The countdown is now on, you can see it and feel it. The islanders of the islanders of the islanders never reached the level of dysfunction that the rangers seem to have perfected, but everyone would like to hit quickly until Friday morning when it will be done and finished.
After Sunday’s 1-0 victory over the Devils, two games are left. If they can end the season with a positive note, great. If not, well, everyone will forget about this anyway.
That is the state of things and if it is an annoyance to see it presented, hey, it is just the simple truth. Leaving aside the seasons affected by the pandemic, the islanders who win on Sunday means that they approved the 2017-18 group by the recent ignominy; Another victory and tie the 2021-22 team at points.
Doug Weight and Barry Trotz trainers were fire after those two respective seasons.
The good news of Sunday was that Ilya Sorokin returned to the fold after suffering an injury at the bottom of the body on Tuesday night in Nashville.
It is reasonable to ask why the islanders would risk another injury at the beginning of the 60th time this season in a meaningless game; To that, remember that the other two options on Sunday were Marcus Hogberg for a second consecutive day or Tristan Lennox, who is not ready to play in the NHL, since coach Patrick Roy realized 4:43 after the days of loss of Thursday.
In any case, Sorokin is healthy enough to play, and to separate 24 shots for her fourth whitish from the season, it is a sigh of relief, even if she ends on Sunday being the last time she plays this season. The islanders have been decimated by injuries throughout the year, the last thing they need between now and Thorsday is that another player falls, which leads us to bad news: Paul Cotter’s success in Adam Pelech.
A bloody and furious pelech left the game after Cotter connected with his head at 6:00 of the second, hitting his helmet into the ice and shouting at the end of the Devils, which in turn was beaten with a match penalty for a blow to the head.
Pelech did not return, and the team cited an injury at the top of the body (and it is worth noting, it has a history of brain shocks).
After Sorokin was injured on Tuesday, Pierre Engvall suffered a scare with his knee on Saturday. And now with Pelech’s injury, you would not blame the islanders for choosing to wrap some players for their last two games. However, that does not seem to be the plan.
As for the game itself, Bo Horvat broke the ice quickly firing the turnover of Timo Meier at 19:03 of the second, which puts the islanders 1-0 after two periods mostly ready (including a more haplect more than more than more in danger). The islanders settled only once in five minutes, and at the end of man’s advantage, they were executing normal lines and pairs, with Matt Martin even reaching five against four.
It does not matter, the goal of Horvat was enough to defeat a disorganized team of the devils that needs to get in before a first round series against Carolina next week.
The islanders, they thought, have no such concerns.
For them, it’s Tuesday. And then in the end.
