Lighthouse Hockey: Try to fixate on something else.
With the Islanders riding a three-game overtime win streak, if you were expecting a back-to-earth reality check against the league-leading Avalanche in Colorado, that’s not exactly what they received. Though the Isles lost, 4-1, the game was close until the end — an empty netter plus a garbage-time deflection goal by Brock Nelson inflated the […]
The Islanders are riding a 4-0 start to a seven-game stretch away from home that includes three consecutive overtime wins, which is both inspiring and classic “that’s the luck of the draw” kind of muddied reflection of where they are. The East is a mashup of meh-ness but the Islanders now find themselves in wild […]
Hey all, good to be back writing recaps! I spent the early part of the season in Tokyo, so the disastrous 0-3 start to the season happened in the early morning for me. It’s a weird experience to get notifications on Islanders goals while eating breakfast. But like I said, good to be back, and […]
If you didn’t stay up late last night, you missed quite the stirring against-script conclusion. Shorthanded in OT, having blown a 2-0 lead and then scored a late 6-on-5 goal just to make it to extra time, the Isles pulled off another one on the back of Ilya Sorokin and a tremendous individual play by […]
Joined again by their friend Sab, Mike and Dan remember Josef Vašíček, the big, versatile, likeable center who left us far too early in the Lokomotiv airplane disaster. Vašíček only spent one season on Long Island, but he made a lot of fans in that short time, bringing goals and a big smile to a […]
The Islanders pulled off multiple stunning escapes to take both points in Las Vegas, capped by J-G Pageau’s dramatic shorthanded solo effort to win the game in overtime, 4-3. Twice when things looked set for a loss, the Isles flipped the script, including Mat Barzal tying it with 2:37 left in regulation after his team […]
The Islanders’ seven-game road trip really gets down to business tonight with the opening of a back-to-back at Vegas and then Utah. Sorry for the mid-week gap in posts — I had something planned about the crater in the fourth line but an ill-timed broadband outage scrapped that. Dan and Mike touched on it in […]
The Islanders at the as-yet-undefeated-at-home Devils right where they wanted them: Having killed off a fourth Devils power play late in a tied game, the Isles finally got a power play of their own, and after a middling start, Kyle Palmieri cashed in for the would-be winner. But after missing several empty net tries and […]
Mike and Dan recap a week of great, bad and ugly as the Islanders follow-up a no-show performance at home with a hilarious win on the road. The week started with an eventful, entertaining game against the Bruins that didn’t go the Islanders’ way, and also included some social media drama. All of that was […]
The Islanders have a daunting November road trip ahead, but the travel part doesn’t kick in until later this week. For now, and tonight, they’re just over in Newark to complete the weekend’s metro area tour. That started with a thud at home on Long Island in an uninspiring loss to the Wild, but rebounded […]
Yeah, I think I’ll accept a flat home loss to the Wild in exchange for a Garden-silencing shutout of the Rangers any weekend. The Isles bounced back from a poor Friday night in front of home fans by pleasing plenty other home fans at Madison Square Garden with a 5-0 shutout of their pajama-clad rivals. […]
The Islanders and Rangers have their first meeting of the season in Manhattan tonight, with both teams playing the second half of a back-to-back. In theory the Isles have the advantage, since they played at home (but poorly) last night, while the Rangers are coming back from Detroit, where they beat the Red Wings handily. […]
Woof. The Islanders were thoroughly outplayed by a team that was on the back end of a traveling back-to-back, looking like a rusty, uninspired squad. It wasn’t laziness or lack of trying, rather it just looked like no one was in sync, no one could make or catch a pass — save for a couple […]
The Islanders are back in action for a hyperlocal back-to-back, with the Wild at home tonight followed by a visit to the Rangers on Saturday night to tee up a long and dreaded Western trip. The Wild are coming in on a back-to-back after losing in Raleigh last night, but we know quite well that […]
The Islanders had an extra day (and day off) to stew over missed opportunities in the shootout loss to the Bruins, and also for Matthew Schaefer to go on TNT and haze Henrik Lundqvist for being a Ranger. Speaking of which, tomorrow’s home game vs. the Wild is the start of a back-to-back that ends […]
The Islanders will try to make it a win streak tonight when they host the Bruins. For a change, they do not enter the evening in last place…they’re just among five teams tied for last in the East with 13 points. First Islanders Goal picks for tonight go here. Islanders News Elsewhere Four games last […]
Mike and Dan recap a busy week in which the Islanders stayed afloat thanks in large part to record-breaking super rookie Matthew Schaefer. The week started very poorly, with another blown lead followed by another blowout to a familiar bully. But what looked like a new bottom gave way to an unexpected rebound. A comeback […]
The Islanders capped an impressive third period with a stunning reversal of fortune in a 29-second span to steal back a 3-2 win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday. The Blue Jackets were playing back-to-back, after withstanding a similar third-period surge at home the night before. With a pretty entertaining and physical game […]
The Islanders return home for a brief spell with an early 5 p.m. EST start — though maybe not so early, given body clocks still on EDT — with the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are coming in on a back-to-back. The Blue Jackets beat the Blues at home, 3-2, last night, behind 37 saves by […]
Our friend John Muir is back to talk about three hockey cards of inaugural Islanders he came across in an unlikely location. While on a hunt for Pokémon cards with his kids, John found some NHL trading cards from 1972 that captured the soon-to-be-hapless Islanders in all their haplessness. One was a depth forward who […]
The Islanders’ fruitless four-game road trip continues in Washington after an eminently forgettable loss to the Hurricanes last night in Raleigh. They enter the evening last in the Eastern Conference — by points percentage as well as raw points now after last night’s regulation loss — and for many Isles fans, that’s quite according to […]
The Islanders lost easily in Raleigh, a fairly predictable result made moreso by the pre-game news that Mathew Barzal would be scratched as discipline for being late to the morning skate. It was never really close, with the Isles down 2-0 just over five minutes in — ex-Isles Mike Reilly adding a WTF shorthanded wraparound […]
The Islanders did not skate yesterday, so today’s morning skate is where we’ll get lineup updates (if any) and further sentiments on what went wrong against the Bruins. The 6-3 Carolina Hurricanes are their foes tonight, while the Islanders sit last in the conference by points — though their points percentage is a little better […]
The Islanders came up empty against a struggling Bruins team, wasting a good first period and countless power play opportunities to end up losing convincingly, 5-2 in Boston. The story could look like it came down to special teams, with the Isles going 0-for-5 on the power play while giving up two Bruins power play […]
The Islanders continue what becomes a very busy road trip tonight in Boston, where the Bruins are coming home after being thumped in Ottawa. So the back-to-back, the special opportunity and road trip narratives are all in play. (The Isles have a back-to-back later in the week vs. the Canes and Caps.) First Islanders Goal […]