New York Islanders vs Tampa Bay Lightning Postgame Recap, Reaction, Highlights | 12/6/25

New York Islanders vs Tampa Bay Lightning Postgame Recap, Reaction, Highlights | 12/6/25

You’re listening to Up the Turnpike with host Mitch Anderson, Mattal. [Music] Hello and welcome to an up the turnpike postgame show, the morning after edition. What’s going on? Matt Ori alongside Mitch Anderson. Mitch, how’s it going my friend? Oh, I I sound a lot worse than I actually am. I sound horrible today. Um, but I’m doing okay. I feel fine outside of this voice. Just borderline Macho Man. Randy said, “Yeah, I’m going to do that.” It sounds like Macho Man, but great impression. I couldn’t think of what he would actually say in that. Boom. Look at my coffee. Yeah, that’s how I’m doing. What about you? Uh, doing pretty good. Doing pretty good. It was uh a late night for the both of us. We weren’t able to make it back for the game. So, we’re recording the the morning after, which is totally okay. But the Islanders back in the win column, Mitch Road Warriors strike again. That’s right. Three wins in a row for the team. Hell yeah. Um find themselves third in the Metropolitan Division uh and like third in the East. Basically, the East sucks or it doesn’t suck. It’s way too competitive and so not everyone is able to win. I guess like every team in the in the east is above 500 or at 500. Yeah. No one’s really setting themselves apart like a part of or away from the pack and no one’s falling way out of it which like I don’t know if that’s more like you said it’s kind of the chicken and the egg argument. Is it just it’s way too competitive or every team is kind of just mid and like up to you to decide. Right. Right. Sorry. The Sabres are below 500. Okay. the the only one. Would you Are you surprised, Mitch? Are we shocked? You tell you tell me that I’m supposed to be surprised. No. Fair enough. Um, but they win here in Tampa. Second win against the Tampa Bay Lightning this season. Yeah. And they have him again coming up soon, right? So, they had like three games right in a row against Tampa. But Oh, yeah. December 13th. Yeah. Next uh next Saturday they get him again. So, a week after this game, but uh let’s get into this one. Not a lot of goals to talk about. Um and kind of lowevent first period, Mitch. Like there was no penalties for either side. Just I four shots to Tampa Bay’s nine in that uh in that first period. Yeah. And I sroken uh which is going to be the story of this game kind of holding it down. Um you’re right. Low event seven high danger chances between both teams. A combined 0.15 I think or sorry 1.05 expected goals. Most of that coming from the Tampa Bay Lightning like 80% of it. Um just not a whole lot going on. Elie Sroen seeing pucks really well. Um from the the game recast that I was able to watch like the condensed version which is still quite long. It was like a 20-minute long video. Um everything he was seeing was just or everything that was coming at him he was seeing and he was able to quickly deflect it into an area or just soak it up. Just simple goalie stuff. It seemed the good stuff from him. Yeah, without a doubt. And it’s been really fun to to watch him lately. and he was locked in. Again, I think that’s the main story line as I’m sure you watching this can see above our head that there’s the goose egg next to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Another shut out. He’s now tied with Chico Rash for 25 shutouts, the most in for any Islander, which is pretty impressive considering the amount of t he’s he’s been here for a few years now, but it just feels like the the Chico Rush number that seemed like unobtainable for an Islander goalie just because they have cycled through goalies rather quickly. It’s rare to see someone here as as long as Sroken’s been at this point. Well, yeah, exactly. Which is why, you know, Chico Res’s, you know, numbers have have been up there forever. Like he’s got what a career 25 shutouts. Like, yeah, it doesn’t sound like a lot. It is. Obviously, 25 games were nothing. 