Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
In the past week, the New York Islanders have played five games, including two pairs of games on back-to-back nights. The Vancouver Canucks still played four in the same span, with the exception that their most recent game was two days ago, not one. The rest, or lack thereof, wasn’t the only issue for the Islanders: once again they performed poorly on special teams. The result was a 4-0 loss for the Islanders.
As per usual, the Islanders came out strong in the first period. However, they couldn’t manage a goal. They even looked good on their first penalty kill of the night, clearing the puck twice and keeping the Canucks out of the offensive zone for most of the two minutes.
Then the second period began and, with that, the Islanders’ collapse. They surrendered a goal on each of the next two power plays, giving the Canucks a 2-0 lead. For everything that’s gone right for the Islanders this season, penalty killing hasn’t been one of them. The fifth-best team in the NHL is second-worst at penalty killing, with a 74.8 success percentage. For reference, the only team worse than the Islanders are the Buffalo Sabres, who are the worst team in the league.
The success of this team has come from their offense, led by John Tavares, who is fourth and sixth in point and goals with 62 and 29, respectively. Yet for all the chances the Islanders had — and they had plenty of them with 37 shots on goal — they couldn’t connect. Obviously the quantity was there, and they even had some quality chances too, especially when Canucks’ starter Ryan Miller went down with an injury in the early second period.
But, nothing.
Sometimes it comes down to one team just playing better than the other. And tonight, the Canucks played better than the Islanders.
It’s only one game, but the fact that the Islanders are still so poor on the penalty kill has to be worrisome. Three of the last five Stanley Cup champions were in the top five in penalty killing percentage. The lowest of those five were the Boston Bruins, who were 16th in the league when they won in 2011. And even 16th sounds good when compared to 29th.
There was one bright spot after the game, however. Frans Nielsen returned to the ice after leaving the second period early with an apparent leg injury. He’s not Tavares, but he’s definitely one of the more important players for the Islanders and having both him and Kyle Okposo out would certainly be bad news. Fortunately, he was able to finish the game and it appears he won’t miss any significant time.
It was just an overall bad night for the Islanders. But it was just that: one night. They’re still a good team with only a couple flaws. They have plenty of time to right the ship before the playoffs, which appear imminent for this team.
Matt Turner is a New York Mets Writer for www.RantSports.com. “Like” him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter @MTurnerNY, or add him to your network on LinkedIn or Google
