He is invisible again. Um, even Andre saying Dclair was completely invisible tonight. He doesn’t fit on the fourth line. Not good enough to be on the top six either. Kind of stuck in no man’s land with the I mean, with the pieces that they have right now, it’s not like they’re playing someone in the top six who doesn’t deserve to be there. That’s true. arguably Richie, I suppose, because you’re making your, you know, your team debut at the NHL level, but he looked the part. He really did. It wasn’t that, hey, I debut, you’re gonna get seven minutes tonight. He played 167 16 minutes 17 seconds. Hell yeah. Deserve deserved every minute of it. I I I say. Um, but yeah. So, what does that mean for Duke that I guess Shabanov’s got to come in, please? I Yeah, I I think so. We talked about the the forward depth that the Islanders have. Shabinov has sat for a little bit. I think you give it a look. What one of Dclair Mlan has to come out? Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Please. Like you can’t you can’t do that. Ridiculous. Um leader in terms of ice time for defenseman again. Four power plays, five power plays. It’s got to be Matthew Schaeer. Matthew Schaeer was fifth in ice time for defenseman tonight. Okay, good. Ryan Pulock at 20 minutes and six seconds who after a minus four last night was plus three tonight. Yeah, he was fine. Pelican and Pulock were I thought they were better tonight. I’m I’m not going to say that like oh my god they looked like 2021 versions of themselves, but they were blocking shots and they were plus three. I thought it was a pretty good game for both those guys. Is good. Yeah. And then you know you got time management for Schaefer who has made a few mistakes, right? those two mistakes in Carolina that resulted in goals immediately. Um I think there was at least one or two plays today. Well, the the Tom Wilson one, right? But like no one’s going to crap on him. Obviously, he’s an 18-year-old. He’s going to make some mistakes and like whatever. It’s fine. Who do you think has the least? Schaefer was fifth, you said, right? Yes. Out of six. We had four penalties, so it’s not going to be I guess it’s D’Angelo. It is. I wasn’t sure if you were going to get it because you were saying the power play numbers and obviously D’Angelo on power play too. But 15 minutes and 42 seconds for Tony D tonight for the least. Yeah, it’s fine. That that’s that’s what he should get at this point. By the way, another uh four block game for Alex Romanov. I thought that the last two he has had a slow start to the year since coming back. The last two games he’s been pretty solid. He has been right. And just steady. Not doing too much, not doing too little. Just steady. Just do that. You’re a fourth defenseman. Okay. Just just be a steady Eddie out there. Log in 20 minutes a night. Big hits. Solid in your own end. Maybe chip in with some offense, but don’t try to do too much and we’re going to get more out of you than you possibly ever imagined. Yeah. So, just want to keep it fair. We’ve been critical of him early on. Like, I think when someone plays well, we deserve to give him the praise. And tonight, Romanov was really good. Um, and speaking of giving guys praises, Ilia Sroken, man, stopped 22 of 23, one goal against, 957 save percentage. That’s what we like to see. Ilia Sroken. Yeah. Stopped 2.35 goals above expected today. Hell yeah. That is more of that, please. Hopefully, it’s a confidence builder, man, for him. Like, I’m not I like have jokingly uh on the Up the Turnpike Twitter account, so make sure you’re following that. I I tweeted out the Cam Newton video of him screaming, “I’m back.” And I said, “Elas Aroken tonight.” Uh, not again, tongue and cheek, but hopefully it’s the start of him starting to stack some of these good performances on top of each other. Yeah, like Max is saying, he seemed more aggressive out there. Some of the saves that he was making. Yes. The clean poke check, right? Right at the end of the game, right? They’re coming in across his own. And Butchie must have had an orgasm. He He was screaming, right? Because how many times is Butchie screaming about like a goalie should have the paddle down when the puck is coming across the crease and he just Billy Smith it boom I’m going to kill you puck is what I sroken did. So that is something as Max is saying here that the confident goalies do right. So and he looked really aggressive in making some of the saves that he was making in the first period. Um it just looked even calobic was saying this looks like vintage Sroi. So, like from his mouth to God’s ears, please let that stick. 