Blackhawks 3, Islanders 1: Whatever

The Islanders hosted the Blackhawks in a game that both wanted to lose, so I guess you could say the former won.

[Game Sum | Event Sum | Corsica | Natural Stat Trick | HockeyViz]

First Period

The first was pretty lackluster. The Islanders had a power play that they didn’t capitalize on. I also had some delicious chicken francese.

Second Period

Goals actually occurred this time out, but not for the good guys. On a Chicago power play, Patrick Kane sent a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot that may have been a miss or a pass had it not gone off the stick of Adam Pelech; the deflection fooled Jaroslav Halak, who let it through his five-hole.

And then Brandon Saad, who has been mired in a season-long slump, tapped in an innocent puck from the goal line that Halak kicked in with his far skate. The tank gods smiled.

Third Period

A common theme of these late-season, far-out-of-it Islanders is giving up the first goal(s) and trying but ultimately failing to come back. Reminds me a lot of myself in my first full year in the workforce: starting the day off lazy and falling behind, and pretending to work really hard at the end to make up for it.

Anyway, the pressing finally paid off, or at least John Tavares forced it to work with a patented Anders Lee in-tight backhand. But much like me at work, it was too little too late.

Up Next

The steaming-hot Florida Panthers come to Brooklyn on Monday night. Inexplicably, they’ve worked their way back into the playoff race. For me, they’ll always be the only team the Islanders have beaten in the playoffs throughout my sad twenty-three years of fandom.

Have a good Saturday folks, and happy 17th anniversary to one of sports’ most insane moments: Randy Johnson making a bird disappear.