The Upshot: The NY Islanders fail to execute in 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Seattle Kraken snapped a three-game losing streak (0-2-1), defeating the New York Islanders 4-1 at Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday night. The Kraken (19-12-4) got goals from Adam Larsson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and newcomer Eeli Tolvanen, who scored in his first game with the team to hold a 3-1 lead after two periods.
Brandon Tanev added an empty-netter, and Martin Jones made 19 saves in the win. Mathew Barzal scored for the Islanders (21-15-2), who had their three-game winning streak end. Ilya Sorokin made 31 saves.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Another game where Ilya Sorokin was the Islanders' best player and presented a lopsided loss from being worse than it should have been. Making his sixth straight start, Sorokin made 31 saves, including two incredible ones in the second period that kept the Isles within striking distance.
WHAT WENT WRONG
The Isles didn't generate much of any offense against a Kraken team that has has trouble keeping the puck out of their net, including a 7-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in their previous game. It was the first time since November 11th (20 games) that Seattle allowed one goal or fewer
"We weren't executing. We weren't clean on our breakouts, and it starts there," Head Coach Lane Lambert said. "You can't play with speed if you don't execute or exit cleanly and we didn't do that… We didn't generate anything because we just didn't play the game the right way."
STATS OF THE GAME
Per NHL PR, Mathew Barzal became the fourth player in NHL history to score his 100th NHL goal in his 400th career game, following Eddie Wiseman (Feb. 15, 1941), Johnny Bucyk (Dec. 23, 1961) and Shawn Burr (March 13, 1991).
SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME
Tip of the cap to Islanders' die-hard Tom LoFaso, who made the trip to Seattle for New Years, visiting his 31st NHL Arena.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Islanders are back in action on Tuesday night as they visit the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night. Face-off is set for 10:00 PM EST.