An odd game, in which the New York Islanders were close but playing with fire, blew up in their hands, beyond the reach of a late three-goal comeback.
Once again and frustratingly so, this Islanders team faced a weak or struggling opponent and let them off the hook. The St. Louis Blues, who walked away as 7-4 victors, entered amid another losing spell and bleeding goals. They were playing on back-to-back nights, and announced shortly before the game they’d lost key contributors Pavel Buchnevich and Torey Krug.
Though the Islanders had a strong first two periods and arguably should’ve had the lead, they entered the second intermission trailing 3-1, with an uncharacteristic poor night from Ilya Sorokin extending that deficit to 5-1 by the fourth minute of the third period.