The New York Islanders are shaking off their loss to Los Angeles and looking ahead to Thursday's matchup against Buffalo.
The New York Islanders are shaking off their loss to Los Angeles and looking ahead to Thursday's matchup against Buffalo.
LOS ANGELES -- The New York Islanders didn't bring their A-game into Crypto.com Arena on Monday night as their six-game win streak ended in their 3-0 shutout defeat to the Los Angeles Kings.
Before Monday's game, the Islanders had taken advantage of two weak teams. This included a 7-2 win over the San Jose Sharks this past Thursday and a 6-1 rout of the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
Winning the second leg of back-to-backs is something the Islanders haven't done all season, and the Kings are a rather strong team.
Despite a game that they had plenty of chances to win, going 0-for-5 on the man advantage, the Islanders' confidence -- which carried them over their winning streak -- suffered no dent despite the loss.
"There were aspects of our game that weren't as crisp as they had been the last few nights, but we're also playing a much better hockey team," Islanders captain Anders Lee said. "It wasn't our best hockey, but we were in position just down one with an opportunity to tie things up in the second.
"We had an opportunity in the third, only down one. We felt in this game. We felt right there. Just tough on a night when it's already tight to surmount a multi-goal deficit."
Islanders head coach Patrick Roy didn't mind the way the Islanders played in the loss.
"It was a hard-fought game. I was very happy with the way we played," Roy said. "We kept them...it was a tight game. There was not much room out there, I could tell you that. That was playoff hockey. And we had a couple of good chances. I mean, we all saw it. If our power play had clicked, maybe it would have made a difference.
"We need more traffic in front, but when the puck isn't moving as well as we wish on the powerplay, we need to do things a little differently and put more traffic in front of the net rather than try to be a little fancy and play around with it."
But what's done is done.
"Let's think about the next game, though. We lost today, and now we have to be ready for Buffalo," Roy said. We're playing good hockey, and that's the important thing to me. I mean, we played a good hockey game here. They didn't play last night. We played last night. It was a 1-0 game until midway through the third period, so I'm very pleased with the effort and the back-checking.
"We compete with them. It was playoff hockey,"
Brock Nelson echoed his coach's sentiments.
"We were in the game, and that's a good team," Nelson said. "It's a tough building to play in, a tough tight-checking style, so we've had a pretty good run to this point. Obviously, losing, no matter what the scenario is, hurts, so we reassess, and now we go attack in Buffalo."
Despite going 6-3-1 over their last 10 games, the Buffalo Sabres aren't what you would call a good hockey team, and the Islanders have a tremendous opportunity to get back on track immediately when they battle them on Thursday night.