The New York Islanders do not suck, as I angrily vented last night in the comments on the train home from that miserable game. But they sucked last night. I know what the shot counter says. Expected goals favored the Islanders, but at five-on-five, only barely so. That’s because, for the most part, the Islanders stayed to the outside and didn’t go to the net.
Even as a middling team, that’s something they can control—we know because we’ve seen them do it before. I don’t think the Detroit Red Wings did a good job keeping the Islanders to the outside; the Islanders kept themselves out there.