The New York Islanders’ bid for a comeback came up just short as they lost their fourth-consecutive game in gritty fashion against the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4.
- New York Islanders (20-17-4, 44 points)
- Philadelphia Flyers (17-15-8, 42 points)
- NYI Goals: Cal Clutterbuck (5, 6), John Tavares (22) PPG, Ryan Pulock (3)
- PHI Goals: Sean Couturier (19) PPG, Michael Raffl (7), Wayne Simmonds (13), Ivan Provorov (6 PPG, 7), Travis Konecny (5)
- NHL, Final, Box Score
- Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
The Islanders suffered their most Jekyll & Hyde effort of the season, failing to show up for the first two periods and playing a phenomenal third period to nearly claw their way back into a blowout.
Despite what you might think, there were some highlights to take out of this brutal effort for the blue and orange.
The Islanders received some much-needed depth scoring from their bottom-six via one Cal Clutterbuck.
Clutterbuck (one of the Killer C's) gets the goal! #Isles pic.twitter.com/1GfXoQ39tj
— IslesBlog (@IslesBlog) January 5, 2018
Clutterbuck netted two tonight, his fifth and sixth of the season respectively, and provided some relief for the top two lines whose struggles have hurt the Islanders’ overall offense.
Clutterbuck gets his second of the night #Isles pic.twitter.com/NtyCkp8Dz5
— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) January 5, 2018
Things started to get interesting once John Tavares found his way onto the board to trim the Flyers lead to 5-3.
JT gets the #Isles their third of the game. #NYIvsPHI pic.twitter.com/Qi7IV08349
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) January 5, 2018
Ryan Pulock got on the board with probably his prettiest goal to date, shelving the puck into Butch Goring’s toy department and further cutting the Isles deficit to just a single goal.
Pulock goal & celly #Isles pic.twitter.com/Ejkgtu8vRZ
— IslesBlog (@IslesBlog) January 5, 2018
The real bulk of the game was in the third period, which featured numerous glove-dropping fights including Jordan Eberle’s first-career fight.
What is happening??? #Isles pic.twitter.com/aRIK6AzUsk
— IslesBlog (@IslesBlog) January 5, 2018
All in all, the losses continued to pile up for the Islanders and there are no imminent changes, at least according to what the team has done thus far. The recall of Tanner Fritz and Sebastian Aho (with Aho arriving in more of an emergency situation) should have helped shake up a perturbed Isles locker room, but in reality, has only added more inexperience to a team with no shortage of youngsters.
The Isles will get a short break after Friday night’s contest in Pittsburgh, and that’s some good news on a team that needs to regroup and press a giant reset button.
The bad news is that the rest of the league and the Metropolitan Division will continue to play, and that will only bury them further down in the standings.
At this point, all fans can do is see what they bring after a six-day rest.
