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The New York Islanders came up short in their season opener against the Florida Panthers tonight, falling 3-1.
The Islanders took a penalty within the first 30 seconds of the game and gave up a few good chances in the first half of the opening frame, but things turned around quickly. New York started generating more quality chances and in the last five minutes of the period specifically, the Islanders had tons of opportunities. Mathew Barzal and Ryan Pulock both had great chances they couldn’t capitalize on and the game remained scoreless through 20 minutes – but after putting 16 shots on goal in the frame, the team looked really good and carried momentum into intermission.
New York took a couple penalties in the first half of the second frame but managed to kill them off, with Casey Cizikas and Nikita Soshnikov generating a great shorthand chance, forcing Sergei Bobrovsky to make a huge save. However, with about seven minutes left in the second period, Radko Gudas threw a shot on net and it was tipped in by Eetu Luostarinen to open the scoring. New York had a few more chances after that but couldn't’ even the game, as Florida held a 1-0 lead after taking over a bit the second period.
Only about three minutes into the third period, the Islanders got a power play chance of their own and Noah Dobson capitalized, beating Bobrovsky through a screen to tie the game. Just 30 seconds later through, Ilya Sorokin couldn’t hang onto an initial shot and Patric Hornqvist wrapped the puck around and past Sorokin to get the Panthers their lead back right away. The Islanders put together a pretty solid period afterwards and generated chances but with just over a minute to go, the Islanders couldn’t keep the puck in Florida’s end with their net empty and Matthew Tkachuk scored on the empty net to secure a 3-1 win for the Panthers.
It was definitely frustrating for the Islanders to go down 2-1 just after they had tied the game, on what was somewhat of an avoidable goal against. That said, I don’t think New York’s effort can be faulted here.
They outshot Florida 33-29 overall and generated some pretty good chances at each stage of the game. Of course, their inability to capitalize on those chances would be less of a concern if this was a one-off, rather than the consistent issue scoring has been for the team over the last number of years. That said, they were at least generating quality chances to begin with and did force Sergei Bobrovsky to make some key saves.
New York’s defense were also jumping into the play quite a bit, especially in the first two periods. This also didn’t come at the expense of their defensive responsibility, and was a welcome development.
The Islanders can’t take as many penalties as they did, giving the Panthers five power play chances. That said, some of those were arguably the result of questionable calls and New York’s penalty kill was sharp, going 5-for-5.
It’s obviously not the ideal result but it wasn’t a bad performance for the Islanders. They struggled to capitalize, but were at least able to generate good chances throughout most of the game.
New York’s next game comes on Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Islanders sign Mathew Barzal to eight-year contract extension
Islanders announce opening night roster
Andy Greene announces retirement 
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