Oh god dammit, you just have to f*** it up like that?
Nice to see an even game after back-to-back spankings. What wasn't nice was watching the first game in a while where only the Islanders were allowed to get away with stuff without getting sent to the box, or ice the puck without getting called for icing.
Say what you will about their fanbase (they're a bunch of babies), the Islanders play hard-nosed, boring hockey and would be scary if they had another top-line talent up front. It's difficult for me to take seriously a team that has Anders Lee as its captain and still goes on about 'Dynasty!' which is 40 years old or 'We almost but didn't win the cup a few years ago!'. Again, they are literally bad for growing the game, the way they play.
Good OT win for them though, that'll be a tough wildcard fight now that Carolina and Jersey seem to have woken up and the Wings, Bolts and Pens are lurking on the periphery.
Matthews making Sorokin look like an ECHL goalie - two times, dawg! But, he did take a stupid penalty that led to Paul Mary opening, though I think he was penalized upon first.
Loving Holmberg - first the Crosby then that nasty steal on a top-15 D to set up 34? He stays.
Willy, aside from a few chances...did not look super great this game, but that happens.
Still booing JT, really NYI? Move on, but I don't know if they check him harder or what but JT gets some serious D-zone yips playing on the Island and it needs to stop, he blew at least three easy clears, none ended up in the net but still they were clears I could make.
Benoit playing the man always, Justin Holl: "Wait, you can do that?"
Brodie is rapidly becoming a third-pair guy. Liljegren is fundamentally great defensively but has clearly been attending classes at the TJ Brodie School of Shooting into Shinpads and the Mesh.
Noah Gregor with a stealth great game, he can stay, he'll be cheap.
Bert has to be the least-skilled top six forward in the league. He plays Elden Ring and runs an Endurance+Arcane build, and it sort of works for him but he's not getting 5.5 next year if he wants to stay, more like 3.
Gio screwed up bad on the third goal, but also flashed some offensive chops on the playmaking end. It'd be nice to have a healthy corps (or you know, just go get another D) so he didn't have to slot in every game.
Marty Jones did admittedly not look super sharp but let's cut him slack, he's now started five in a row and I imagine he gets Colorado. No way in hell do I want Sammy in for his first game in over a month(?) facing Mack, Rantanen and Makar, it'll be 9-1.
Why start OT with McCabe? Mo once again had a very good game.
Love McMann's tenacity on the puck and he gets rewarded with a goal, very nice.
==
If I could poach one player from the Islanders it's easily Dobson. Sorokin, as great as he is - though he wasn't special this game, is not a budding #1 RHD with size and a shot, he'd be the anchor of the first pair easily.
Who wins in a faceoff...Mat Barzal or a dolphin that's been trained to take faceoffs for a week? I'm surprised he re-signed, but then again it seems like he approached ownership and said 'It's Trotz or its me.', they fired him, and then he signed his next deal.
Did Lou really sign Horvat and then say he paid him too much? That's an absolutely terrible look, Lou, it's not 2002 anymore.