Islanders: Three Takeaways from 8-4 Win over Capitals

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Mathew Barzal #13 of the New York Islanders. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

The New York Islanders let their offense do the heavy-lifting on Thursday night, as they beat the Capitals in a pretty dominant 8-4 win at the Coliseum.

The New York Islanders conceded Thursday night’s first goal only 1:01 into the first period, and it looked like things might go off the rails for them at Nassau Coliseum. That was before the Isles’ top-six forward group took over the game and ultimately led New York to a dominant 8-4 victory.

Here are three takeaways from a very, very good night for the Islanders.

1. Mathew Barzal is Unleashed

You remember that scene from The Simpsons where Homer, dressed as Krusty the Clown, mercilessly beats the Krusty Burglar? The one where the kid in the crowd says “Stop! Stop! He’s already dead!”, you know the one. Yeah, that’s Mat Barzal and the race for 2021’s goal of the year. He’s already dead, Mat, you can stop now.

That was my reaction to Thursday night’s latest poetry in motion on Barzal’s first goal of three. Like, Mat, the goal of the year is yours, you don’t need to continue. Yet, he continues, and I’m not mad about it.

That goal is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. The craziest part is, it’s not even the best goal he’s scored all season. But by God, is it up there or what?

Off memory alone, I say it beats goals from earlier this season in which Barzal went up against victims Tony DeAngelo and P.O. Joseph 1v1 and totally undressed both. He beats like four defenders on Thursday’s goal. Still, his bulldozing of Rasmus Ristolainen and subsequent between the legs goal against Buffalo earlier this season remains my front-runner for 2021’s goal of the year.

Barzal, who has had some difficulties over the last few games with Leo Komarov on his wing, exploded Thursday night, and in the process had one of his best games of the season, and probably his entire career.

At the time of writing this, (about 10:30 pm Thursday night) four Islanders top the Hockey Stat Cards leaderboard in Game Score. They are Jordan Eberle, Leo Komarov, Josh Bailey, and of course, Mat Barzal, who had an absurd Game Score of 7.63, the highest any player has had in the NHL this season.

Barzal was just totally shot out of a cannon against the Capitals. He recorded nine total shot attempts, eight individual scoring chances for, five individual high danger chances-for, and finished with five points on the night, with a hat-trick in the final moments of regulation as a reward for his dominant effort. Just a ludicrous night from him. Take a bow indeed.

Leo Komarov #47 of the New York Islanders. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

2. The Islanders Top Line was Unstoppable vs. the Capitals

Ya know, Leo Komarov catches a lot of flak for his performance as a member of the Islanders top line, and Thursday does nothing to change the fact he should not continue to play there, but Leo wasn’t bad on Thursday. None of the three players on that Islanders top line were.

We’ve already talked about Barzal, and I could do like 15 more slides of how good Barzal was on Thursday, but let’s shine a spotlight on his two linemates.

Jordan Eberle, who has been up-and-down in 2020-21 but much less so than previous seasons, had his best game in a while, recording two goals and an assist. His 0.27 ixG was good for fourth on the Islanders, and the blue and orange controlled greater than 94% of unblocked shot attempts (15-1), and 100% of High Danger Chances For (adjusted for score and venue) with Ebs on the ice.

With all three of Barzal, Eberle, and Komarov on the ice, the Islanders outshot Washington 12-0. The Capitals weren’t even allowed a single unblocked shot attempt against the Barzal unit. Just absolutely suffocating puck possession by them in their best game together to date.

Perhaps even more impressively, the Islanders top line pitched a shutout in the xGA column, as well as racking up 1.10 xGF. It’s absolutely crazy for a single 5v5 line to accumulate over one xG in a single game, and the Islanders had two lines do that on the night. I know I’ve said it a lot already, but man, this was an absolutely dominant offensive performance from the top line and the rest of the Islanders.

Cal Clutterbuck #15 of the New York Islanders. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

3. The Race for First Place in the East Division

At the end of Thursday night’s action, there are now three teams with 50 points sitting atop the MassMutual NHL East Division. They are the New York Islanders, Washington Capitals, and Pittsburgh Penguins, and they’ve done a pretty good job of separating themselves from the field over the last two months.

Of course, there can only be one division winner at season’s end, and that has serious implications for home-ice advantage in the playoffs. The Capitals, with a 10-5-2 away record, probably won’t be as negatively impacted by playing more often on the road than the Islanders or Penguins.

The Isles and Pens are 9-9-2 and 8-8-1 on the road this season, which are pretty sub-optimal away records for two teams fighting for the top of a division. They would both obviously like to secure home ice for at least one round of the playoffs, if not both.

The East is a tight race at the top, and in that sense, it isn’t unlike the other NHL divisions. The Central also features three teams with at least 50 points, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Flordia Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes. But none of those Central teams have such polar opposite home and away records as the Islanders and Penguins do.

New York and Pittsburgh won’t meet again this regular season, and so will have to battle for points and hope for some help from other intradivision rivals to secure the top seed. However, they do both have games remaining against Washington.

Here the remaining schedules by opponent for each of the three East Division leaders:

WSH – 2 vs NJD (0H, 2A) // 4 vs NYI (1H, 3A) // 4 vs BOS (2H, 2A) // 2 vs BUF (1H, 1A) // 4 vs PHI (3H, 1A) // 2 vs PIT (2H, 0A) // 2 vs NYR (0H, 2A)

NYI – 3 vs PHI (2H, 1A) // 4 vs WSH (3H, 1A) // 5 vs NYR (4H, 1A) // 3 vs BOS (0H, 3A) // 2 vs BUF (0H, 2A) // 2 vs NJD (2H, 0A)

PIT – 3 vs BOS (2H, 1A) // 2 vs NYR (0H, 2A) // 5 vs NJD (3H, 2A) // 3 vs PHI (1H, 2A) // 4 vs BUF (2H,2A) // 2 vs WSH (0H, 2A)

Now, with four games vs Washington three games vs Boston, (on the road no less), and five games vs the Rangers remaining, the Islanders don’t have an incredibly easy schedule down the stretch. The benefit to their schedule is that the majority of the games will be played at old Fort Neverlose, where they have only lost once in regulation during 2020-21.

Obviously, without games remaining vs Pittsburgh, the Isles will need to hope for some help from the likes of New Jersey and Buffalo to swindle some points away from the Penguins. The Rangers and Philadelphia could also benefit the Islanders by beating Pittsburgh at their home rinks since, as we’ve discussed, the Penguins are also not a good road team.

With Washington, the Islanders gameplan is much simpler. They have four games remaining vs the Caps, and three of those are on home ice. Of course, it would also be nice if Boston and Philadelphia would help out, considering they each have four games left on the slate vs the Capitals.

The race for the East Division crown is only just beginning to heat up. The Islanders should be gunning for first and home-ice advantage in the first two rounds of this year’s unique playoff setup, but the Capitals and Penguins will be doing the same. With head-to-head matchups remaining on the schedule, it should be a very interesting month-plus of East Division hockey.

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