New York Islanders Fall To Defending Champs (Highlights)

For a while it seemed the New York Islanders were keeping up with the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Then fell 4-2 by the end of it.

Penalties were a big issue for the New York Islanders tonight. Just 46 seconds into the game Patric Hornqvist scored on a power play goal, John Tavares found himself in the box early in this one.

Luckily for the Islanders Jaroslav Halak was on his game early. He kept them off the board through the rest of the period. At the end of one it was just a one goal deficit. Unfortunately for the Islanders Marc-Andre Fleury was really on his game.

The Islanders were able to get on the board thanks to Travis Hamonic in the second. He was able to score on a feed from Shane Prince who was just activated off IR.

The Islanders keep getting good offense out of there d-men. Now all six d-men have a goal which can be looked at a good thing. But, when Andrew Ladd is scoreless it makes you really think.

The Islanders were much better in the second period. They looked like the better team and they were definitely getting more chances than the Penguins. They even ended the period on the power play which would carry over to the third.

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The momentum shortly died once the third period began. Evgeni Malkin put the Pens back on top. It was a pretty soft goal from Jaroslav Halak.

It felt like the air was being sucked out of the sails, but the Isles responded with a goal from Shane Prince off a strange bounce.

Prince had a very good game, and he made his case to stay in the lineup once Nikolai Kulemin comes back.

Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel added goals to make it 4-2 and that would be the final.

Overall it was a game of missed opportunities for the Islanders. They got a good performance from Halak but they couldn’t get anything going on the offensive side.

Next: Is Cappy The Right Man For The Job?

Andrew Ladd has yet to score, the Islanders killed themselves by taking bad penalties, and they just looked flat and unmotivated at times. New year, same issues. Jack Capuano must address this before things begin to get out of hand.