Islanders blow late lead and fall to Devils on Jack Hughes OT goal
The morning’s undertones told you that the Islanders lineup could look different awfully soon.The evening’s overtones told you that might be a good and necessary thing.It looked for much of this game like the Islanders were on a glide path to getting away with two points too, even with nothing like their best performance.
Given the not-quite-official fight between Matthew Schaefer and Luke Hughes that saw Schaefer hand a beating to the youngest member of hockey’s first family, it would have been about as happy a win as the Islanders could have asked for before taking off for California on Sunday, had they hung on to a 4-2 lead.Instead, their performance caught up with them.The Islanders frittered away a two-goal lead in the last 20 minutes to make it a winless three-game homestand, handing the Devils a 5-4 win on Jack Hughes’ overtime goal that ended a night rife with subplots.
Mathew Barzal and Co.can’t make it back soon enough.The good news on that score is that Barzal and Matias Maccelli shed their noncontact jerseys at Saturday’s morning skate, the next step for both to return to play.
The lineup badly needs not only those two but also Calum Ritchie and Ryan Pulock.As for the lineup head coach Pete DeBoer did have at his disposal, well, it’s never a good thing when pregame line changes get abandoned midway through.The decision to take Scott Mayfield out of the lineup and leave the Islanders short on penalty killer was a head-scratcher as well.This, though, was much more about the Islanders struggling to get to their game than any coaching decision.
Even in getting out to a 4-2 lead, the Islanders never had a forecheck and never put extended pressure on the Devils zone.More than anything, the difference going into the third period was goaltending — one accentuated even more when Ilya Sorokin stretched out his right pad to deny Nico Hischier at the backdoor 1:01 into the final period.The goaltending from Sorokin, who stuck out the same pad to d...