NY Islanders Impress Peter DeBoer Despite Loss to LA Kings

The New York Islanders got off to a painfully slow start in their game against the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 22.

Despite outshooting their opponent in the first period, it was the Kings who went up 2-0 before the first intermission, with their star, Artemi Panarin, beating Semyon Varlamov twice to find the back of the net.

Entering the game against Los Angeles, the Islanders had scored at least one goal in four straight first periods, lighting the lamp seven times in total. Now, they put themselves in a position where they had to climb out of an early hole. Some teams would start pressing, looking to create offensive pressure and abandon the game plan that was in place.

That wasn’t the case for New York, who stuck to their principles and climbed their way back into the game. It impressed their head coach, Peter DeBoer, who was happy to see a mature approach from his group instead of chasing goals and leaving Varlamov out to dry in tough spots.

Peter DeBoer impressed by Islanders mid-game bounceback

"As well as we were playing and executing, and doing what we wanted to do, you’re in a 2-0 hole,” DeBoer said, via Tyler Millen of NHL.com. “It's how do you handle that? I love the way we stuck with it. An immature team in that situation will open it up and try and cheat for offense, and we didn't do that. I thought we stuck to what we were doing well and just kept going at it and finally found a way to crack them and get back in the game so great maturity by our group.”

It was the veteran goalie who helped spark his team with a huge save on a penalty shot attempt by Adrian Kempe after defenseman Matthew Schaefer was whistled for a penalty. Varlamov made the stop, and the team captured the momentum.

Victor Eklund scored a few minutes later with the Islanders on the power play, scoring for the first time in his career with the man advantage. That cut the deficit in half to 2-1.

In the third period, Schaefer would atone for his earlier mistake. He scored his first goal of the season to tie the game at two, ending what had been a frustrating goal-less streak. It certainly wasn’t from a lack of opportunities, as the young superstar has been letting pucks fly.

New York would pepper Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper with 43 shot attempts, but he was able to get the job done, stopping 41 of them. He stonewalled the Islanders time after time, helping his squad come away with a 3-2 overtime victory.

It was not the outcome New York had hoped for, but they were able to get at least one point for a fifth consecutive game. How they performed despite the 2-0 hole was also very encouraging, as this is a group that is never going to quit on the ice.