December 15 – The Chicago Blackhawks and New York Islanders will aim to help their respective netminders a little more consistently on Sunday afternoon when the clubs meet for the second time in four days.
New York visits Chicago on the heels of Thursday’s 5-4 home victory against the Blackhawks, when the Islanders exhaled after surrendering three goals over the final stages of the third period.
Islanders coach Patrick Roy, a Hall of Fame goalie as a player, chastised the team’s sloppy play in front of Ilya Sorokin.
As the Islanders reached the .500 mark with a number of contributors nearing a return from injury, the team is working to build its consistency and cohesiveness.
“In my days, if my team would have done that to me, I would break a stick in that room,” Roy said. “I’d be very upset to see my team playing like this in front of me. Ilya is a gentleman, he’s a first-class person, but that was unacceptable. We didn’t compete. We didn’t battle in front of the net in the last eight minutes. That’s unacceptable.”
While the Islanders have been idle since Thursday, the Blackhawks remained in the northeast for Saturday’s matinee in New Jersey.
Things didn’t end well for Chicago. Jason Dickinson gave the visitors an early lead with a first-period goal and Connor Bedard showed flashes of offensive potency, but the Blackhawks couldn’t maintain momentum in a 4-1 defeat.
They’ve lost seven of eight.
“You say all those things like, ‘Yeah, we’re good. We’re good. Stay confident. Don’t worry,” Dickinson said. “But the brain is a strong thing that can be very overpowering and stop you from being able to get out of it.”
Chicago will try to regroup during a three-game homestand while navigating a transition in net. With Petr Mrazek out with a lower-body injury, Drew Commesso, a recent call-up from Chicago’s American Hockey League affiliate in Rockford, Ill., made his first career start against the Islanders, stopping 20 shots.
Whether it’s Commesso or Arvid Soderblom in net Sunday and going forward, Chicago knows it must revive an attack that has scored more than two goals only once in the past six games.
“We can’t, every night, rely on our goalies to win us games,” Chicago captain Nick Foligno said. “That’s a sign of a bad hockey team. If Commesso has to pitch a shutout in his first NHL game, it’s a great feather in his cap, but it’s not a good sign for us, right?
“We need to play in a way that allows our goalies to feel confident that, even if one does squeak by, we come back and we support them.”
New York can attest. While the win against the Blackhawks marked the team’s third win in four games, an early third-period push nearly went for naught.
Simon Holmstrom (one goal, two assists), Noah Dobson (one goal, one assist) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (three assists) are coming off multi-point efforts against Chicago.
“(Sorokin) gives us a chance every night,” Dobson said. “So that’s on us. We gotta be a lot better in those situations. But take the two points and move on.”
