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Game #3
Anaheim Ducks @ New York Islanders
Sunday October 16, 2016 3:00 PM PST
Barclays Center
TV: Fox Sports Prime Ticket
Radio: AM 830, AnaheimDucks.com
Your Enemy: Lighthouse Hockey
Despite a 42-save performance from Jonathan Bernier, the Anaheim Ducks were unable to cash in at the end to tie the game in Pittsburgh. Now they will be heading to New York where they will meet the New York Islanders who will also be coming off a road loss to Washington. Both teams are 0-2 this season, looking for their first W.
This year’s Islanders does look a bit different than in years’ past, thanks to some work of the front office. While they were able to sign Andrew Ladd for a large seven-year $37.8M deal, it also meant saying a bittersweet farewell to longtime Islander forward Kyle Okposo to free agency (who eventually signed with Buffalo). Other players, like Frans Nielsen (Detroit) and Matt Martin (Toronto), are no longer with the New York Hockey Club, but they added P.A. Parenteau, Jason Chimera, and Dennis Seidenberg to the roster. That being said, the Islanders still have last year’s leading scorer John Tavares (33G-37A-70P) along with Brock Nelson and backed by the tandem between Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss (and Francois-Jean Berube too).
It still looks like the Ducks are working out their kinks. Watching them the past two games, you just think, they still don’t have it all together—they are still trying to figure out Carlyle’s system and still trying to figure out this new season’s line combinations. Yesterday’s game against the Penguins looked much better as the Ducks really came out of the gates flying (pun intended). That being said, the third and fourth lines are clearly the weakest. And knowing Randy Carlyle, he will most likely continue heavy minutes on top, and convert to running a three-line rotation. You can already see the top two lines bearing the brunt for scoring goals. During Boudreau’s tenure, the Ducks prided themselves of rolling out four lines. It’ll be interesting how this is going to change with the coaching change (maybe for the better, maybe for the worse—jury is still out).
But all in all, Ducks need this win at Barclays. They are zero-for-two thus far on this 5-game roadie.