Follow me on Twitter:
@Hockey_Comps
Follow HockeyBuzz Islanders on Twitter:
@HB_Islanders
The New York Islanders dropped their second game of the season last night, falling 3-1 to the Buffalo Sabres.
Oliver Wahlstrom got into action for New York in place of Simon Holmstrom on the top line, while Julien Gauthier made his Islanders debut in place of Hudson Fasching on the third line.
While much of the first half of the frame was spent with special teams as a factor, it was still a pretty slow frame opening to the period altogether, without many chances exchanged. That said, late in the period, the Islanders did start to give up some good opportunities off the rush, including a partial breakaway for Dylan Cozens, but Semyon Varlamov came up with a couple good saves and the game remained scoreless through 20 minutes.
New York was struggling through the first half of the second frame after that, being outshot by about an 11-1 margin in the first half of the period, and needed Varlamov to keep the game scoreless to that point. Following a fight between Adam Pelech and Alex Tuch after a hit on Jeff Skinner, the Islanders did end up on another power play, but the Sabres had the best chance of the man advantage with a shorthanded rush for Kyle Okposo. Then just as the penalty ended, J.J. Peterka brought the puck in on a 2-on-1 and got the puck over to Casey Mittlestadt for a one-timer, only for Varlamov to slide over and make another huge save.
However, with only about three minutes to go in the frame, the Sabres finally got on the board, as Casey Mittelstadt slid a pass over to Jeff Skinner, who one-timed a shot past Varlamov for the first goal of the game. Then with only 36 seconds left, Mittelstadt managed to control the puck and get a pass back to Mattias Samuelsson, who beat Varlamov with a good shot to extend the lead to 2-0 through the first two periods. By the end of the frame, the Sabres were outshooting New York 31-16.
On yet another power play for the Sabres early in the third period, Dylan Cozens was able to extend the lead, finishing off a pass in front as the Sabres took a 3-0 lead. It looked like Tage Thompson then may have increased the lead to 4-0 a little later after driving to the net and bumping into Varlamov a bit, but after a review, it was determined the puck never crossed the line.
Still, the Islanders struggled through the frame, with a lack of urgency or quality chances. While Noah Dobson did manage to flutter a bit of a fluke shot past Eric Comrie to break the shutout with only about a minute to go, the Sabres hung on for the 3-1 win.
The Islanders may have only lost 3-1 last night, but it could have been considerably worse if not for Semyon Varlamov.
Varlamov stopped 40 shots and a significant number of high-danger chances, just to keep the Islanders in it for a while. From about the halfway point of the first period onwards, it was all Sabres, with the Islanders allowing chance after chance.
It’s the first really poor game the Islanders have played to this point, and the first time it seemed like there was a lack of engagement. You can blame it on the game being the second of a back-to-back, but the Islanders just couldn’t get anything going.
It was the first really off night for the second line in particular as well, but perhaps that shows how important their performance has been thus far to New York’s offense.
Oliver Wahlstrom didn’t seem to make much of an impact on the first line either with a single shot on goal. Overall, the Islanders’ first and second lines combined were outshot by a 14-6 margin at even strength (according to NaturalStatTrick.com).
We saw they've been able to shut down the Sabres – just look to the season opener. But there were very few positives to take away from last night's loss.
Hopefully, this was just a bit of a one-off for New York, following what was a pretty decent three-game stretch to start the year. They’ll be back in action on Tuesday, when they face the Colorado Avalanche.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
- Islanders announce 23-man roster
- Ross Johnston claimed off waivers by Ducks
- Islanders start the season strong with win over Sabres
- Islanders shut down Coyotes for 1-0 win
- Islanders give up four power play goals, fall to Devils in overtime 
New York Islanders Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»