ELMONT, N.Y. — Do you want the good news or the bad news first on the Islanders’ season opener?
They did produce in all three phases of the game. They showed some fight after a listless second period and grabbed the lead. They were in a close one all the way through despite some real sloppiness in their game. Max Tsyplakov showed he belonged and then some in his NHL debut, scoring his first goal and playing 20:46, more than all but one Islanders forward.
So that’s the good news. The bad was pretty much everything else.
The Islanders reverted to some old habits, most notably letting down with a third-period lead. They did that twice on Thursday, the last time allowing Josh Doan to break through two Islanders for a walk-in chance and a tie game with 1:54 to play. Dylan Guenther’s overtime winner for the visiting Utah Hockey Club seemed a mere formality after the throwback to last season and the Isles headed off on a difficult three-game road trip with a point after the 5-4 defeat where two could have been had, even if they might not have been earned.
“Those are the times in the game you have to be strong,” Noah Dobson said. “We didn’t do that.”
Some observations off a disappointing start to 2024-25:
Blown leads, again
The ledger of blown third-period leads under Lane Lambert in the first half of last season was long — 13 in 47 games before Lambert was fired. It was a clear point of emphasis after Patrick Roy came on board. The Isles gave up six third-period leads over the last 35 games and won five of those games.
So seeing his team do it twice in a matter of minutes on Thursday can’t have been a good feeling for Roy.
“One thing we need to be better at is when we have leads, we find a way to protect that,” he said. “Twice we gave them a chance to get back in the game.”
J.G. Pageau’s hard-working shorthanded goal to give the Islanders a 3-2 lead at 6:52 of the third was a nice surprise, coming off a nothing play at the start of a Utah power play. That the visitors tied it 44 seconds later wasn’t good but also wasn’t a total shock, given how disjointed the Isles’ penalty kill looked in its two opportunities (more on that in a few).
The shock came in the final minutes after Tsyplakov wired one home with 2:07 to go, giving the Isles another lead.
The breakdowns on the ensuing shift were many. Oliver Wahlstrom followed Kyle MacLean deep into the offensive zone to throw a hit on Juuso Välimäki, the sort of no-no a fourth-liner can’t commit that late. Then Dobson and Casey Cizikas played hot potato with Doan, who glided past both Islanders to receive Alex Kerfoot’s pass and beat Semyon Varlamov in tight.
“I trust these guys,” Roy said of his fourth line. “Why would I not do that? We just blew the coverage because they had nothing on that play. At our blue line, at their blue line, there was nobody who thought that would finish in our net.”
Solid debuts for Tsyplakov, Duclair
“I score,” Tsyplakov said, “but we lose. Is not good.”
The 26-year-old was really solid throughout his NHL debut, perhaps overstaying a couple of shifts and overhandling the puck at times on the power play, which went 1-for-6 and fumbled away too many looks.
But Tsyplakov continued his rise from a strong preseason and did not look out of place at all. He led the Islanders with six hits, had a couple of patient pull-ups entering the Utah zone to find a trailing defenseman in space and capped the night with his first goal, a pinpoint wrist shot after he sat back on a three-on-two and gave himself room to accept Brock Nelson’s pass and beat Connor Ingram high to the stick side. The broadcast caught Tsyplakov giving his stick blade kisses on the bench after the goal.
“Pulling back, looking for the third man high — those little plays where you feel like he’s already played in the league before,” Anthony Duclair said.
Duclair had two points in his Islanders debut, scoring the opening goal off his skate from a Dobson shot and then delivering a nice saucer pass in a tight window for Bo Horvat’s goal to tie the game early in the third.
The top line with those two and Mat Barzal had four points but looked a little shaky at five-on-five, just a bit out of sync at times. Something that can be solved.
Special teams not so special
Roy noted special teams were the difference Thursday, with the power play missing on its last five chances and the PK starting off with the Blutarsky — a 0.0 percent success rate.
The PK going 0-for-2 on the heels of finishing 32nd last season is pretty worrisome. Utah has some talented players but this isn’t the Stars or Avs — the next two opponents on the road.
“We have a new system that we want to work to be perfect at it,” Pageau said. “We can all be better. And we will.”
You can throw in three-on-three to the un-special teams. The Islanders’ overtime display was downright bad; turnovers were egregious, including one by Dobson after a handoff pass from Duclair to start a Utah three-on-one that Guenther finished with the winner. The Islanders had no flow in OT and need to work on that, quick.
Stray observations
• Wahlstrom was OK until his late-game blunder, but not having him on the second power-play unit seems like a mistake. Wahlstrom can’t give the Isles much as a fourth-liner and nothing else; he lost D-zone coverage a couple of times prior. If he’s only out there to check, this assignment may not last long.
• None of the defense pairs were particularly sharp but the Mike Reilly-Scott Mayfield pair struggled the most. Dobson made a couple of key mistakes late but he still provided some offense; Reilly looked a step slow on PP2 and at five-on-five alongside a very rusty Mayfield.
• Varlamov allowed five goals on 26 shots: not a real strong opening statement. Curious to see if Ilya Sorokin, who has barely a week’s worth of practices so far, is deemed ready for one of the next two games in Dallas on Saturday or Denver on Monday. Would be a tough assignment to get started either way.
(Top photo of Anthony Duclair: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
