Islanders Lose 8-3 Clunker To Nashville (Highlights)

The New York Islanders dropped a real stinker tonight to the Nashville Predators 8-3. Here’s what went wrong for the Isles.

Well, that sucked. The New York Islanders played probably the strangest game of the Barry Trotz era against his former team at the Coliseum tonight. The Preds were coming off a game against the Rangers last night so the assumption was that they’d be the tired team, they were nowhere close to that.

In the first, Craig Smith scored his third goal of the year 4:39 into the period. It was Nick Bonino’s checking ability that created the play and allowed Smith to bury the puck. Despite being down 1-0, the Islanders still outshot Nashville 12-6 in the period.

The Isles scoring chances began to be converted to goals early in the second period. First, it was Brock Nelson who tied up the game at one. Then, on the power play Derick Brassard netted his eighth of the season to give the Isles the lead:

What a nice play from Brassard, who was really due for a goal. At this point the momentum was all Islanders. Casey Cizikas would also add a short-handed goal to make it a two-goal lead just before the halfway point of the game.

Then, the wheels came off. First it was Filip Forsberg who netted a goal on the power play mere seconds after the Cizikas goal. Then, Craig Smith just two minutes laster was able to tie up the game.

In the final two minutes of the period, Nick Bonino and Rocco Grimaldi would add two more soft goals to give Nashville a 5-3 lead. Greiss had allowed five goals on just 15 shots. This was the Grimaldi goal:

Four unanswered goals to end the period was rough, somehow things got worse though in the third. Varlamov allowed goals on the first two shots he faced, and in the blink of an eye it was 7-3Preds.

Ryan Johansen would add one more for good measure as the final would be 8-3. Unfortunately for the Islanders, it just wasn’t their night. They developed shots but were unable to keep pace with the Preds who were just scoring at will.

A rare off night for the goalie tandem who posted a .667 save percentage tonight. The Isles play Boston on Thursday so the competition doesn’t get any easier.

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Winners: Craig Smith, Nick Bonino, Ryan Ellis

Losers: Thomas Greiss, Semyon Varlamov, Devon Toews