N.J. Devils: Newark Offers Wandering Long Islanders No Quarter

From the desks: THE BRICK CITY STYX & LONG ISLAND NOMADS

THURSDAY

Islanders   0

DEVILS      4

FINAL

Islanders Arrive on Familiar But Unfriendly Shores

Newark, New Jersey, is the closest the Islanders have been to home base since departing for an Oct. 14 game at Carolina in the first stop of a Homeric-like season-opening 13 game road Odyssey.  

The Isles defeated the Winnipeg Jets but lost to the Minnesota Wild on the very next night.  Four days later, they sailed up the Hudson River where their metropolitan area neighbors on Thursday night offered them no quarter.  

With their defeat at the hand of the Devils, the Long Islanders are now 5-4-2 with two more road games left before finally swinging the doors open at the brand new UBS Center at Belmont.

I know Barry Trotz isn't one for excuses and is not exactly pleased with their play of late, but I believe the Islanders are still in a good place and that a significant correction will occur when they play 12 of 20 games at home through Christmas.

Semyon Varlamov finally made his 2021-2022 debut during the Isles Nov. 7 game against Minnesota, who went wild with five goals but only three off Semyon, who stopped 34 of 37 shots on goal.  But Varlamov did not earn a second straight start.  Enter Ilya Sorokin.  Making his tenth start and coming off a shutout over Winnipeg, this may have been both Barry Trotz's and Ilya Sorokin's most frustrating game to date.

Long Island's power-play in the first period fell apart like wet toilet paper.  At 12:12, Janne Koukannen capped off a flurry of activity in front of Ilya Sorokin with a shorthanded goal on assists from P.K. Subban and Nico Hischier.

With 0:50 left in the second period, Tomas Tartar scored during a Devil power-play on feeds from Dougie Hamilton and Pavel Zacha.

Dawson Mercer gave Newark a 3-0 lead at 5:46 into the third period, assisted by Andreas Johnsson and Jesper Bratt. Approximately eleven minutes later, Dougie Hamilton closed out the scoring with his third goal this season at the 16:33 mark.

However, the clear star of the game was Newark goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.  He faced 42 shots on net and stopped them all, including 35 at even-strength and five on special teams.  It marks his second consecutive win through three starts and his first shutout this season. 

The Devils improve to 7-3-2, just four points behind the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes.

Next, the Islanders set sail for Tampa.