An overdependence on Ilya Sorokin limited the Islanders all of last season, and has taken all of five games to start costing them this season.
For the second time in his last two starts, Sorokin played an excellent game to keep the Islanders in it against an opponent than looked superior for much of the evening.
First Bowen Byram’s shot from the slot made it through traffic and then right off the faceoff, Nathan MacKinnon beat Sorokin clean from the left circle. But Mathew Barzal negated two minutes of it when he got called for boarding, and the Islanders came up short on the other two., the Islanders came into the night ranking below the 50th percentile league-wide in offensive-zone time at even strength and bursts of skating speed over 20 mph .Ilya Sorokin reacts dejectedly after giving up a goal during the second period of the Islanders’ loss to the Avalanche.Those are small pieces that point towards what is quickly becoming a bigger issue.
And at the 5:55 mark, Simon Holmstrom’s wrister gave the Islanders an against-the-odds lead despite the team having been severely outshot to that point.In the first period alone, the Islanders took three penalties, got caught up the ice leading to Ryan Johansen’s power-play goal and saw Cale Makar skate through their entire team then roof a backhand.
The offense they did get came in inconsistent spurts. It was enough to make the game close — their goaltending advantage on Tuesday, as always, was very much at play.The Islanders won’t play teams as fast as the Devils or Avalanche every night, and the randomness of hockey means they won’t be caught out every time they do come up against such opposition.
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