Nelson strikes again in OT to extend the point streak to 16 games; win streak to 5

It’s a major accomplishment whenever a record is broken in Islander-land simply because of the rich history that this franchise has. Some of the greatest (and what some would call the greatest) teams and players in NHL history have donned the Orange and Blue and many of their records are seemingly impossible to break, but the 2019-2020 Islanders team has eclipsed the mark for longest point streak in franchise history. Let that sink in for a bit; this team has surpassed teams led by Bossy, Potvin and Trottier by achieving a point in sixteen consecutive games with their overtime victory over the Penguins on Thursday night. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, there weren’t any three point games back in the ’80s, but it’s impressive nonetheless especially given the parity of today’s NHL. With that being said, let’s take a look at the Islanders fifth consecutive win in a little bit more detail.

Pittsburgh (11-7-4) fell to the Islanders (16-3-1) for the sixth time in seven games on Thursday night in Brooklyn. The Islanders were outshot 26-24, but were the beneficiaries of 7 power plays en route to their 4-3 victory at home. Evgeni Malkin opened up the scoring with an early tally as the Penguins swarmed the Isles for the early part of the first period before New York’s Scott Mayfield answered with his third goal of the season (Mayfield, by the way, is very quietly having himself a productive season thus far; he’s been a rock in the defensive zone and he’s only one shy of his career high in goals already).

The new Islander killer, Bryan Rust, gave the Pens a 2-1 lead to start the second period with a wicked shot from the top of the left circle. Rust scored two goals against the Islanders last game and continues to tear them up this season.

From this point, the Islanders flexed their muscles and earned multiple Power Plays (shocking, I know) and potted two PPGs (Beauvillier [red hot] and Nelson [also red hot]). The Islanders were seemingly in control of the game until Mayfield (I know, I literally just got finished singing his praises, but mistakes happen) and Bailey combined to keep the puck deep in their own zone allowing for Hornqvist to tie the game at 3 with about 30 seconds left in regulation.

In overtime, the Islanders played their usual keep away; the skated and passed the puck around until the defenders started to wear down and then had Barzal hop on to skate circles around the tired players and , hopefully, find some daylight for a scoring chance. The overtime period was rather anticlimactic and looked headed for a shoot-out until good ol’ Bryan Rust took a shot that missed the net, caromed around the glass and right onto the stick of Mat Barzal who dished it to Nelson at the Pens blue line who danced around a defender, dragged the puck to his right at Matt Murray slid out of position and tucked the puck into the net for the game winner. Kudos to Barzal for dragging a defender towards him so that Nelson could have to extra space.

What a game at Barclays. The Beauvillier-Nelson-Brassard line is absolutely on fire right now; Nelson finished the game with 2G, Beau (1G,1A) and Brassard (1A); this puts that at 24 points over the last four games. That’s absolutely insane production. Barzal hasn’t been a slouch either as he’s looking more and more Datsyuk-ian with each passing game (he finished the game with 3 helpers, bringing his season point total up to 20 (PPG pace). This team doesn’t say die and that is the trademark of a world-class team. To be honest, the past few games haven’t been the Islanders’ best (defensively speaking) but they’ve persevered and there’s not a doubt in my mind that Trotz will fix the recent ills of the defense. Let’s keep this thing rolling!

Up next for the Islanders is a date with the San Jose Sharks (10/23 @ 10:30 EST) as they begin their West Coast swing.

Until then Islander fans, let’s keep it rollin’.