New York Islanders 3 Takeaways from 4-1 Loss To Philadelphia Flyers

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UNIONDALE, NEW YORK – MARCH 03: Robin Lehner #40 of the New York Islanders defends the net against Oskar Lindblom #23 of the Philadelphia Flyers during their game at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum on March 03, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /

Not Their Day

Nothing was going the New York Islanders way this afternoon. The 4-1 scoreline should have made that evident enough.

They created opportunities but weren’t good enough to bury any of them. Whatever opportunity they did create they either sailed wide or just bounced off an Islanders players stick like this Brock Nelson chance in the second period.

If despite all of that and the Islanders somehow found themselves with a good chance on net Brian Elliott was there to make the stop. It was the Islanders circa 2017-18 when they managed to make backups look like regular starters.

Although, to be fair to the Islanders who knows who the starter or the backup is in Philly. They’ve used a franchise record eight goalies this season. The starter could be Elliott for all we know. He certainly looked like it today.

Going the other way, the Islanders couldn’t keep the puck out of their own net. Within three minutes of the second period the score was 3-0 with Robin Lehner finding himself pulled for the first time in a long time.

For all three goals the Islanders were simply outworked. The first one Scott Mayfield got beat far too easily along the boards. On the second, Beau got out muscled in front of his own goal. And on the third Leddy got beat down low while Jordan Eberle decided he’d just wait and see what happened.

All three were preventable goals when a team is at peak awareness. The Islanders weren’t there today. Their decision making was second best and it manifested itself on the score sheet.