Islanders Gameday News: The Dobber can shoot the puck

So I couldn’t catch the end of last night’s game live because I had to get out to one of those sad men’s league games that begins and ends in the inhumane wee hours, and I asked Steve if he could handle or finish our game recap.

He said sure, but he’d be at the game so it would be late. For the first two hours of the game, I thought: What a bummer of a game to celebrate a special occasion!

Then the Islanders woke up — and not just in a “hey we tried” kind of way like the late, futile push in Detroit. Rather they really, truly, woke up and got the breaks they needed to make a game of it and reverse a 3-1 third-period deficit.

I had to leave the connected world with the game tied 3-3 and the Islanders continuing to push, so it was great to learn they were rewarded with a thrilling overtime win. Happiness for the Smith clan. Success for the Barzal OT feed to Noah Dobson, who Butch Goring noted with nice understatement, “can shoot the puck.”

No time to bask in their joy though. They return to action tonight in Smurfland. Leaver your FIG picks for tonight here.

Islanders News

• It took a while, but a thrilling, rewarding night. [LHH]
• Mathew Barzal had a monster, troops-rallying game and the Islanders overall know they can go into a third period trailing but with the capability to turn a game around. [Athletic]
• A dud turned into a magical night at Belmont. [Newsday]
• Quoted in most recaps: “I think we got that feeling again where it’s like, we can win any hockey game,” Barzal said. [Post]
• “Huge win,” said our large adult son Noah Dobson. [NHL]
• Darryl Sutter thought his team played pretty well, but you can’t afford to give the game back like that. [Sportsnet]
• Night-and-day difference to the last time the Flames visited, to open UBS Arena amid a Covid outbreak. [Newsday]
• Something to watch: Hits leader and post-op recoverer Cal Clutterbuck left the game early and did not return. [Post]
• About tonight: Semyon Varlamov is likely to get the start, and he has four straight shutouts at the World’s Most Self-Hyping Arena. [Newsday]
• Nine stats to capture the spirit of the thing from the Isles’ decent start to 2022-23. [Athletic]
• Prospect Report: “Isaiah George returns, Quinn Finley scores and Tristan Lennox records a shutout.” [Isles]

Elsewhere

Monday’s other scores include the Capitals overcoming the Oilers. Also, the Blues were in Boston to lose their seventh regulation loss in a row, the longest such string since 2006 when {checks notes} they drafted Erik Johnson 1st overall ahead of Jonathan Toews, Jordan Staal, Nicklas Backstrom and Phil Kessel.

• The Oilers’ loss highlights how their penalty kill is {puts on Canadian media melodrama hat} IN SHAMBLES. [Sportsnet]
• Senators coach D.J. Smith gets the dreaded vote of confidence from the GM. [NHL | TSN]
• Speaking of Ottawa’s team, Ryan Reynolds is famous but he’s not tycoon-rich, so if he wants to buy the Senators he’ll need a partner who can light his cigars with 1,000-dollar bills, or whatever. [Sportsnet]
• Jim Rutherford again telegraphed the reasons he will cite when he eventually fires Bruce Boudreau to shake up the struggling Canucks. [Sportsnet]
• Stan Fischler recalls working on Devils games with the late Peter McNab, and the special effort McNab made to help Fischler’s ailing son and others like him. [NHL]