Weight calls for more urgency from Isles

Head Coach Alarmed by Post All-Star Break Loss to Visiting Panthers

January 31, 2018 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Goalie Jaroslav Halak was under siege for most of the first 20 minutes Tuesday night as the Islanders came back from the All-Star break with an ugly 4-1 loss to Florida at Downtown’s Barclays Center. AP photo by Mary Altaffer

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A little over 24 hours after learning they’d be playing some of their home games at “The Old Barn” beginning next season, the New York Islanders laid a stinker in their current arena in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn.

Defenseman Adam Pelech’s third-period goal was the only sign of life from the Islanders at Barclays Center Tuesday night as the playoff-hungry team returned from the All-Star break looking like one in need of some more time off.

The ugly 4-1 loss to the Florida Panthers provoked a steady stream of boos from the 10,423 fans and elicited even more ire from Islanders head coach Doug Weight after his team appeared to slumber through the opening two periods.

“The deficit is we’re out of the playoffs right now, so that [urgency] should be kicked in at 7 p.m. not 8:30,” Weight said after New York remained one point behind Philadelphia for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

“As a player, you have to be ready to start the game and it should be with reckless abandon right now,” Weight added.

Despite an opening puck faceoff drop by Isles legend John Tonelli to commemorate the team’s part-time return to its Long Island roots, New York got outshot, 28-17, over the first 40 minutes and fell behind 3-0 before Pelech’s second goal of the year with just under 15 minutes to play.

“It’s frustrating because we would like to play like that for the whole 60 minutes,” Pelech said after New York’s third-period push proved to be much too little to overcome the early deficit.

“We weren’t good enough in the first two tonight and playing well in the third wasn’t enough.”

Nor will it be going forward as the Isles find themselves in a tightly bunched five-team race for the two wild-card spots in the East.

Jaroslav Halak made 36 saves for New York, surrendering goals to Michael Matheson, Evgenii Dadonov and Keith Yandle before Jonathan Huberdeau’s empty netter with 1:11 to play capped the scoring.

But Halak wasn’t the problem Tuesday night as the Isles were unable to build on the modest 2-0-1 run they had established prior to the All-Star break.

Instead, it was New York’s inability to pepper Florida rookie goaltender Harri Sateri with anything more than a few meager chances before the third period.

“We just weren’t executing that well and just weren’t as quick to pucks as we needed to be,” Isles captain John Tavares admitted. “We just didn’t make it tough enough on their goaltender. We just didn’t have our best today.”

The Isles hope to put forth a better performance Wednesday night in Toronto.