When your bottom six is made up of mostly borderline NHLers, it’s going to be tough to score. It probably wasn’t the smartest choice in hindsight to bring Ross Johnston and Tom Kuhnhackl into this game, which forced Leo Komarov to play center until Mat Barzal was double shifted later in the game. With Casey Cizikas out, the Isles’ woes at center were always going to be exacerbated, but the top six has to step up and just hasn’t been able to. That being said, Barzal had one of his best two way games all season, and Semyon Varlamov was stellar, with the only goal coming from an unfortunate mixup with Nick Leddy behind the net.
Golden Knights 1, Islanders 0: Shut out again
