Islanders website: Has the recap of tonight's 5-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers where Bill Guerin felt the team was sitting on the lead while Ted Nolan said the team did not play very smart after the first period with the forwards cheating by getting too far ahead of the defense.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
This loss stings worse than any this season to date because it was a game that the Isles were playing well and on their game. This is the kind of game you expect it to be a lock for them to get points from.
They did not even get it to overtime.
They did generate offense and were outworking Philadelphia despite falling behind and scored three goals Biron had little or not chance on which this team rarely does. Berard made a great pass to Park, Satan made a great play to hold the puck and feed Vasicek and Guerin snapped a great shot from his spot for the 3-1 goal.
For some reason the Isles powerplay could not generate chances with the lead after that to keep the pressure on Philadelphia and then Hatcher fought Hunter, the Flyers got position in front of the Islanders goal and overpowered Bergeron-Johnson for the 3-2 goal and that changed all the momentum. The Isles for all the second period and until Comrie's chance about four minutes into the third had no pressure on Biron.
Meanwhile Philadelphia started earning powerplays and got a big break on the tying goal where a hard dump in with the powerplay seemed to hit two players going for the puck and went right in front for the tying goal and another hit the glass on a dump in which gave the Flyers the lead for good.
What was more disturbing was the Flyers were getting some great chances that DiPietro made some big saves on. The final goal was a play that was supposed to be icing but not called, Meyer tried a long pass which was intercepted and became a two on one which led to the 5-3 goal which was the final.
Philadelphia outhit the Islanders in front of both goals in this game which also was not a good sign. Hunter got bounced around good, three Flyers went to Guerin on one play.
The opening goal off the Johnson's stick changed the passes direction which gave Hartnell position to beat Sutton for the shot.
Overall the Isles defense did not play a terrible game, Berard had two very good assists, Bergeron made a few good plays. The problem was the Flyers were able to play them physical. That second Flyer goal where Johnson and Bergeron were overpowered was not good.
Tough loss, no breaks either but after the first period Isles did not create any breaks for themselves and this is another game Isles did not seem comfortable on home ice. That goal off the glass was a killer but you cannot play one period in this league and this had the look of a game Isles could have made 5-1. Almost seemed like the Islanders wanted to get into a high scoring game after the first and they did have too much separation from the defense and the forwards were up looking to attack.
Richards made a fantastic shot for the 5-3 goal too. Have to admit Flyers defense was better than I have seen it in a few years.
That's three losses in a row at home for the first time all season. Felt like the kind of loss you look back on as a turning point if the club falls out of contention.