New York Islanders comeback falls short as Kraken dominate

The New York Islanders could not overcome 40 minutes of seemingly listless hockey, dropping a 5.2 decision to the Seattle Kraken. There were no controversies in this game like the last meeting between these two clubs. The Kraken dominated and beat the New York Islanders fair and square.

But it wasn’t that the Kraken were superior to the Islanders, it was that the Islanders allowed the Kraken to dominate the first 40 minutes of the game. The Isles were flat and showed little effort in getting the puck to go in the net.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s almost as if the Isles are playing not to lose. That mindset inevitably leads to ceding the momentum to opponents. The Kraken saw it and took full advantage of the situation. Meanwhile, the Isles found themselves down 4-0 during the second intermission.

But it must have been something Patrick Roy said during the second intermission that sparked a turnaround. Marcus Hogberg came into the game and pitched a shutout in the third period. Hogberg looked solid, stopping all 11 shots he faced.

That performance was welcome after Ilya Sorokin gave up four goals on 13 shots. Perhaps the goalie switch flipped something in the Islanders’ minds as they attacked the third period. The Isles applied pressure and found two goals.

Noah Dobson got the Isles on the board with Maxim Tsyplakov getting rewarded for his hard work with a goal. Tsyplakov was the Islanders’ best player on the night, getting a well-deserved goal midway through the third.

In the end, the comeback fell short as an empty-netter put the game away for good. The Isles can take the strong third-period effort as a momentum builder as they face the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday evening.

New York Islanders' disappointing special teams

Unfortunately, the Isles special teams were the biggest letdown against Seattle. The Islanders gave up two tallies with the man advantage. Perhaps the most glaring one was the goal by Shane Wright to put the Kraken up 4-0.

The Kraken kept the pressure on the entire power play, leaving a tired group of New York penalty killers gasping for air. The penalty killers stopped skating and the Kraken took advantage of that to put the game out of reach.

As fate would have it, the Islanders had a chance to get back into the game late in the second with a double-minor penalty. The call gave the Isles a four-minute power play. However, the Isles could not score, despite getting a couple of good looks.

In hindsight, the Islanders could have gotten back into the game had they scored. They didn’t and the comeback fell short.

It remains to be seen what, if anything, the New York Islanders can do to turn things around as this year is quickly becoming a lost season.