25 out of 20 270 games. Is that a 1%. So, one out of 100 games is a shout out for Sroken over his career pretty much. Yeah. Not even 10% about. Yeah. Not math, guys. Don’t ask us to do math, please. Yeah. I had to pull out the calculator to figure that one out for some stupid reason. Um, but yeah, I think the big question here is when does he, you know, hold the record at 26? It’s going to be this year. I with the way he’s playing. It’s just how soon. He might do it by Christmas. At this rate, Mitch, right? What are his game logs? How many shutouts he have in the last little bit? He’s got two shutouts since November 20th. Three shutouts since the beginning of November, which was really the turnaround, right? he gets that shut out against the Rangers and that’s has has not looked what he was at the beginning. Yeah, that was that was the beginning of the Islanders hot streak too. That was their first game on that long road trip and uh obviously it’s worked worked wonders since then. He’s done he’s done really well um at that point which more on Ilia Sroken as we talk uh through this. U I did want to mention Mitch in the in the second period. So, no goals in the second, still 000 after two periods, but the Islanders took uh two penalties. One was a Anders Lehigh stick, the other was a Bo Horvat hooking. They killed both of those. They are now up to seventh in the league on the PK, killing at 83.3%. That’s amazing. Like, that’s such a big change from where they were before, right? Like historically bad penalty kill. Um and it cost us so many games last year. Yeah. Was it was it last year at the beginning of the season we played the Devils and we were up like 4-1 or something and we ended up losing because our penalty kill was awful. Maybe we weren’t up that big, but it was like they won because of their power play was able to score so often. Yeah, I mean that’s that was unfortunately a story for the team last year. Felt like any time they were going on a on a penalty kill, the puck was ending up in the back of the net. There were a bunch of blown third period leads which was uh a storyline for this team for a couple of years. Uh but those have for the most part gone away. Uh 83.3 and being in the top 10 after you know they salvaged it in what like the the last I was going to say the second half of the year but I don’t even know if it was that long the last couple months of the year. But they were on pace to be under 70% and then they they squeaked over it and ended up like 31st in the league which obviously isn’t very good. But from 31 up to seven um and just seemingly getting better and better. Yeah. And like for all the the the talk that we have about Ilia Sroken, the change ne on the penalty kill isn’t necessarily Sroken le. Um you might think it is based off how he’s playing, but he’s still sitting at um 56th in the NHL. Yeah, 56 for goal saved above expected at five on four. Oh, sorry, I want to do the other way. Four on five. Sorry, never mind. It is completely flipped. He is number one. It is Sroken le 6.5 goal saved above expected. Okay. And the next one is Devin Culie for in Calgary at 5.4. So he’s got it all to himself. So big big shout out to Elie Sroken who on one of those penalty gills. Um you know they work the puck to Brandon Hegel down low and he’s alone wide open but Siroken’s down and is solid butterfly doesn’t allow a five hole. Nothing there’s nothing open there. Nothing is available. we were seeing those go in every other day at the beginning of this year. That that’s not happening anymore. So, that’s massive. It’s just completely gone. And, you know, later on in the in the third period, that would that would come up again, which we’ll get to. But, I just wanted to bring up the the penalty kill numbers because no goals in the second period. Islanders kill off two. Shots were 12 from Tampa Bay, eight for the Islanders. So, they double their shots, but uh still being outshot. And that was kind of the theme of this game. They were they end up being outshot 32 to 19 for the game. Yeah, which apparently we are really good when we’re being outshot and outchanced 74 to 42 or you know outc course I should say. Um I guess you win games that way when you have Elisrokin playing the way he’s playing. Absolutely Mitch. So let’s get to this third period. Uh some controversy as Brandon Hegel takes a high stick against Casey Sazikas uh but gets hit with a double minor and the Tampa Bay bench was very upset because as they point out it looked like Kyle Mlan’s hand was on Hegel’s stick. Yeah. I mean you can get mad about that and that’s totally fair. Like refs are going to miss calls and they can’t go and look at every single one. So I get it if you’re a Tampa fan. I don’t know why you’d be listening to this but maybe you want to see what the other team has to say. Maybe you got badly done by that and that that’s totally fair. It’s going to happen. That is going to happen. But honest to God, Tampa, you just won seven games in a row before we we ended it. Lols. Um whatever. Just relax. You’re still good. They are still a very good hockey team. But the Islanders would take advantage on this power play at with this isn’t going to do it justice, but we’ll take a look at the visualization of the Cal Richie goal. He uh he goes through between his legs and puts this one in the back of the net. Yeah, I don’t really like Simon Holson being so f