100%. 100%. Yeah. Let’s close with some comments. Mitch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, first from Gary. Multitasking. Look at me. Not seeing much of the aisles, but I did see three all three goals. Beauty by Horvat. Gary, I gave you the night off, man. What are you doing here? He didn’t listen to you. He said, “Screw that Matt Leri. That that American. I’m going to be as Canadian as humanly possible by watching the Blue Jays losing 3-1 at that point down in the fifth. Uh I don’t know what it is now. Last I checked there’s also 3-1. It is bottom of the sixth. Blue Jays are bad at bat. So whatever. Okay, I’m going to flip to that. I had the Islanders post game on. I’m like why don’t I flip to this old series. Uh Rick Rock saying when they announced the Isles first goal was good. Even Peel was surprised. Yeah, he did. He kind of he kind of smiled. Uh, and it was uh it was a sheepish grin, if you will. Okay, good. Yeah. I mean, I think we were all there going like knowing us, this is coming back. Yeah. Ridiculous. Left lock. Sroken looked better. Hope for this kind of form even more. Hell yeah. Yeah. Uh, as bouncer, it was like two different teams from yesterday to tonight. And the difference was a guy named Cal Richie. 20-year-old Cal Richie out there doing the thing. play. And big note, too, which we didn’t mention, third period, he moved to center. He was playing the second line center. That that’s what they need to do. Like I I get it. You’re playing on the wing because you’re not really sure what to do. But Matthew Barzel Barzal is not a center in this league. He’s just not. I love him. He’s a great player. He’s just not a center. I think we’re all hoping that Kyle Richie eventually becomes the long-term answer at TUCI for this team to replace Brock Nelson. Yeah. But that that that was the whole point of the trade, right? You trade Brock Nelson, you’re trading your second line center. We got to have another one coming through. With all due respect to some of the centers we have in the pipeline, they’re not projected to go as high as Brock Nelson. They could they could still do it, but it’s not like No, it is likely with Cal Richie. Yeah. So, I’m excited for Cal Richie. Good on him, man. That’s uh that’s awesome. So, I think he’s sticking in the lineup um at least for their next game on Sunday. I would be surprised if they took him out after again if they played him seven minutes and we found out tomorrow like loaned back to Bridgeport. I would say okay I get it. But after playing 16 17 and getting power play time and moving to center feels like he’s going to stick around at least for the next little bit. Exactly. Exactly. Um Steve Portell or Portella. Yeah. Told you Sroken would get back in his groove. Let’s go. I Yeah. More of it please. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh lots of Sroken comments. Richard Lord is praising Sroken plus saying Ovesian didn’t score, right? He was supposed to score his 900th goal. That didn’t happen. Yeah. Hell yeah. Um a great win all around. Was a nice way to end a bad road trip. Yeah, they lost, you know, they lost three games in a row and they were able to get a win to to close it out before coming home. Yeah. I like I like this from PS because I didn’t notice it at all. Didn’t miss Typicov at all. I forgot he wasn’t playing. Right. not really missed when you don’t notice he’s not there. That’s I I don’t think he’s going to be the one who comes in if they were to make a move for either Declare or Mlan or Sikas or any of those guys. Um Chris from Long Island says, “You heard it here. If Pio stays healthy, the Isles will get a first round. Might be in 2027. Had to wait for Brock first, but they will get a first.” That’s we were we were saying it on the podcast on Wednesday. We clipped it and that uh came out and that segment on YouTube earlier today. I believe it. I would be very surprised if it’s not. Absolutely agreed. Uh James Boris saying, “Got to cut Siroken a little slack. The clutter said faced double the league average of high danger shots this year.” That’s nuts. Which again goes back to what we’ve been saying all along, which is the Islanders play in front of him for most of the year hasn’t been good enough either, but Siroken needs to improve. It It’s kind of both things were going bad, so it looks so much worse. Yeah, Sroen has faced 58 high danger shots. I don’t think that includes