New York Islanders-Never Say Die
The New York Islanders played the Buffalo Sabers today at 3:00 P.M. This was the Islanders fifth to last game before the end of the regular season. Even though the Islanders aren’t mathematically out of the playoffs yet, they were pretty much eliminated entering today’s game. Their captain and best player John Tavares is out for the rest of the regular season due to a hamstring injury so promising rookie Anthony Beauvillier took John’s spot on the first line, alongside Anders Lee and Joshua Ho-Sang, another rookie. Surprisingly, the Islanders played a pretty good first period. At 9:31 of the first period, Cal Clutterbuck scored his 5th goal of the season and his third goal in the last two games. The first period ended with the Islanders being up 1–0 which was a pleasant surprise because over the last few games they are usually tied or trailing the other team at that point. To no one’s surprise, the Islanders came out flat for the second period and played terribly. The Islanders didn’t get a shot on net for the first half of the period and the Sabers managed to tie the game. Buffalo Sabers Evander Kane capitalized on a New York Islanders mistake and beat goaltender Jaroslav Halak. Luckily though, the Islanders Joshua Ho-Sang managed to score a goal on a break-away giving the Islanders back their one goal lead. The player on the Buffalo Sabers who made the mistake that lead to the goal was Jack Eichel. Eichel is the Sabers franchise centerman and he rarely makes mistakes. The moves that Joshua Ho-Sang used in order to beat the goalie and score the goal were amazing. I am looking forward to watching him play for years. So the second period ended with the New York Islanders up 2–1. Despite them being outplayed for most of the period, they managed to get out of the period with the lead. As usual though, the Islanders let the Buffalo Sabers score the next goal of the game within the first few minutes of the third period. At this point of the season, I wasn’t even angry with this happening. At this point, I sort of expected the Islanders to play like this for the remaining games of the season. To my surprise though, the New York Islanders scored the next two goals of the game and wound up winning the game 4–2. Anders Lee scored the 3rd and 4th goals of the game which gave him a season total of 31 goals. This is the first time in Anders Lee’s career that he reached the thirty goal plateau. He is the first Islanders winger to reach that mark since Matt Moulson did it in 2011–12 season. This is a major accomplishment for Anders and his career. With the season not over yet, I hope he can hit the 35 goal mark. So the Islanders only have 4 more games left in their season. With the playoffs probably just out of reach, I hope all the Islanders young guys make a big impact in the next few games and make next year look like it will be a promising year to be an Islander fan.
