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Islanders News: Blanked for third time in first six games

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NHL: Detroit Red Wings at New York Islanders
Not much doing. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

That is, in my opinion, bad.

The New York Islanders do not suck, as I angrily vented last night in the comments on the train home from that miserable game. But they sucked last night. I know what the shot counter says. Expected goals favored the Islanders, but at five-on-five, only barely so. That’s because, for the most part, the Islanders stayed to the outside and didn’t go to the net.

Even as a middling team, that’s something they can control—we know because we’ve seen them do it before. I don’t think the Detroit Red Wings did a good job keeping the Islanders to the outside; the Islanders kept themselves out there. Detroit didn’t want to be there and basically offered the Islanders two points, but the Islanders politely declined. “None for me, thank you.”

So much for the better start they expected of themselves. They’ve been shut out three times in their first six games, which may not be a record but it sure feels historic. I’m often willing to chalk some of this up to bad bounces, and most teams get shut out from time to time. But every other game two weeks in? That’s a red flag. If their being unable to score is what you expected, this is a new low. Ilya Sorokin has pitched three gems and the Islanders didn’t give him any run support at all in two of them.

There is still plenty of time to go on this run they think they can go on, but if this is life without Anthony Duclair, yikes. Don’t look ahead at the upcoming schedule either.

Islanders News

About last night:
  • The Islanders have a scoring problem. This is not a scheduled post. [LHH]
  • Patrick Roy would be more worried if the Islanders weren’t getting chances. That’s true. Hopefully, the goals do start falling, and we can look back on this stretch and laugh. [Islanders]
  • Obviously, holding the opponent to 11 shots is a good thing. The Islanders defended well last night, but again, I don’t think the Red Wings had any real interest in challenging them. It made the defenders’ job pretty easy. [Newsday]
  • The scary part is the Islanders may not know how to fix this. [NY Post]
  • “The attendance was the lowest in UBS Arena history.” Sure looked like it from my seat. [NYI Skinny]

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Not just about last night:
  • Liam Foudy was the first man up from Bridgeport and wants to make the most of his latest NHL gig. He was okay last night, didn’t notice him much. That line is meh. [Newsday]
  • Anders Lee has been good so far, scoring a couple of important goals and skating hard. [Islanders]
  • Xerox is the official office supply sponsor of the Isles and UBS Arena. [Islanders]
  • Cole Eiserman is off to a great start in his NCAA career. [Prospect Report]

Elsewhere

Last night’s NHL scores include every single team because it was the now-annual-I-guess Frozen Frenzy, where the NHL takes the concept of NFL Red Zone and says “What if we did the same thing with hockey but on a Tuesday night which happens to be NBA Opening Night?”

  • Not just scores; a quick synopsis of each game. [Sportsnet]
  • There was a Situation Room live-blog running for Frozen Frenzy if you want to skim through it. [NHL]
  • Craig Berube wants to end the Leafs’ Cup drought. [NHL] One of his defensemen, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, was fined for interference. [NHL]
  • Trevor Lewis is from Utah and looks forward to playing in his home state. Also, the scouts are working hard for the 4 Nations Face-Off. [NHL]
  • Paul Maurice signed a contract extension as Panthers coach. [NHL]