Islanders: Three Takeaways from Playoff-Like 1-0 Win over Capitals

The New York Islanders and Washington Capitals squared off in a playoff-style matchup at Nassau Coliseum on a busy Tuesday night in the NHL’s East Division.

With all eight East Division teams in action on Tuesday, the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals squared off on Long Island in a matchup of two of the group’s three giants. It was a playoff-style matchup, characterized by tight-checking, a lack of time and space around the puck, and some questionable referee calls and non-calls, but the Islanders prevailed late.

Here are three takeaways from an exciting, sometimes anxious Islanders win at the Coli.

1. Semyon Varlamov’s Sharp Start

Semyon Varlamov had hit a rough stretch dating back to around mid-March entering Tuesday’s action. Since March 16, the Islanders goalie had posted a 2-3-0 record, .879 SV%, and -5.12 GSAx in his six total appearances, according to Natural Stat Trick and Hockey Reference. (Note: March 27’s relief appearance of Ilya Sorokin does not count as a loss on Varlamov’s record.)

Now, no goalie is immune to the ebbs and flows of a long NHL season and the sheer randomness of night-to-night goaltending results. Search any .920 SV% goalie’s game logs on Hockey Reference, and you’ll find a surprising number of sub-.900 SV% games.

Despite the recent downturn in Varlamov’s performances, Barry Trotz opted to hand off Tuesday’s starting duties to his 32-year-old goalie, and it paid off. Varly tracked pucks well through traffic, made key saves in times when the Islanders were playing too loosely in their own end, and recorded his first shutout since February 8.

From a standings perspective, Varlamov couldn’t have hand-picked a better time to re-find his form than tonight’s game. We’ll go into more detail later about why tonight was such an important win for the Islanders, but playing against a team you’re directly competing with for the divisional crown in a late-season game, in what could be a primer for one of the first two rounds of playoff hockey is pretty much enough reason by itself.

With three games remaining on the schedule this week, the Islanders will have to turn to Varly again. Considering his March 25 performance, which came on a week’s rest, I’d say it’ll be good to keep him and Sorokin rotating neatly this week. The Islanders netminder looked a little rusty that night.

The balancing act for the Islanders and Barry Trotz down the stretch will be about finding time for both goalies to play without overworking either of them. Varlamov has shown he can play very well in a tandem, and he’s shouldered the load of this season very well for the most part. The key will be getting him to the playoffs without rust, but with enough rest.

2. The Islanders Picked Up Points on a Busy Night in the East Division

The NHL’s East Division was abuzz with action on Tuesday night. All eight of the division’s teams played, and though there wasn’t much movement in the standings, the Islanders can feel pretty good about the results on Wednesday morning.

The Rangers, surging for a late season playoff push for the second season in a row, put a pretty good beating on the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden. The Rags cruised to a lopsided 8-4 win with key contributions from Panarin, Zibanejad, Strome, Kakko, Lafrenière, and others, including Norris Trophy candidate, Adam Fox.

The win draws the Rangers to within five points of the fourth place Boston Bruins, and leapfrogs them ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers for fifth. Speaking of the Bruins and Flyers, they squared off at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly, where the offensively-anemic Bruins topped the tail-spinning Flyers by a score of 4-2.

This is really the only result of the night that didn’t fall the Islanders’ way. Ideally, the B’s, who are nearer to striking distance than Philly, would’ve dropped points thus making the climb to the top-three East Division spots a steeper one.

Finally, in what was really Tuesday’s least consequential game of the night around the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres met the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. By least consequential, I of course mean that the teams involved are furthest removed from contention. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t an interesting storyline to come out of the game.

Taylor Hall, the Sabres left winger who is this trade deadline’s biggest name, did not dress for Buffalo. Kyle Palmieri was healthy scratched for the second game in a row by New Jersey. Both players are desired trade targets for a number of contending NHL teams, of which the Islanders are considered one.

Whatever happens on the trade front, this was a positive night for the Islanders. The team bought their management some more time with the win, and they look to be figuring out the Capitals again, as well as closing the gap for first place.