The Upshot: NY Islanders allow three goals in 32 seconds; blanked 4-0 by St. Louis

HOW IT HAPPENED

The St. Louis Blues scored the fastest three goals in a 32-span of the second period and went on to shutout the New York Islanders 4-0 at home on Thursday night. Brandon Saad opened up the scoring on the power-play, followed by a Pavel Buchnevich goal seven seconds later. Buchnevich scored again 25 seconds later and added an empty-netter in the third for his fourth career hat trick. Robert Thomas had three assists for the Blues (30-24-2), and Jordan Binnington made 38 saves for the shutout win. Semyon Varlamov had 21 saves for the Isles (23-19-14) in the loss. Mathew Barzal’s eight-game point streak came to an end.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Patrick Roy was pleased with how his team kept playing hard and never stopped trying to get back into the hockey game after falling down 3-0 in just 32 seconds. He felt the team, outside of the a few critical mistakes, played well enough to win the hockey game and that comes across in the stats. The Isles outshot St. Louis 38 to 25 and outhit them 25 to 11. They only had three giveaways compared to 11 by the Blues. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Islanders had 4.29 expected goals to 2.29 for St. Louis.

WHAT WENT WRONG

The Islanders had their chances throughout the game with Kyle Palmieri, Mathew Barzal and Brock Nelson all having point-blank opportunities against Binnington, but couldn't break through to turn momentum back in the Islanders direction.

During the post-game, Roy talked about one failed clearing opportunity that led to the first St. Louis goal as the key to the game. Alexander Romanov had the puck on his stick, and rather than just sending it deep with 32 seconds left on the penalty kill, he tried an outlet pass that was intercepted and quickly sent the Blues back into the zone, leading to the game's first goal.

"We played well enough to win tonight; there's no doubt in my mind, but we're making critical mistakes at the wrong time, and that clear on PK, to me, was the difference in that game." - Patrick Roy #Isles pic.twitter.com/fVc0j1FlcM
— 𝐈𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐱 (@IslesFix) February 23, 2024

STATS OF THE GAME

Per NHL PR, The Blues became the fourth team in the past 30 years to record three goals in a span of 32 seconds, joining the Kings (0:30 on Oct. 12, 2019), Islanders (0:31 on Feb. 9, 2022) and Lightning (0:32 on March 6, 2022)

THE BLUES JUST SCORED THREE GOALS IN 32 SECONDS 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Z7oFNfJ7KA
— NHL (@NHL) February 23, 2024

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

Some things just can't be explained ...

How am I supposed to explain this to my daughter in the morning??????? pic.twitter.com/U8ga3t6sue
— Ethan aka The People’s Insider (@EthanGSN) February 23, 2024

WHAT'S NEXT

The Islanders return home to UBS Arena on Saturday afternoon for a matinee match-up with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Face-off is set for 2:00 PM EST