Make New York Post a Preferred Source LOS ANGELES — A work-in-progress Islanders roster delivered a work-in-progress win. On the same day they were reintegrating Matias Maccelli and Ryan Pulock back into the lineup, Pete DeBoer had to remake his lineup on the fly after Jean-Gabriel Pageau left morning skate with a lower-body injury, blunting what would have been unmitigatedly happy news.
Imperfect as this was, the Islanders can’t do much complaining.
That the resulting 11 and 7 lineup came up with a 5-2 win over the Kings to break a nascent four-game losing streak is ultimately a lot more important than the how of it. In part because this was a strange circumstance, in part because there’s optimism that Pageau’s injury is minor and in part because this was a group that really needed two points.
So, at least in that sense, who cares if it was pretty?
Still, this was the sort of West Coast game that ought to get you an award if you stayed up until the wee hours to watch it in New York. Both teams played ugly, the refereeing was ugly, the crowd was sparse and there was a delay for broken glass along the boards. The Islanders, one minute into a power play during the third period, used their timeout. It was that sort of night.
The Islanders could at least be happy about Ryan Pulock getting right back to his level in his first game back from a shoulder injury, picking up two secondary assists, playing a solid role on the breakout and contributing to a defense that looked much more comfortable for his presence in it.
Victor Eklund — and the young Swede’s connection with Brayden Schenn — was another spot of encouragement. Eklund drove the net to finish Schenn’s cross-crease feed on the rush at 5:35 of the second to extend a scoring streak to four games, the longest for an Islanders rookie since Anthony Beauvillier in 2018. That followed Schenn’s goal at 5:50 of the first when he cleaned up the garbage on Pulock’s tipped shot.
Undergirding those moments, as well as Matthew Schaefer’s power-play goal at 12:56 of the first, was that after two periods, the Islanders had just nine shots on goal. Their puck management remained poor in spots, and they let the Kings back into the game by taking consecutive penalties that led to a Quinton Byfield 5-on-3 goal to bring Los Angeles within one going into the third.
The saving grace of this game for the Islanders, though, was that the Kings played worse than they did.
The home team, instead of seizing the opportunity they had been granted, handed it right back. Just 39 seconds into the third, Simon Holmstrom ripped one past Darcy Kuemper from the slot to bring the lead back to two.
In large part due to Ilya Sorokin, the Islanders never quite needed the cushion. Defensively, though, it was hard to say the issues that have been evident lately were solved: There were still plenty of chances allowed in the middle of the ice.
Nevertheless, they were at least stout at 5-on-6, with Bo Horvat’s empty-netter sealing it soon after the Kings pulled Kuemper.
A win is a win, and on the heels of a losing streak, that feels especially true.
The Islanders need to hope their performance was a product of circumstance more than anything else though. It’s hard to imagine their level on Thursday would get them many more victories.