tonight. It might. Um, so far only two go well, not two goalies, only four goalies have faced more. Gustoson has faced more 73. Everyone else is at like 59, right? Like you have Alex Lion, Dosel, and Sorrowos with 59 high danger shots against, but for Philip Gustin is 73 Murphy. Yeah, that’s insane. That’s a ton. My god. Yeah. Um, but yeah, Sroen did the thing tonight then. Absolutely deserves a little bit of here. Yep. All the praise. Uh to Gary says, “Don’t forget to like and subscribe.” Hell yeah, Gary. Doing the Lord’s work today. Thank you for tuning in. I give you a pass. Yeah. Uh uh PS says they force it to Horvath too much. I mean, fair. Um but on the power play, I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s saying the power play. Yeah. Well, because the comment before is on the second unit. Well, because he’s saying the sec right before that, the second power play unit at least shoots the puck. They force it to Horvat too much is right after that. So, my assumption is they’re talk he’s talking about the first power play unit. Okay, I get what he’s saying. The he’s their best shooter out there, though. So, part of me gets why they’re doing it. I think some of the other guys just need to start shooting a little bit. Yes. Yeah, that’s it. The other guys need to start shooting it more. Like, I I get it. Absolutely. They do force it to Horvat and that makes it way too predictable and easy to break up. Um, but like you got to get guys to shoot because you’ve got to pull those defenseman out. Then you you give that opportunity to Horvat, you know, a cleaner opportunity. If not, they’re just going to collapse on him and then who cares because they’re going this is the only guy who’s going to shoot out here. Exactly. Exactly. Doesn’t matter. Um, Ethan Hawk Anders Lee takes a bad penalty nearly every game. Kind of fair. Yeah, he has taken a lot more penalties recently. Uh I don’t know how many penalty minutes he has on the year. Let me see. Uh add two more to this total, but he’s up to eight. So four penalties in 11 games is probably too much. Yeah. Yeah. It’s too much. It’s too much. Um Stephen Portell is saying, “Inovvetkin shot came out the challenge. That is what we need from it. Own the crease.” I like that. Own the goddamn crease. And that goes back to the confidence conversation that we were just having. Yeah. I think a confident goalie does that. Yeah. Because he’s got his angles, right? He knows where he’s supposed to be in terms of at the top of the key, below the blue line or in in the blue paint or above it type of thing. He knows when to play the angle because you’re confident. He’s today he had it. I don’t know what changed from the last couple of games. Maybe it’s seen like David Ridditch out there and be like, I can’t let this happen. But whatever worked. Whatever it was, it freaking worked. Yep. 100%. Uh, Max TCG or TGG saying TCG on the bra. I like playing. My question is now that Richie is here, where will Shabanov go? He can’t break up the third line. No more room on the second line. He’s not a fourth liner. Um, man, I got to think about that, right? While you think about that, um, shout out to Wizo67 saying, “Great job.” Shout out from the North Pole, Alaska. Furthest North fan here. Holy North Pole, Alaska. Welcome, man. Thanks for supporting. More North than my stupid, you know, Canadian ass. I thought you were the furthest north. Our friend from the great white north is not Mitch. It’s actually Wiso 67 or Wizo 67. I don’t lost. So, where does Shaba Shabanov go? Uh, like I agree with Spois Doing. What a name. As I fight for my life here. Um, whoever asked about Shabanov, it’s got to be MLAN coming out. Agreed. But I I think um what they would counter is that Shabanov should not all be playing in the fourth line. Yeah, because you have it’s Drew and Horvat Hineim top line. Pomeary, Barzal, and Richie. And decide if you want Richie at center or Barzal. I think I’m fine with putting Shabanov on the second line and putting Richie fourth line center. Really? Okay. And having like a fourth line of Richie, Duclair, and I guess whoever else on that one. Sikas, I guess. I don’t know. Like does that mean that Kellum Richie is going to put up a ton of points in that situation? Probably not. But you’re getting him to play NHL minutes and you can put him up anywhere in the lineup and shuffle things around as you go. Unless you just take Sikas and Mlan out and it’s like Richie declare Shabonov as a fourth line. Yeah. Right. I don’t mind it. It’s not