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A late goal sunk the New York Islanders last night, as they fell 3-2 to the Washington Capitals.
Final. pic.twitter.com/HOus1wGLjr
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) January 27, 2021
The Islanders started a bit slow and Washington got the better chances in the first period. After that, however, it was a pretty even game and defensively, even though the Islanders gave up a high number of shots, there weren't as many quality chances given up.
Semyon Varlamov allowed more than a single goal in a game for the first time this season but still played well in the loss. He did bobble the initial point shot which led to the first goal but the second and third goals were good shots from a good location and he can’t really be faulted for them.
Unlike some of the other games, it wasn’t so much a matter of New York not capitalizing on their chances, as the Islanders didn’t have a ton of quality chances to begin with last night. The Islanders got very little going off the rush and relied on making things happen once set up in the offensive zone, which didn’t work out either. Poor mistakes, like Leo Komarov’s major penalty, didn’t give the Islanders much of an opportunity to get going either. As of now, the team is averaging under two goals per game through the first six games of the season.
Considering how many key players the Capitals were missing, this was a great opportunity for the Islanders to get a win. So while the back half of the game may have been fairly even, Washington was missing several important players and still managed to get the win.
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Here's today's poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
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