so high up there. Um but Tony D’Angelo a really good job of getting the puck towards the net and it works towards the boards and Calum Richie the reaction just holy Christ. Yeah. Just bounces right back to him, goes between the legs and and tucks it home. Like to have the the the mental capacity to make that decision that quickly like I don’t have the space to really get it out properly. So, I’m going to do the really contortionist thing and go through my legs because that’s the the best angle I’ve got and have it work. Holy man. I know it’s not He’s not the only player to ever do that. No. No. Not every player can do that. No. Right. And then there’s been more and more examples of him showing off his skill. Right. It feels like he’s getting more and more comfortable with the number of games that he’s played. Yeah. And there there are a few chances today where he’s he’s putting himself in really good situations. There’s one where in the second period I think Duke hits the p the post. It’s the second post they hit in the game, but he Duke is coming across the zone the slot and throws it far side on Johansson and just kind of squeaks under him. hits the post. So, like good attempt by by Duke, but when you look at the play again, like Richie is on his left side and Richie is a left-handed skater. He’s got the stick. He’s got the ability to tap it in. Um, but like Duke doesn’t see him, which again fine. He He hits the post, but he put himself in a really good position. So, he’s doing that ahead of scoring these highlight reel goals. Just absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely. So, uh, shortly thereafter, Tampa Bay would pull their goalie and get a bunch of really high quality chances. And this is what I wanted to talk about next stands tall, makes a bunch of big saves, and Casey Zikas puts one in the empty net with two seconds to go. So, you’re looking at a two nothing New York Islanders victory, Mitch. Oh, hell yeah. And three wins in a row again for this team. And Elia Sroken just an absolute wall out there uh lately. Um, love love it, obviously. And we we talked about this before with Ilia Sroken and the Islanders maybe making the playoffs. They’re not making the playoffs if Elie Sroken isn’t playing well. And we don’t care if they do or don’t. It’d be great if they did, but whatever. Um but they make the playoffs if Sroken is playing well. And that that’s just the quality of that any goalie brings to the table. And at this point, they’re in in position to do so because Elis Sroken is playing so well and the team is able to, you know, score a couple of goals. He gets some run support and we find ourselves, you know, winning games more often than not. Absolutely. So, let’s take a look at some of the game stats. We’ll do the box score numbers as well. Shots 32 from Tampa to the Islanders 19. Uh Tampa better in the faceoff dot. 57.4% to the Islanders 42.6. Here’s a big difference though. Islanders 1 for three on the power play. Lightning 0 for two. Six penalty minutes for Tampa to the Islanders four. Hits were pretty close. 22 for the Islanders. 21 for Tampa. Block shots. Isles block 22 shots Tampa 10. Giveaways Islanders 16-10. Uh and takeaways seven for Tampa, two for the New York Islanders. Yeah, man. Special teams who are winning games because special teams are showing up. Like how many games have we lost previously because of special teams? Um since the month of November, the penalty kill is operating at 89.6% which is the fourth best in the league since November. And that that that’s more than a month. Um the power play is still struggling since that time, but I feel like it’s turned around lately. Maybe not as far as November and maybe a couple of weeks. I don’t I don’t I don’t know what numbers you’re going to find here, but they did score one um in this game. So hopefully they start digging their way out of it. It’s still not pretty. Not even I went to like November 23rd to like two-ish weeks and it’s 16.7%. That’s still not good. It’s still It’s still not a good number. Um but you’re right like that Elilia Sroen and special teams were a big reason for why they won this game. Absolutely. It’s huge a big difference on on the outcome of the game and the outcome of this team going forward. Do they still make the playoffs? Who knows? Lots lots of game left to play. Um, but I mean they’re winning games that they’re not supposed to be winning and losing games they should be winning, which really sucks, but we’ll figure that out eventually, I think. Absolutely. So, let’s take a look at the box score numbers, Mitch. Who is leading the way for the Islanders in time for forwards? The inflection in your voice tells me it might be someone different. Oh. Um, but I’m going to go with Matthew Barzal. It’s not Barzel, but it’s the other guy you would have likely guessed in Bo Horvat. But it’s by it’s a pretty big number. 