really a fourth line as we’ve come to know it in our existence as Islanders fans, but it is a fourth line that just can go out and do something. Maybe. Yeah. But then you’re getting him to play, which is the whole point. At this point, we need Shabanov to play. He He’s an element that we need. Yeah. He’s got to get healthy first though. That’s true. That’s true. Um and then yeah, Heathn Hawk saying, “I thought I was the furthest away in Calgary.” No, you’re very far. And again, thank you for supporting. Thank you everyone to supporting, but it’s cool to see the people eat like from not in the local area. Yes, agreed. And then last one here from Max TG saying, I feel like if you move Richie to fourth, they should just move him to the AHL. More time in the AHL is better than fourth line minutes in the NHL. This is a tough problem. It kind It’s kind of a first world problem, right? because your forwards are significantly deeper than where they’ve been the the few years prior. But well, it’s like Spoas do get to say I can’t remember the last time we’ve had this problem where we were worrying about having skill guys on the fourth line. Maybe got make it maybe got to make a trade. Clear up some space. Maybe maybe more assets. Let’s go. I don’t know. But we’ll we’ll see. Good problem to have on Sunday. we’ll have a better idea of what the lineup looks like and if they make any changes. But that’s going to do it for us tonight on this one. Before you head out, couple notes. Make sure to leave a like, subscribe if you’re new, and if you’re not a Patreon member, sign up for the Patreon. You get a bonus two podcast full length episodes a week, plus a Discord community of Islanders fans over there. It’s an absolute blast in-game just chatting it up with everybody, reacting to the game. Yeah, you get characters like Spazero here saying you’re welcome for Sorroen’s turnaround. Yeah, you get to deal with Matt Spizero in the Discord, which is everyone’s favorite thing. Absolutely. All right, guys. Yeah, we do. We do. It’s all love. It’s all love. All right, guys. That’ll do it. I’m Matt. He’s Mitch. We’ll catch you next time.
Join Matt O’Leary and Mitch Anderson tonight to discuss the New York Islanders game against the Washington Capitals
For more content subscribe to Up the Turnpike on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/uptheturnpike
#NewyorkIslanders #isles #NYIsles
9 comments
Cal Ritchie made his NHL debut with the Ava.
Sorokin finally had a good gane finally
Please STOP cursing. It's classless and unnecessary.
See what accountability does? Knocks the dummee out of ya! The problem is with humans, they need to be told/held accountable instead of getting there themselves. Benching Barzal, the team sulked that night – then pulled up their panties and played big boy hockey vs. the Caps. IF the Island plays like that most games, they'll be a comfortable playoff team. That is Paddy Roy hockey baby! Tight, low scoring, goalies game. On the surface, it didn't look like they played well in the first period, but look at the two games before – lots of shots, 2-0 lead, lost. A team can be on their heels and still play well – let me explain: if they weren't playing well at "calming the storm" then they'd be down 2-3 goals early. Sorokin is part of the team and he did his job and some, the Island took a couple of stiff punches in the first round and didn't show a glass jaw – IMO, that is good, its determination, durability, and gumption…In other words: Heart.
I didn't realize how big Ritchie was – I love it! ..The "power forward" in hockey isn't often and can be a huge advantage. I look to Matthew Knies of the Leafs as a modern comparison, they have similar size & numbers in the juniors – if Ritchie could give 30/30 (in that range) like Knies, it would be huge.
Sorokin kept us in this game. He was challenging shooters and everything!! Thankfully he was looking like himself. We dont have good defense so we need an elite sorokin to bail us out. W our “swarm style” defense there will always be an odd man out that has a clear shot and the way barzal gives out turnovers like a danish baker. Sorokin is overworked quickly by the time the 3rd period comes
Stop with Sorokin
One good game really good game
Now prove me wrong and do it consistently
Why would we think he will he hasn’t yet
Please prove me wrong PLEASE
Changing up the lines in the 3rd was huge they all looked better
Pelech/Pullock needs some props for this game. Pelech especially at the end assisting on Barzal empty netter.