NY Islanders: 5 moments from Alexander Romanov you’ll love

Romanov buries Sam Lafferty

It's only fitting to start the highlight reel with one of Romanov's big hits. The Canadiens visited the United Center on January 13th to take on the Chicago Blackhawks. Both teams to this point were out of the playoff equation, however, that didn't result in a game that lacked compete.

In this play, Sam Lafferty receives a pass behind the Montreal defenders, loosely handling the puck with the opportunity to gain control of the offensive zone. Romanov uses his excellent skating ability to catch up to the Blackhawks forward and lays a big check on Lafferty. At full speed, it appeared as if it could have been a questionable hit, however, replays showed Romanov made shoulder-to-shoulder contact making for a clean hit. Lafferty was okay, popping back up immediately from the hit and skating off on his own accord, but not before Ryan Carpenter took exception, defending his and wrestling Romanov to the ground. However, at 6'1", 209 lbs, Romanov came out of the scrap on top of Carpenter.

It's hard to say that Romanov saved a goal, but he stopped a scoring chance no-less. Romanov took a good route to catch up to Lafferty in order to make shoulder-on-shoulder contact and throw a clean hit. It's the kind of pace and electricity Islander fans are used to seeing from the fourth line (before last season), and is the kind of injection the Islanders were missing on the blue line in 2021-22.