That wasn’t great.
The New York Islanders fell to 1-3 on the season, falling 5-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes last night. Here’s the game recap.
Thomas Greiss made an excellent rebound stop on Joel Edmundson in the first minute of the game. A few minutes later though the Islanders gave up the puck leading to an odd-man rush, where Dougie Hamilton found Teuvo Teravainen, leaving Greiss without a chance.
The Islanders tied it up later in the period on a power play, where Josh Bailey found Brock Nelson who was left with the wide-open net and didn’t miss. Nelson dove to get to puck back to the point off the faceoff, then got himself into a good position in front of the net to give Bailey a great option. I said this last game or the game before but he’s been one of the Islanders’ better forwards so far.
Brett Pesce got Carolna’s lead back a bit later though when he got the puck at a tight angle right in front of the net and beat Greiss blocker side. This is a shot he shouldn’t have been able to get off from that spot with a cluster of about three or four Islanders players around. Despite allowing two goals, I thought Greiss had a strong period based on the chances Carolina was able to get, as the Hurricanes outshot New York 16-8 in the opening period.
New York tied it once again though on a power play to open the second period. The Islanders came out strong and Brock Nelson took a hit to get the puck back to Johnny Boychuk, who blasted a wicked slapshot by Petr Mrazek.
New York’s offense dried up after that though and similar to what Carolina was able to do to Tampa Bay a couple days ago, the Islanders weren’t able to get any offense for the majority of the rest of the game. If my math is right, the Islanders managed just four shots in the final 35 minutes.
Erik Haula put Carolina up 3-2 when he was able to cut right out front from behind the net, get a shot on Greiss, which was stopped, but then score on his own rebound. This just can’t happen and he can’t be able to get those shots off. Derick Brassard couldn’t strip him of the puck, Adam Pelech backed off to play a pass or a rebound coming out the other side and Ryan Pulock just stood there and watched. That was the second goal of the night where New York gave up a goal as a result of letting a player get a shot off that he never should have.
Hamilton added to the lead with about a minute to go in the period, blasting a shot by Greiss which I’m not sure he saw. Devon Toews then just about scored in the dying seconds but his point shot went square off the post.
The third period was just the Hurricanes peppering Greiss with shots, as they outshot New York 15-2 in the third. Andrei Svechnikov iced it with an empty net goal in the final minute.
I’ve been pretty disappointed by Mathew Barzal so far. He’s been getting knocked off the puck easily and hasn’t been carrying it much, though he did look better in the second half of the game. He has to be one of New York’s best players if not the best player and so far, he hasn’t been.
Thomas Greiss can’t really be faulted for any of the goals. The Hurricanes had chance after chance and it could have been worse if Greiss hadn’t stood tall.
The Islanders defense was less than stellar to put it lightly. They gave up far too many high-chance shots and uncharacteristically there were multiple odd-man rushes as well.
Check back later in the day for a pre-game report for tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers.
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OTHER ISLANDERS ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Game Recap (Game 3): NYI vs EDM
Game Recap (Game 2): NYI vs WPG
Game Recap (Game 1): NYI vs WSH
Josh Ho-Sang has requested a trade
Fritz, Hickey and Ho-Sang clear waivers 
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