Sabres 7 (EN), Islanders 1: Of course they did
What happen to my guys? | Photo by Andrew Mordzynski/Getty Images
A bad, sad team embarrasses itself at home to another bad, sad team. Oh, you saw that coming.
Coming off their “best performance of the season,” the Islanders returned home before the break to host a Buffalo Sabres team that was winless in 13 and was going to put its all into ending that streak and entering the Christmas break on a high note.
The Islanders obliged, getting themselves booed off the ice after all three periods.
Just five shots on goal in the first period (trailing 2-0), another power play goal allowed by their awful penalty kill in the second, two terrible turnovers to make it 5-0, and away they went.
[GameCenter | Game Summary | Event Summary | Natural Stat Trick | HockeyViz]
Anthony Duclair made an outstanding, through-everyone’s-wickets pass to give Kyle Palmieri a tap-in for the Isles’ only goal, making it 5-1. (It’s like Duclair missed two-plus months so he didn’t learn that we’re supposed to be terrible.)
The Isles pulled Ilya Sorokin for a sixth attacker halfway through the third and promptly conceded an empty netter to make it 6-1.
Sloppy play (Mathew Barzal) and then confused play (Isaiah George, Ryan Pulock) at 4-on-4 led to a Jiri Kulich break to make it 7-1.
Against the Sabres.
That’s more than the attention this game, this effort and this team deserves.
They are who we thought they are. And that’s what makes this so dull to endure.
On the one hand, it’s nice they didn’t even give us reason to pretend, because that always only leads to heartbreak. On the other hand, can’t they even be arsed to make it entertaining more than every once in a blue moon? Like from the past week, really you’re going to lose laughably to the laughable Hawks, get shut out 4-0 (but “do some good things”) against the Hurricanes, and then this, with only the win over the road-weary Leafs to give us brief respite?
They are who we thought they are.
Up Next
Mercifully, there is a Christmas break. The Isles return to “action” Saturday and Sunday for a home-and-home with the Penguins....
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