Islanders injury-necessitated defense shuffle is no problem in win over Blackhawks

The regular-season marathon that extends this year to 84 games calls for a whole lot of otherwise forgettable nights when anything less than consistently taking care of business can get teams in trouble come crunch time. Thursday at UBS Arena was one of them, and so credit the Islanders for a straightforward and businesslike 4-1 win over the Connor Bedard-less Blackhawks in which Alexander Romanov’s absence was blunted by a clean defensive effort. The revamped pairs, with Logan Stanley to Matthew Schaefer’s left, Scott Mayfield inserted into the lineup on Tony DeAngelo’s right and the Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock duo reunited for the first time since last November, put in a good night of work against a Chicago side that is now 1-4-0 as its long rebuild trudges on.It wasn’t the most entertaining 60 minutes, but in lieu of high-event hockey it was the second win of two for Ilya Sorokin in which the netminder could credit his defense without it feeling forced. At this early stage of the year, the Islanders look like a team whose ability to prevent goals or not will be its defining factor on most nights.

There have been stretches of every game so far when the breakouts aren’t going and two or more forward lines have looked disconnected.When the Islanders can make those minutes just as frustrating for the opposition as for themselves, they’re in good shape. That’s what they did to the Blackhawks for much of Thursday.

Stanley and Mayfield, the two players whom the Islanders are asking much more of than mere days ago, played steady defensive hockey.DeAngelo, playing his off side for the first time as an Islander, adapted just fine.

And once a flurry of goals came in the second period, the Islanders looked safe in the lead. Bo Horvat put the Islanders on the board with a power-play goal in the last minute of the first, but it was Adam Pelech, turning over Oliver Moore at the defensive blue line, who started the game’s decisive sequence. Emil Heineman, th...