The Islanders like the direction they’re trending through their first four games of the season. Until Saturday, though, they had yet to test against a real competitor.
Now that they’ve done that, while the Islanders can be pleased with some parts of their game, the overall result wasn’t to their liking.
Lightning is faster and smarter. For the most part, Tampa Bay played a more complete 60 minutes than the Islanders did on Saturday night at UBS Arena, beating the Islanders 5-3 on Brandon Hagel’s hat trick.
Wondering why it’s so important to take care of business on Thursday against Chicago or Tuesday against Vancouver? Saturday is why.
It was a testament to their resilience and free-throw shooting that the Islanders were in the paint for more than seven minutes, but they were still immersed in it heading into the game’s final stages.
As has been the case a few times earlier this season, the Islanders grew into the game as the game wore on, eventually starting to apply pressure and take the eye off Andrei Vasilevskiy in the second quarter. Tony DeAngelo’s goal made it 2-1, and Matthew Schaefer’s goal at 11:41 made it 3-2, probably more because of the 19-year-old’s prowess.
The first race of Schaeffer’s second season was a great one as he crossed the finish line cleanly beating Anthony Cirelli and beating Vasilevskiy before a huge celebration.
At this point, Schaeffer began to take over the game. His puck skills helped tie the game with seven seconds left in the second period when Brayden Schenn received a pass from Kyle Palmieri and Erik Cernak’s stick found the final touch on the way to the net.
What followed was a hilarious Game 3, by far the most entertaining hockey the Islanders have played this season: end-to-end, physical, and breathless.
The game was still deadlocked at 3-3 with less than two minutes left, but the Lightning started tilting the ice again. The offensive zone transition didn’t take long, though, and Hagel took the lead: Hagel’s seemingly innocuous shot from the right circle cleanly beat Ilya Sorokin with 1:44 left, then completed his hat trick into an empty net just 21 seconds later.
The details and ethics that head coach Pete DeBoer tried to instill into this team bit by bit have long since been perfected by Jon Cooper’s team. There were moments where the Islanders looked on par with Tampa, but there were also plenty of times where they fell short of Tampa’s level over 60 minutes.
Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock were once the shutdown top pairing against this team in back-to-back Western Conference Finals, and they exemplified that more than anyone. The duo, reunited after Alexander Romanov suffered a torn ACL, was badly hurt by Hagel, who skated through the two late in the first quarter to pull Tampa within 2-0, then scored a second time from Jake Guentzel, who got free near the crease on a power play on third down.
Puck management is something DeBoer has discussed over and over again over the past few days, and it’s been an issue, especially early in games, as the Islanders’ drives have been hampered by their own decision-making.
Two things seem contradictory but aren’t: The Islanders got better and better throughout the game, which was a clear positive, and it took them 25 minutes or so to look like they were in the game, which is unacceptable — and maybe losing.
That could be the difference on a night like this.