22 minutes and 13 seconds. Next closest was Simon Holmstrom at 1845. Simon Holmstrom, eh? Yeah, that’s a couple of games now where he’s top of the pops for ice time, which is interesting. I get it. He’s a good player. He’s cerebral player. He’s good for them uh defensively in a game where they’re being outshot heavily. I guess that kind of makes sense. Um I’m just trying to look at the lines here. Yeah, I don’t know. like the bow line wasn’t really doing that well relative to the rest of the team. Like the best line that we had in terms of just the Corsy um was the the the Barzal line. Uh if we’re looking at expected goals, it was the Callum Richie Simon Holstrom line. Like they were probably the best and the fourth line doing well as well. So I don’t know. It seems interesting that Simon is up there, I guess. Absolutely. Uh least who do we got? Oh. Uh, Mark Gatcom. It is Mark Gakcom. But 10 minutes and 29 seconds, they they really rolled four lines in this game. Yeah. And like I said, the fourth line did pretty well, at least in terms of expected goals, relative expected goals at 23.23, which is the second highest on the team after the the Cal Richie Simon Holstrom line. Um, so that that’s they’re doing something, which is all we cared at. That’s all we want. Do something positive. Obviously, defenseman, who we looking at, I’m going to say Matthew Schaefer. 24 minutes and 27 seconds. He leads the way. But I had a feeling it might have been Adam Pel. Was he close? Uh, he was third at 21 minutes and 56 seconds. So, he he played a a nice amount in this game. Okay. I assume Travis Mitchell has the least at like 11 and a half. Uh, Adam Boquis came in for him in the in this game, but it was Adam Boquis. So, same role. 1146, right? I didn’t even realize it was Adam Boquis. I thought I saw Oh, right. Bokeis is 34. Mitchell’s 38. Or did I get those numbers reversed? No, Bokeis is 34. So, that’s okay. I did see 34 and I thought that was Mitchell for some reason. I don’t know why. That is quite okay. Uh, as we mentioned, Ilas Aroken stopped all 32 shots that he faced for a perfect 10,00 save percentage. Uh, and the big story from this is now if you want to take a look at goal saved above expected, your leader in the NHL, Ilia Sroken at 19.8. Absolutely phenomenal stuff. Um, remember when he was like bottom like 60th or something like that? Ridiculous. So, he is, again, consider the start that he had to the season. And these numbers aren’t perfect yet, but is up to a 912 and 2.47 goals against. Yeah, he’s second in the league in shutouts. Uh the 912 isn’t great. Um but he’s getting up there. He’s got 10 wins on the season, so he’s up to 11th or tied for 10th in the league for wins. I mean, it’s it’s starting to add up. Like he’s not I don’t think he’s obviously not a VZNA favorite right now, but he’s creeping up at Beza table easily. Yeah. Which is where we want to see him, right? And we wanted to see that number for goals against get, you know, around two and a half. It’s it’s under that now. The next step, I think, is for the safe percentage to to catch up. And, you know, unfortunately with how the year started, he had a pretty big hole to dig out of, but with how he’s he’s played the last month plus has been been stellar. So, really really happy to see this. Yeah. Last 11 games, 938 save percentage. That’s unreal. So that that’s why he went from like a sub 800 or just above 800 to 912 so far. Climbed a lot. It it absolutely did climb a lot. So uh Islanders win this one two nothing. They’re back in action later tonight. They got Florida at 5:00. So back to back. We’ll see how they are uh in a backtoback. Would imagine. Uh this is Riddic in net tonight. Yeah, I would think so. It would I I don’t see why they would play him back to like like this. Riddish has been fine as well. And the Florida Panthers haven’t been very good this year. No. So, we’ll see. It’d be it’d be nice if they’re able to get, you know, two in a row on the road and and make it four straight. Uh but, you know, just final thoughts on on this game again. They got incredible play from uh Ilia Sroken. He kept them in the game. Special team, same thing. Finally get one to go on the power play. Add an empty netter. And that’s that’s enough when your goalie is playing at the the level that he is right now. Absolutely. That’s all you need, man. So, love it. More of that, please. Absolutely. That’ll do it for us in this one, guys. Thanks so much for hanging out. I’m Matt. He’s Mitch. and we’ll catch you next time.

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