The New York Islanders take down the Buffalo Sabres at home tonight 5-2. The Islanders started strong early in the first, and early passing play to Dobson giving him his second of the season and giving the Islanders an early 1-0 lead. Following the Dobson goal, Matt Martin takes an impossible angle shot and somehow gets it past Buffalo goaltender Jonas Johansson. New saber Taylor Hall gets one for the Sabers in the second period to get them within one. Fortunately for the Islanders they continued their dominance in this game and got goals from Beauvillier, Eberle, and Martin to seal this win. They allowed a 3rd period goal from Rasmus Ristolainen but were able to hold on for the victory. Matt Martin was easily the first star of this game getting two goals, his first to go game since 2014. The Islanders outshot the Sabres 45-18, absolutely crazy.
“They [the fourth line] just play the right way. They’re on top of people, they’re physical. They don’t cheat the game, that’s what I love about that line.” -Barry Trotz
This Islanders team is not a very offensively minded team but somehow managed to put a 45 shots in one game. Recently the Islanders have struggled with taking far too many penalties in games and it would end up costing them. Luckily tonight they took exactly zero penalties, showing improvement from recent games. The Islanders have three chances on the power play but we're unsuccessful on all three tries.
“It doesn’t matter who we play, it matters how we play. We know the way we have to play to be successful and every single game we have to play that way.” -Casey Cizikas
It was great to see the Islanders take yet another game at home as they are still the only NHL team to remain undefeated in regulation at home. Their record at Nassau Coliseum is now 8-0-2. With this win the Islanders are now tied for first place in the MassMutual East Division with the Washington Capitals with 30 points each. the Islanders will next play on Saturday at home against the Sabres but this time the Islanders will be wearing their retro reverse jerseys for the first time ever.
