New York Islanders Can’t Keep Falling Behind Early In Games

More often than not this season, the New York Islanders have had to climb their way back into games. Whether they come out flat or their opposition matches their early intensity, the Isles keep finding themselves needing to come back. That can’t continue.

It seems as if every night the New York Islanders play, it’s a must-win game. And sure enough, every time the Islanders need to come up big and show up for a must-win game, they come out flat and give up multiple first-period goals.

That’s not all the time, though. Sometimes, the Isles come out of the locker room like they were shot out of a cannon. But as if it was written into a novel as a plot-twist, whatever team the New York Islanders are facing when they do show up comes out with the same level of intensity and it’s all for naught.

New York Islanders are good enough to dig themselves out of these holes, but they can’t continue like this

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• Islanders: Semyon Varlamov Deserves Benefit of the Doubt
• Islanders Ilya Sorokin becoming number one goalie
• Islanders Zach Parise Was Quiet in Return to Minnesota

If the Islanders want to get a tight grip on one of the two wild-card berths in the Eastern Conference, they’ll need to play a full sixty minutes, not just the last forty (or less). Take tonight for instance. Detroit put two in early, added another, and only then did the Isles wake up.

Then, in true New York Islanders fashion, they almost gave the game away again. Luckily, they were able to take advantage of Tyler Bertuzzi‘s blatant, two-handed slash on Cal Clutterbuck and tied the game up with around three minutes left.

Taking out Thomas Greiss seemed to flip a switch for the Islanders last night. Before that, it was Johnny Boychuk connecting on four punches with his back on the ice that got the Isles fired up. It’s scary that these types of circumstances are what it takes for the Islanders to wake themselves up.

Next: Go For It or Blow This Team Up?

The New York Islanders clearly have enough talent on their roster that they’re able to come back from all of these deficits they find themselves in. It’s just a damn shame that they’ve lost god-knows-how-many points this year by coming out flat. Thank goodness they didn’t give away two more last night.