The Islanders won’t be leaving home with a winless record hanging over their heads.
4 games into the season, they finally got off the schneid on Thursday by beating the Oilers 4-2 on the back of Bo Horvat’s hat trick, becoming the last team within the NHL to achieve points this season. It isn’t a great thing, and it is generally inaccurate, when a mid-October win will be described as needed, but this got here near qualifying.
While excitement over Matthew Schaefer overshadowed a great little bit of the Islanders’ struggles as a team over the primary three games, it could only go thus far before things turned in the opposite direction. Coach Patrick Roy spoke Thursday morning about wanting to get the team’s first win under general manager Mathieu Darche, and the Islanders had no real interest in flying to Ottawa on Friday with that milestone still hanging over their heads.
Particularly without the puck, the Islanders looked much better on Thursday. They forechecked heavily, the Alexander Romanov-Tony DeAngelo pair had by far its best game of the young season and Ryan Pulock was at his best, too. Mathew Barzal and Horvat each scored their first goals of the season. David Rittich, playing his first game in net, had a robust night facing a high-powered Oilers team. The insertion of Kyle MacLean onto the fourth line for Maxim Tsyplakov worked as intended.
This was the primary time Schaefer didn’t appear like the team’s best defensemen — though he did extend his points streak to 4 games with a secondary assist, his minutes were down notably from the 26-plus he played in each of the last two games — and with all due respect toward the 18-year-old, that might be a great thing for the Islanders’ possibilities of winning.
Even with all that, though, the sport seemed to be slipping out of the Islanders’ grasp late within the second as they trailed 2-1 and the Oilers bore down on the ability play. The vibe in UBS Arena modified immediately, though, as Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s feed off the wall sprung Horvat for a shorthanded break which tied the sport at two.
The Islanders had struggled on their very own power play all night, making a hash of their first two probabilities and failing to attain on their third. Their fourth, which got here when Schaefer drew a high stick on Trent Frederic, finally produced a breakthrough.
Right from the faceoff, Pageau got it to Horvat within the slot for a one-timer that ended up behind Skinner’s net and a 3-2 lead with 4:46 to go.
That made for a nervy previous few minutes with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the ice together, but Rittich stood tall to hold onto the lead before Horvat accomplished the hat trick with an empty-net goal.
With the Islanders entering the night without having held a lead at home yet this season, Barzal ended that ignominy 16:23 into the primary period, stripping the puck from Evan Bouchard and scoring on the following breakaway.
The 1-0 rating, nonetheless, lasted just 1:17 before Draisaitl converted on a power-play feed from McDavid.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gave the Oilers the lead 8:53 into the second with a wrist shot that beat Rittich from the left circle, and Edmonton seemed to be gaining steam throughout the second.
The Islanders, facing the prospect of an 0-4-0 start that will have qualified for the worst losing streak to start out a season in franchise history, didn’t wilt.
They avoided that calamity.
Now they need to put their first three games fully behind them, and jump properly into the fray.
The Islanders won’t be leaving home with a winless record hanging over their heads.
4 games into the season, they finally got off the schneid on Thursday by beating the Oilers 4-2 on the back of Bo Horvat’s hat trick, becoming the last team within the NHL to achieve points this season. It isn’t a great thing, and it is generally inaccurate, when a mid-October win will be described as needed, but this got here near qualifying.
While excitement over Matthew Schaefer overshadowed a great little bit of the Islanders’ struggles as a team over the primary three games, it could only go thus far before things turned in the opposite direction. Coach Patrick Roy spoke Thursday morning about wanting to get the team’s first win under general manager Mathieu Darche, and the Islanders had no real interest in flying to Ottawa on Friday with that milestone still hanging over their heads.
Particularly without the puck, the Islanders looked much better on Thursday. They forechecked heavily, the Alexander Romanov-Tony DeAngelo pair had by far its best game of the young season and Ryan Pulock was at his best, too. Mathew Barzal and Horvat each scored their first goals of the season. David Rittich, playing his first game in net, had a robust night facing a high-powered Oilers team. The insertion of Kyle MacLean onto the fourth line for Maxim Tsyplakov worked as intended.
This was the primary time Schaefer didn’t appear like the team’s best defensemen — though he did extend his points streak to 4 games with a secondary assist, his minutes were down notably from the 26-plus he played in each of the last two games — and with all due respect toward the 18-year-old, that might be a great thing for the Islanders’ possibilities of winning.
Even with all that, though, the sport seemed to be slipping out of the Islanders’ grasp late within the second as they trailed 2-1 and the Oilers bore down on the ability play. The vibe in UBS Arena modified immediately, though, as Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s feed off the wall sprung Horvat for a shorthanded break which tied the sport at two.
The Islanders had struggled on their very own power play all night, making a hash of their first two probabilities and failing to attain on their third. Their fourth, which got here when Schaefer drew a high stick on Trent Frederic, finally produced a breakthrough.
Right from the faceoff, Pageau got it to Horvat within the slot for a one-timer that ended up behind Skinner’s net and a 3-2 lead with 4:46 to go.
That made for a nervy previous few minutes with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the ice together, but Rittich stood tall to hold onto the lead before Horvat accomplished the hat trick with an empty-net goal.
With the Islanders entering the night without having held a lead at home yet this season, Barzal ended that ignominy 16:23 into the primary period, stripping the puck from Evan Bouchard and scoring on the following breakaway.
The 1-0 rating, nonetheless, lasted just 1:17 before Draisaitl converted on a power-play feed from McDavid.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gave the Oilers the lead 8:53 into the second with a wrist shot that beat Rittich from the left circle, and Edmonton seemed to be gaining steam throughout the second.
The Islanders, facing the prospect of an 0-4-0 start that will have qualified for the worst losing streak to start out a season in franchise history, didn’t wilt.
They avoided that calamity.
Now they need to put their first three games fully behind them, and jump properly into the fray.
