PHILADELPHIA — On Tuesday, the Islanders misplaced two gamers, two fights and one recreation.
All in all, not a terrific night time.
The rematch of Saturday’s affair between the Islanders and Flyers ended up bruising the Isles in additional methods than one. In the beginning, they suffered a 3-1 loss to a Philadelphia crew that got here in having misplaced 10 straight, blowing what figured to be a straightforward pickup of two factors.
Regardless of coming in on the again of 4 straight wins, the Islanders performed a meandering recreation, ceding to the Flyers’ want to maintain the hostilities from Saturday alight in the beginning after which appearing for the following 59:52 as if they had been nonetheless seeing stars.
So as to add to the indignity, winger Josh Bailey was declared out with an upper-body damage shortly after taking warm-ups, throughout which Bailey participated in line rushes. He was declared day-to-day. Winger Cal Clutterbuck additionally left the bench throughout the first interval. And it was the fourth straight recreation the Isles performed with out Kyle Palmieri, who didn’t make the journey.
The night time began with a carryover from the top of Saturday’s recreation, when Nicolas Deslauriers sparked a brawl by working Isles defenseman Alexander Romanov. Matt Martin and Zack MacEwen dropped gloves simply seven seconds after the opening faceoff and after that bought sorted out, Deslauriers and Ross Johnston adopted instantly after the following faceoff.
As soon as issues calmed down sufficient to take the match from 1976 again to 2022, the Islanders jumped out to an early lead with Noah Dobson scoring a five-on-three one-timer from Mathew Barzal at 3:12 of the primary. Earlier than the following five-on-four had expired, although, Travis Sanheim tied the sport up for the Flyers with a shorthanded tally that stemmed from a rush probability the Isles initially appeared to have quelled.
Kevin Hayes put the Flyers in entrance, 2-1, with a wrist shot straight off Lukas Sedlak’s faceoff win at 9:45 of the primary.
Issues would develop worse from there, because the Isles had been left with out a solution offensively.
The most effective probability they bought got here through Anthony Beauvillier with just below quarter-hour to go within the recreation. With Carter Hart out of the web, Beauvillier’s shot was blocked by Nick Seeler and he couldn’t corral the rebound. Since that didn’t depend as a shot on aim, the Islanders went over 10 minutes with out one throughout a stretch of the third.
Kevin Hayes added an empty-net aim with 33.2 seconds to go to make it 3-1.
It’s potential that the larger concern than the loss for the Islanders, who now sit at 15-9-0, is that they now have damage questions hovering over three of their forwards. It’s clear that their desire is to hold a 22-man roster and accrue cap house, however that’s unattainable with anybody harm — not to mention three gamers.
Palmieri and Bailey have each been designated day-to-day, leaving ample room for the chance that they may shortly bounce again. However the scenario bears watching.
The Islanders’ play left room for query as properly on Tuesday.
They regarded, in a phrase, drained. They had been sloppy in their very own zone, performed lackadaisical hockey and paid for it. Had they managed to muster up simply 20 good minutes, the Isles might need gotten away with it — they’ve finished so earlier than this season, and this Flyers facet was not enjoying an impressed recreation itself.
However this was 60 minutes of hell, and the Islanders shall be glad to place it behind them.