It took the New York Islanders 2 1/2 months for their optimal lineup to finally reunite, and it came in a win on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, the Islanders will get one more chance to see that lineup perform before they embark upon another lengthy hiatus.
The Islanders will look to end the first half on a winning streak when they host the Seattle Kraken in an oft-delayed first matchup between the teams in Elmont, N.Y.
Each team will be completing a back-to-back set. The Islanders beat the visiting Ottawa Senators 4-1, and the visiting Kraken lost to the Boston Bruins, 3-2.
The Islanders, whose season was disrupted by multiple COVID-19 outbreaks and lower body injuries to center Brock Nelson and defenseman Ryan Pulock, became whole again when Pulock returned to the lineup and played 15:08 Tuesday after missing 25 games.
While Pulock was kept off the scoresheet, his presence aided a defense that clamped down on the Senators after a fluky goal 1:56 into the first. Ilya Sorokin gloved a shot by Nick Holden, but in the process of pulling the glove down, he lost the puck, which fell off Sorokin’s shoulder and into the net.
“It was a little different seeing the lineup we thought we’d have at the start of the year,” head coach Barry Trotz said after the Islanders improved to 11-6-1 since an 11-game losing streak from Nov. 7 through Dec. 5. “It’s been a process for us this year. It’s been just a very difficult year in a lot of ways. But it was good to see Ryan back in there. I thought it was a pretty easy night for our ‘D.'”
Meanwhile, the Kraken fell behind 2-0 in the second period but scored twice in the first eight minutes of the third, only to have the Bruins’ David Pastrnak collect the game-winner at the 10:49 mark of the final period.
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Seattle’s narrow loss continued a stretch of close games against contenders.
Seattle, which is last in the Pacific Division with 32 points, is 2-3-0 in its last five games. The wins came against the Florida Panthers on Jan. 23 and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 27.
The Kraken fell 4-2 to the Nashville Predators on Jan. 25 and 3-2 to the New York Rangers on Sunday.
Overall this season, 20 of Seattle’s 31 losses have been by two goals or fewer.
“Another one-goal loss,” said Kraken right winger Joonas Donskoi, who scored his first goal of the season Tuesday. “Tight game, but it’s frustrating.”
Wednesday’s date marks the third time the teams have been scheduled to play their initial game against one another.
The Islanders were slated to visit the expansion Kraken on Jan. 4, but the NHL postponed New York’s four-game Western Conference road trip — which was scheduled to begin in Seattle before heading to Canada for games against the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames — due to COVID-19 attendance restrictions in the Canadian provinces.
The Islanders were then scheduled to host the Kraken last Saturday, but that game was postponed due to the winter storm that dropped up to two feet of snow in the metropolitan New York area.
–Field Level Media
