After the crushing loss to the Ottawa Senators where they got dominated after an early goal in the third period, the New York Islanders followed that up with a crushing loss to the Montreal Canadiens where they got dominated after an early goal in the third period.<\/p>\n
For a team that\u2019s thrived all year on a narrative of gritty comebacks and everyone stepping up, that clearly isn\u2019t the case when the pressure is at its highest. And maybe we\u2019re talking about a different game entirely if Mat Barzal and Matthew Schaefer don\u2019t both hit iron in the second period, the one period the Islanders dominated but ended up down 3-2.<\/p>\n
But the what ifs don\u2019t matter, because in the biggest games of the season so far, the Islanders couldn\u2019t find ways to win, while all the teams around them are picking up points and jumping ahead of them for a playoff spot they\u2019ve held since the beginning of December.<\/p>\n
Anders Lee had 1 point this entire road trip (an admittedly good power play assist tonight), which is not exactly \u201csetting the tone\u201d like he said after the first period of the Ottawa game where he fought Senators captain Brady Tkachuk (who notably did a lot more to set the tone, like, you know, scoring the game winning goal!)<\/p>\n
JG Pageau, who signed a three year contract with the team just about two weeks ago, has put up a whopping 2 points in the 7 games since.<\/p>\n
Bo Horvat hasn\u2019t scored since the game against St. Louis on March 10th.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just not enough from veteran leadership, and it\u2019s not helped by the completely optional defense this team plays, relying solely on whether an 18 year old playing in his first NHL season can magically take over a game. It\u2019s an indictment of Patrick Roy and management that this hasn\u2019t been addressed all season.<\/p>\n
Maybe the team will prove me wrong and go on a tear with 10 of their next 12 games at home. But right now, the team\u2019s on the outside looking in at the playoffs.<\/p>\n
It was somewhat controversial when Patrick Roy said Ilya Sorokin would be starting tonight\u2019s game, given how direct an impact on the Metro Division standings the game tomorrow against the Columbus Blue Jackets has. But Sorokin made some huge saves early in the game as the Canadiens pressured him with shots.<\/p>\n
Casey Cizikas took a slashing penalty, and Sorokin made a big save on Ivan Demidov, but Juraj Slafkovsky ripped it past Sorokin to make it 1-0 Montreal.<\/p>\n
Kaiden Guhle was called for a roughing penalty and Matthew Schaefer had a good chance that Jacob Fowler saved on the delayed penalty.<\/p>\n
The power play struggled a bit, but then Anders Lee, under pressure, passed the puck off to Emil Heineman, who scored his 20th of the season against his former team from a sharp angle.<\/p>\n
Sorokin made some big saves on Alexandre Texier and Mike Matheson, and then on a breakaway, Simon Holmstr\u00f6m deked the puck around Fowler to make it 2-1 Islanders.<\/p>\n
Later, Tony DeAngelo took a slashing penalty that the Islanders killed.<\/p>\n
The Islanders had some good chances early, and then Noah Dobson took a penalty for hooking. On that power play, Mat Barzal hit the post after beating Fowler.<\/p>\n
Matthew Schaefer comically high sticked a puck into the goal behind the net, which was obviously no goal but it was funny in a game where the Montreal crowd booed him just about every shift.<\/p>\n
Sorokin saved a good shot from Slafkovsky, and Ryan Pulock and Cole Caulfield got into a scrum and everyone else skated over, too, but no penalties were given out.<\/p>\n
Schaefer put a shot off the post, and Sorokin made another huge save on Slafkovsky redirect of a Lane Hutson shot.<\/p>\n
But then, Alex Newhook tied the game after he was left all alone and Sorokin couldn\u2019t get across the crease to stop it.<\/p>\n
DeAngelo then took an interference penalty, and Caufield made it 3-2, despite the Islanders mostly being dominant this period.<\/p>\n
Then, Brendan Gallagher was called for tripping Heineman with 6.3 seconds left in the period.<\/p>\n
Schaefer tied the game on that power play, one-timing it past Fowler and earning the record for most power play goals by a rookie defenseman for the Islanders with his 22nd of the season.<\/p>\n
Sorokin made a save on a dangerous Hutson chance, but a Guhle shot deflected off Marc Gatcomb\u2019s stick when he was trying to block it, then off the post, and in, to make it 4-3 Montreal.<\/p>\n
Fowler saved a Cizikas shot on a 2 on 1, and the Canadiens made it 5-3 when Slafkovsky scored again. Schaefer lost the puck battle behind the net, and then Ryan Pulock was caught frozen watching the play rather than defending Slafkovsky in front.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, Caufield made it 6-3 with his second of the night, and then David Rittich was put in for Sorokin, who is presumably playing tomorrow against Columbus.<\/p>\n
Then, Roy pulled Rittich with 6 minutes left, but the Isles wouldn\u2019t have a 6 on 5 for long, as a big scrum broke out with Mat Barzal trying to fight Nick Suzuki. Barzal picked up 4 minutes for roughing and a 10 minute misconduct, while Suzuki got 10 minutes to match, while Kaiden Guhle who came in late on Barzal got two minutes for roughing and a 10 minute misconduct, and Brayden Schenn, who also joined in, got a 10 minute misconduct.<\/p>\n
On the ensuing Montreal power play, Caufield got his hat trick to make it 7-3.<\/p>\n
Then, Zachary Bolduc made it 8-3, but Roy challenged the play for being offside, and won, taking that goal off the board. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s a consolation prize to someone, as the Canadiens closed out their 7-3 win, keeping the Islanders on the outside of the playoffs with 83 points in 70 games.<\/p>\n
Next, the Islanders head home to UBS Arena to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have surged up the standings and are now two points ahead of the Islanders with a game in hand, occupying third in the Metro Division. A win tomorrow would keep the playoff hopes alive, while a loss would be pretty catastrophic as all the teams around the Islanders in the Eastern Conference just keep winning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the crushing loss to the Ottawa Senators where they got dominated after an early goal in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,28169,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-516311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-new-york-islanders-game-recaps","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116271647537862925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}