Positives and Negatives: Thoughts on Another Late Collapse

The New York Islanders, after playing an extremely solid first 50 and change minutes at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday Night, utterly collapsed. They lost 6-4 after leading the New York Rangers 4-1 with less than seven minutes to play.

The Bad & The Ugly

It’s a preseason game, yes. Many forces negatively affected the Islanders on Tuesday, including carrying a squad that was mixed with non-NHLers while the Rangers played a full NHL lineup.

The Islanders also had Henrik Tikkanen in the net for the collapse, a goalie who spent more than half his year in 2023-24 in the ECHL. The Islanders would’ve liked a save on the second Zac Jones goal. But what did you want Tikkanen to do about Chris Kreider having his own area code?

“We left Tikkanen out to dry.” Mat Barzal said postgame.

The defensive coverage seemed scattered and discombobulated on the tying goal, so NYI Hockey Now went directly to the source. Grant Hutton was on the ice when the Rangers tied the game. He was transparent about what went wrong when he spoke with NYI Hockey Now.

“That goal is mostly my fault. I saw a guy in the slot, a one-timer threat, and instinctually, I just went right to that guy and left Kreider wide open. Have to learn and move on. That’s not how we want to finish. That’s not Islanders hockey.”

That type of open, transparent play breakdown doesn’t always happen. Hutton owned he overcommitted to the guy in the slot, but it’s a mistake he can learn from.

The Positive Takeaways:

Ultimately, the Islanders still had more reasons for positivity than negativity at the end of the game. First off, it’s a preseason game. This collapse will fade from the mind rather quickly, especially with two more games on Thursday and Friday.

Far more important, the top line is a force. Each time that Anthony Duclair, Bo Horvat, and Barzal stepped on the ice together, magic happened. The trio combined three of the four Islanders’ goals on the night.

The first came three and a half minutes into the second period. Cholowski broke out Duclair and Barzal, who went in on a clear 2-on-1.

Barzal passed to Duclair, who waited until Ben Harpur compromised himself. Duclair then sauced it back over the prone stick to Barzal, who slammed it home for the 1-0 lead.

https://x.com/NYIslanders/status/1838732988990800376

Later on, the duo hooked up again. Dobson broke it out to Duclair, who carried through center ice and fed Barzal, who walked in and rifled a shot home off the post and Johnathan Quick’s leg. Duclair, after making the initial pass, drove hard to the net to create space for Barzal to work his defender.

https://x.com/NYIslanders/status/1838739584181555629

Then, in the third period, Horvat carried through center ice, danced around Harpur (who had a bad game for the Rangers, defensively), and chipped a shot right past the blocker of Quick to reinstate the three-goal lead.

https://x.com/NYIslanders/status/1838748805711139129

If that line is able to dictate the terms of its play like it did up and down the ice last night, it will give the Islanders a dynamic line they’ve not had in a long time.

Final Thoughts:

That certainly was not the ending anybody wanted. The collapse soured the mood after the Islanders had shown great strides in structure and ability all night but ultimately wilted late.

Throughout the night, I thought the forechecking of Eetu Liukas was strong, while Head Coach Patrick Roy made it a point to praise the work of the fourth line consistently of William Dufour, Fredrik Karlstrom, and Liam Foudy.

As much as results matter starting on October 10th, perhaps the game’s substance was more important. How the Islanders played will always trump the result during the preseason. Perhaps with Varlamov in the net, the collapse never even happens.

The mood in the room was clear- this is not acceptable. Barzal was not pleased with how the game ended but loved how his line looked. Hutton thought the first 50 or so minutes were great. So did Patrick Roy.

The team has a game in Philadelphia tomorrow night to try and rectify the collapse.