The New York Islanders Were Turning A Corner Before Season Stopped
In the New York Islanders’ last game before the hiatus of play, they lost to the Vancouver Canucks in a shootout. The loss was the teams’ seventh straight loss. Despite the loss, the game was a turning point for the Islanders.
In those six straight losses for the Islanders, before the team lost to the Canucks, the team had only scored seven goals. The Islanders lack talent. There is no question about it.
The Islanders are a defensively orientated team with a high emphasis on doing your job in the defensive zone first and then getting your opportunities on offense. Even at the beginning of the season when the Islanders were firing on all cylinders, the offense was a problem.
Now later in the season, the Islanders offense continues to struggle. And, in fact, it is even worse. The team continuously struggles to find ways to put the puck in the back of the net.
However, against the Vancouver Canucks, the Islanders scored four goals.
These four goals were a third of the goals the Islanders scored in their six losses beforehand. The Islanders also, put a whopping 49 shots on net.
This is the most shots the Islanders have put up this season in a game so far. The team came ready to play and played overall very well. Ten different Islanders players recorded a point and everyone battled hard.
To even further show the Islanders’ resilience, the team trailed three times throughout the game, in which the Islanders came back each time.
In this game against the Canucks, the Islanders were there to prove to everyone they deserve and are capable of playing in April. The Islanders did everything right except the win. It was one of those games where you especially hate to see the Islanders lose because they played so well and worked so hard to win.
Even though the team lost, this game was a turning point for the Islanders.
They no longer looked like the same team that lost those six games in a row. The team was generating offense, battling back, and getting production from everyone. The Islanders looked like they turned over a new leaf.
The COVID-19 outbreak shut down the hockey season, but if the season was still going on, maybe the New York Islanders would have started to improve.
Ethan is an Economics Major at the University of Florida looking to pursue a double major in Sports Management with a minor in political science.
