Islanders: Three Takeaways from Streak-Snapping 4-3 Win

2 of 3

New York Islanders right wing Jordan Eberle (7) Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports /

The New York Islanders’ five-game losing streak ended with a regulation victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. Here are 3 takeaways from the win.

And just like that, the New York Islanders‘ five-game losing streak ends with a regulation victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. It wasn’t a perfect performance from the Islanders, but it was good enough to get a 4-3 win.

Here are three takeaways from the Islanders Saturday return to action.

1. The New York Islanders second line

The Islanders second line has consistently underperformed this season, and while they weren’t perfect on Saturday either, there was an easily identifiable positive change in the line’s effectiveness.

That change is that the second line actually scored, not even just once, but twice. Jordan Eberle got the game’s scoring started with a backhand shot that beat Tristan Jarry high on the blocker side, and followed it up with a second marker just under five minutes after.

Eberle, who is off to the hottest start of his Islanders career, deserves a lot of praise for his line’s performance last night. According to Moneypuck, his 0.82 xGF led all Islanders and accounted for 25% of the team’s expected goals.

But his linemates Brock Nelson and Michael Dal Colle deserve credit too. Dal Colle in particular was a pleasant surprise last night. I liked his tenacity on the forecheck, and he was able to disrupt a couple of Penguins zone exits because of that.

Brock Nelson still looked like he was struggling to me. But, he did have an assist and was in the right place to get a loose puck toward the net in order to collect that helper. According to Moneypuck, he ranked fourth on the team for xGF, with a 0.28 mark there, good for about 8.54% of the Islanders’ expected goals Saturday.

With Anthony Beauvillier still reportedly unavailable until after Monday’s Rangers matchup, I like the idea of keeping this line together. It was, in my opinion, the best play-driving line the Islanders had on Saturday, and Barry Trotz rewarded them for it with 11:51 5v5 TOI, a team-high.

Anders Lee #27 of the New York Islanders (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

2. The power-play scored in the clutch

With all due respect to Islanders assistant coach Jim Hiller, this team’s power-play is the last unit I want on the ice with a chance to win a game on any given night.

With that said though, the Islanders took their only 5v4 opportunity of the night and cashed in on it, with Anders Lee burying a loose puck in the crease to seal the 4-3 victory.

It wasn’t just Lee’s put-back from the crease that I want to focus on, though. The Islanders power-play more generally looked really good on their only opportunity in Saturday’s final frame.

Puck movement, puck retrieval, decision making, and finally, rebound retrieval, it was all clicking for the Islanders first power-play unit, the only one to see the ice on their man advantage opportunity.

That’s a far cry from most nights when this unit looks disjointed, sloppy, and robotic. If this had been an average Islanders power-play, 70% of it would’ve been one of Mat Barzal, Noah Dobson, or Nick Leddy trying and failing to enter the offensive zone and find a passing target. The other 30% would be spent trying to feed Ryan Pulock a pass in Ovechkin’s office for a shot that would eventually miss the net or get blocked.

Not last night though. Last night, the Islanders spent their 1:01 of time at 5v4 moving the puck in the Pittsburgh zone with relative ease.

Now, it should be noted that the Penguins penalty-kill is tied for fifth-worst in the NHL with a 72.2% successful kill rate, so this isn’t one of the elite penalty-killing teams the Islanders scored on. We’ve seen this Islanders power-play move the puck nicely against poor penalty-killing teams before, see the Rangers game on opening night.

So, this shouldn’t be a cause to celebrate and declare the power-play a non-concern moving forward. The Islanders still need to work on this unit and get it contributing more consistently. For a team that’s as offensively strapped as the Isles are, they can’t afford to give away scoring opportunities the way this unit does.

But, last night the power-play delivered, and the Islanders won because of it, and sometimes when you’re looking to snap out of a funk it’s an unlikely contribution that gets the job done. So that was really cool.

Scott Mayfield #24 of the New York Islanders (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

3. Sloppy defensive zone play

Two points are two points, and snapping a five-game losing streak in their first game in a week’s time is great, but this wasn’t a perfect performance by the Islanders.

Because the team’s philosophy revolves around responsibility in the defensive zone, and building offense through strong defense, it’s concerning to see such sloppy play in the Islanders own end.

The Penguins were gifted odd-man rushes at an alarming rate Saturday, and with such dangerous offensive weapons, it’s incredibly fortunate they didn’t convert those to goals more often.

The pairing of Scott Mayfield and Nick Leddy wasn’t great. They each accounted for bad giveaways as they attempted transitional passes, each of which promptly wound up in the Islanders net.

Leddy’s giveaway came on the first Pittsburgh goal, as he attempted to move the puck up the boards to Anders Lee in the neutral zone. The pass was broken up, and the Penguins quickly came down to score.

Mayfield’s error was worse, in my mind. He started the play well by busting up a Penguins zone entry, but one weak attempt at a zone exiting pass later, and the struggling Evgeni Malkin ended up with the puck on his tape. Malkin made no mistake, burying his shot high over Semyon Varlamov’s glove hand to tie the game at 2-2 in the dying seconds of the second period.

Later, the Islanders fourth line was out-hustled by a forechecking Penguins top line in the Isles zone, and Casey Cizikas uncharacteristically confused coverages, leaving Jake Guentzel wide-open in the slot to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.

These are just the most glaring examples of defensive miscues by the Islanders on Saturday, not the only ones. Needless to say, this is the stuff that Barry Trotz will want to get cleaned up before Monday’s tilt at Madison Square Garden.

4. Miscellaneous Thoughts

Semyon Varlamov became the third Islanders goalie after Billy Smith and Dwayne Roloson to play in his 500th NHL game with the Islanders franchise. The win is the 236th of Varlamov’s career.

I don’t want to harp on Nick Leddy too much, but did anyone else catch his attempted end-to-end rush that wound up turning the puck over and causing an odd-man rush the other way? Yeah, that ain’t great.

Leddy’s abilities as a puck-carrier are probably the best the Islanders have on the blue line right now, so him carrying the puck up-ice isn’t inherently a bad thing. It’s the poor decision-making he displays once he’s gained the other team’s zone that is troubling and needs remedying. That play almost ended up with the Islanders being scored on. That is not how you want your puck-carrying defenseman’s rushes ending up.

With an assist on Anders Lee’s game-winning power-play goal, Mathew Barzal is now on a five-game point streak (2G, 5A).

Earlier I mentioned this is Jordan Eberle’s hottest start to a season since he arrived on Long Island. He now has five goals and two assists for seven points in 10 games in 2020-21. He had six points through 10 games in 2017-18, four points through 10 in 2018-19, and five points through 10 in 2019-20.

Eberle hadn’t recorded a multi-goal game in his first 10 appearances during any of his previous three seasons with the Islanders. He has two two-goal games in the first 10 of 2020-21. The Islanders need the goals, so hopefully, that trend continues.

Home / Editorials