New York came out and for most of two periods were frankly terrible with their skating, passing and decision-making, without MacDonald the game is likely out of reach early and he had some help from the post.
Officials were terrible for both sides on this one, the player tried to grab Fritz stick on his early penalty who barely touched him.
Unacceptable for a team to have four days off between games and look this rusty again as they did in Newark. They played a team coming off a loss with a lot of injuries and what happened for most of two periods was more about the Islanders not skating than anything the Caps were doing aside from Ovechkin goal/shot.
Ovechkin looked off-sides on the shift the he scored and he pulled up like he expected a whistle.
On an early second period powerplay the Islanders were doing a lot of chasing in the Caps end before Weight was caught. Kozlov was having one of his A games where he was very visible and even with the injuries Washington can skate.
Some rare good early individual play like Hilbert skating to draw a powerplay and Streit's shot with a good screen by Bailey-Hunter for the 1-2 goal and one early shift from Bergenheim, but he looked slow in this game to start and did not take a good penalty in the Caps end.
Jackman for Ovechkin is a heck of a tradeoff for any amount of time, he sure seemed to ding him with that hit and he was banged up going into the game.
Islanders seem to finally get in this game with the four on three against and blocked some shots. Toward the end of the second, they got a powerplay and were wearing down the Cap defenders but every time it came time to shoot, Hilbert, Park, Weight from long-range or poor angles.
Good pressure but no shooter aside from Streit.
Never knew a dump in off an officials skate does not count if it's a goal, first time I have seen that. Fair to say Andy Sutton out of the box making a play to set up a goal may be almost as rare (I almost expected another call against him) but he found Hunter and someway/somehow Islanders had a 2-2 game and a powerplay to start the third.
Islanders got some powerplays in the third (one/eight on the game) but everywhere you looked it seemed Park, Hilbert and a lot of players who's career scoring records do not lie. Bailey had an early chance.
Finally a big bounce off the end boards, Brashear sticks his leg out on Weight, no stick for MacDonald 3-2.
Islanders played like a team with the 3-2 lead and could generate nothing, keystone cops on the 4-2 goal.
Open net 5-2.
Out skated for two plus periods they got exactly what they deserved out of this one which was another regulation loss they cannot afford with a fat forty seven shots allowed against a team with more injuries than the Islanders.
Martinek was badly missed here.
Rust cannot be an excuse, it goes on the coaching along with the players.
Is it necessary to have Comeau, Colliton, Smith or anyone in Bridgeport not here for so Fritz can sit on the bench? Not putting the loss on one player but they needed a skater for this game.
