The New York Islanders will have something to prove to their coach when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday afternoon.
Islanders coach Patrick Roy criticized his team’s effort in a 3-2 road loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday following a 6-3 home win over the Penguins the day before.
Roy emphasized the difference in the two games.
“I didn’t think we competed the way we are capable of,” Roy said. “(Saturday) we were quick on those loose pucks. We were sharp. We executed much better than we did (Sunday). And we were more at the net, as well. If you want to score on your shot, you better be a good shooter. If not, you’re going to have to drive the net.”
Roy did not like the way his team responded when Pittsburgh took a 2-0 lead early in the second period.
“I just felt like after we gave up that second goal, we were not mentally strong enough,” Roy said. “It’s just a goal. We were down two — two goals is nothing in this league. We proved it.”
Pittsburgh led 3-0 in the third period before Anders Lee and Bo Horvat scored for New York to make the score look respectable.
“With seven minutes (remaining), we pull the goalie, we score one, five minutes, we score another,” Roy said. “You could come back in those games. And sometimes, I feel we don’t believe enough in that.”
The Islanders already have a win in Toronto this season, 6-3 on Dec. 21. Each team has dropped two of three since.
Toronto lost 5-2 at home on Saturday to the Washington Capitals. The Maple Leafs were playing their fourth straight game without Auston Matthews (upper-body injury).
Matthews did participate in most of Monday’s practice but left early and coach Craig Berube said that he will not play on Tuesday.
“He did a good job in practice today, I thought, and I think he feels pretty good,” Berube said. “So, we’ll go from there.”
Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson (illness) did not practice.
After the loss on Saturday, Berube said: “Probably three mistakes in the game that we made and it went in our net. We played a pretty hard game, lot of opportunities, we didn’t finish.”
Washington scored on its only power play while Toronto was 0-for-2 with the man advantage.
“We certainly had chances, had looks,” said John Tavares, who scored once for Toronto. “We were on the wrong side of it on special teams today. It’s just small margins, execution at times. We have to execute defensively and when we create offense, we have to find ways to break them down and beat their goaltender.”
Washington goaltender Logan Thompson made two big saves on William Nylander in the first period.
“I had some great scoring chances and didn’t capitalize so that’s probably one of the reasons why, (we lost),” Nylander said.
Horvat, who had a goal and two assists in the win at Toronto, stressed the need for consistency from the Islanders.
“Right now, this win one, lose one thing is not going to do us any favors here going forward,” he said. “If we’re going to continue to do this, we’re not going to move up the standings. It’s on us in here to get the ball rolling.”
The teams will play again Thursday when the Maple Leafs will be the visitors.
–Field Level Media
