Patrick Roy largely happy with Islanders' performance despite preseason loss to Rangers in overtime
Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer skates with the puck past goaltender David Rittich during the second period of a preseason game against the New York Rangers at UBS Arena on Monday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Some personnel combinations will still change. But the Islanders’ lineup for Monday night’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Rangers in their penultimate preseason game featured almost all the players that will take the ice for season opener in Pittsburgh on Oct. 9.
It answered some questions for coach Patrick Roy and raised others against a much less experienced Rangers’ roster.
“I would send a mixed message if I say I’m not happy with the performance of the team because I thought that we dominated most of the game,” Roy said. “I thought our power play moved the puck well. We had some good looks. I thought five-on-five was the same thing. We had good chances. Maybe I would like to see a little more traffic in front of their goalie.”
The forwards, particularly Bo Horvat’s trio with Jonathan Drouin and Emil Heineman and Mathew Barzal’s line with Anthony Duclair and Kyle Palmieri played with speed and created chances. Barzal, in particular, was in high gear from start to finish.
“It’s not bad,” said Barzal, coming off last season’s knee surgery. “I feel all right. I feel like the game is starting to slow down a little bit for me and making some good plays.
“I actually feel like we had a pretty good game tonight. It’s hard when you play these games. Those kids are all on the other side working their hardest and we’ve got a veteran group.”
Barzal, strong on the forecheck all game, set up Duclair with a backhand feed to the slot to tie it at 1-1 at 1:14 of the second period. Defenseman Tony DeAngelo, with assists from Duclair and Palmieri, tied it 2-2 at 11:33 of the third period.
However, goalie David Rittich allowed goals on two of the first three shots he faced and Noah Laba made a move around No. 1 pick Matthew Schaefer and beat Rittich at the crease for the winner at 1:01 of overtime.
“Some sort of things, it’s better when that happens in the preseason than in the regular season,” Rittich said. “I hope I got rid of those unlucky bounces and bad reads by me. I just hope it’s going to get better.”
Rittich, signed to a one-year, $1 million deal to be Ilya Sorokin’s backup with Semyon Varlamov not close to being ready, has not looked as good as Marcus Hogberg in the preseason.
So Roy is not yet ready to name Rittich the backup.
Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer skates with the puck past goaltender David Rittich during the second period of a preseason game against the New York Rangers at UBS Arena on Monday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
“I’m sure we’ll have a lot of discussion about the remainder of training camp,” Roy said. “We’ll see how things are.”
Notes & quotes: Horvat took a game-high six shots…Max Tsyplakov logged 13:22 in his first preseason game. “I thought he played really well with (Cal) Ritchie,” Roy said. “They moved the puck very well.” Ritchie had three shots in 13:48…The Islanders experimented with conducting their morning skate also at UBS Arena instead of at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow…The Islanders held a moment of silence for Ron Waske, their athletic trainer from 1974-84 through the Stanley Cup-championship era.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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