ELMONT, N.Y. — It didn’t matter the makeshift Islanders played a much better game with a hard-working effort. Their struggles to score continued, as did their losing streak.
It’s eight straight now after the Penguins won, 1-0, on Friday night to conclude an opening, four-game homestand at UBS Arena. The last-place Islanders (5-10-2) were blanked for the third time in seven games and have just nine goals in their last nine games.
Ilya Sorokin, forced to be sharp from the opening faceoff, made 29 saves. Tristan Jarry, looking much more confident than he did in the Islanders’ six-game win in last season’s first round of the playoffs, stopped 25 shots for the Penguins (10-6-4), who have won five straight. That included denying Otto Koivula’s potential equalizer at the crease at 17:40 of the third period.
Captain Anders Lee, Kieffer Bellows, Ross Johnston and defensemen Adam Pelech, Andy Greene and Zdeno Chara remain in COVID-19 protocol and Josh Bailey was not ready to play after being removed from the COVID-19 list.
Defenseman Noah Dobson did return to the lineup after missing Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss to the Rangers with a lower-body issue. But defenseman Ryan Pulock (lower body) and Brock Nelson (lower body) remain on injured reserve.
But the gloom and doom perceived from outside is not matched from within the Islanders’ room.
"The morale is probably better than you guys think," Mathew Barzal said before Friday’s game. "We understand the circumstances we’ve faced. It’s obviously unfortunate. The veteran guys are going to be the ones that are going to have to pull our group out. Credit to the younger guys that called up from Bridgeport [AHL], they’ve played extremely hard and laid everything out there. It’s up to us as a group and us as veterans to step up and come through."
The Islanders had lost each of the previous seven games by at least a three-goal margin and were outscored 12-3 in their first three games in their new $1.1 billion home. The Islanders’ power play went 0 for 6 against the Rangers and has produced just one goal in the last 10 games.
It was 0 for 2 on Friday and the Islanders’ first man advantage against the Penguins turned into a momentum killer in an otherwise decent second period.
The Islanders did not manage a shot and could barely get the puck over the blue line against the NHL’s top-ranked penalty kill after Jake Guentzel tripped Oliver Wahlstrom at 13:42. The Penguins then took a 1-0 lead as Kasperi Kapanen snapped the puck over Sorokin’s glove from the left circle at 16:41.
Scoring is at such a premium because the Islanders have too many players not producing.
Zach Parise has three assists this season. Barzal has one goal and no assists over his last seven games. Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who has become oddly stationary on defense, has gone nine games without a point and has just one goal and three assists this season. Anthony Beauvillier has gone eight games without a point and has just three goals and four assists overall. Kyle Palmieri has just one goal and six assists.
Still, Sorokin kept the Islanders in the game early as the Penguins applied pressure off the opening faceoff. At 13:14 of the first period, the Penguins held an 11-2 shot advantage — they would finish the period with a 12-6 edge — and the Islanders second "shot" was Andy Andreoff’s dump-in from center ice on Jarry that was sarcastically cheered.
Sorokin’s best save of the first period came as he stretched to his left to get a glove on Sidney Crosby’s wide-open look from below the circle. He also denied Crosby’s late, third-period breakaway.
