TAKEAWAYS
- The Islanders found themselves in a big hole early, falling behind 4-0 in the first period.
For the Islanders, it marked the third time in the past seven games they’d fallen behind by multiple goals in the opening frame, including a 3-0 deficit to Tampa on March 29 and a 2-0 hole vs Carolina on March 30.
Zibanejad opened the scoring at 3:17, capping off a sequence that started with an Islanders turnover at their blue line – a prime culprit in the loss – and turned into an odd-man rush – another culprit – for the Rangers. Cuylle deposited a rebound to make it 2-0 at 12:49, while Trocheck’s nifty move off the goal line made it 3-0 on the power play at 13:51. Panarin added a little salt into the wounds with 45 seconds to play in the period – marking the fifth time the Isles had allowed four goals in a frame.
“They had four chances and they put four in,” Lee said. “That’s a big hole, and tough sledding from there to get back into it.”
- Marcus Hogberg had to bear the brunt of Thursday’s blowout, allowing eight goals on 30 shots. Head Coach Patrick Roy said turnovers and odd-man rushes didn’t make things easy on Hogberg and his teammates were quick to defend their netminder. It was hard to fault Hogberg on the Rangers’ first and fourth goals, but he likely wanted Parssinen’s wraparound back in the second period to make the game 5-0, as well as Panarin’s bank shot off Hogberg’s pad for the ninth and final tally, but by then the game was out of reach.
The reason Hogberg was left in for the majority of the contest was the inexperience of backup Tristan Lennox, who was recalled on emergency conditions with Ilya Sorokin out with a lower-body injury.
Roy briefly put Lennox into the game after the Rangers made it 6-1, but the goalie’s NHL debut only lasted two shots – and 4:43 TOI – with the second resulting in Berard’s second goal of the game to make it 7-2. Roy acknowledged it wasn’t his best decision to put Lennox into the game, hence the quick hook.
“It's on me, the kid didn't have a chance to practice, and I thought it was unfair to him to put him out there like this,” Roy said. “So that's why I put Marcus back in. Didn't want to expose him and put him in the tough spot.”
On this night, the goals just kept coming. Lafreniere made it 8-2 by keeping, deking and scoring on a two-on-one rush at 15:54, while Panarin’s shot ping-ponged off a skate and squeaked through Hogberg at 18:51.
- The Islanders recorded a season-high 46 shots in the loss, notably coming out with some life in the second, generating the first nine shots of the period and outshooting the Rangers 20-6 in the middle frame. They had some chances, including a Noah Dobson partial break on a power play and a Casey Cizikas whack out of the air. Eventually they broke through with Tsyplakov sniping high on Shesterkin in the final minute of the period to make it 5-1. Fasching eventually scored his first goal of the season midway through the third period to make it 6-2, but despite hitting several posts, the gap never got closer than four.
