Islanders weekly winners and losers: Tom Kuhnhackl stands out

Losers

Adam Pelech – 5GA

It was not a good week for the Islanders back end. They continued to display some uncharacteristic poor defensive play. They gave up nine goals in three games for an average of three. It’s certainly better than the 4.75 they were giving up last week, but it’s still above what you’d expect from a Barry Trotz team.

Naturally, that means the Islanders two most utilized bluelines will have poor numbers. Except that isn’t true. Pelech and Ryan Pulock play almost the same number of minutes. Pulock played 66:52 to Pelech’s 61:58 across all situations.

But Pulock has three goals against, Pelech has five (again all situations). At 5on5, Pelech has four to Pulock’s two. Pelech is supposed to be the Isles number one defender, he didn’t look it this week. Just watch his gap control on this Jonathan Toews goal from earlier in the week.

It wasn’t a good week for Pelech.

Thomas Greiss -.869SV%, 3GAA

The same can and should be said for Thomas Greiss. The German netminder had a sub-par week with a loss and was yanked after only eleven minutes of play and allowing three goals on eleven shots.

Piero Greco and Mitch Korn might have to spend a bit more time with Greiss, just to get him back to his Vezina-like form from earlier this season.

Derick Brassard – nothing

I’ve said it before when Brassard isn’t on a line with Brock Nelson and Anthony Beauvillier he’s invisible. And that’s bad news for the Islanders. They brought him in to carry their third line, not to be a dependant player.

Thankfully, it’s not a large commitment in terms of money and years, but it means they have to head back to the drawing board on a third-line center almost halfway through the season. Not ideal.