A strong third period against the struggling Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night offered evidence that the New York Islanders are making progress under Pete DeBoer in his first full season as head coach.
A trip to Canada to face a pair of Eastern Conference contenders will be the real barometer for the Islanders, who open their trek Thursday by visiting the Ottawa Senators.
Both teams were off Wednesday after playing at home Tuesday. Kyle Palmieri scored his first two goals since returning from knee surgery to lead the Islanders past the Vancouver Canucks 3-2. Meanwhile, the Senators’ three-game winning streak ended with a 7-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Palmieri, who tore his left ACL last Nov. 28, scored the game-winner 5:38 into the third for the Islanders, who have alternated wins and losses in their first six games this season.
Palmieri’s goal highlighted an impressive third period for the Islanders, who handed the Canucks their fifth straight loss while outshooting Vancouver 19-8 and winning 65% of the faceoffs over the final 20 minutes.
“We went into that third period knowing the recipe and I think we put a ton of pressure on them in the third. I think we could have (scored) a couple more,” Palmieri said. “I thought as a team, we went out there and every line was rolling and tilting the ice in our favor.”
DeBoer replaced Patrick Roy with four games left last season, when the Islanders went 8-13-0 in their final 21 games and missed the playoffs. New York collapsed on both sides of the ice during that season-ending skid, scoring more than three goals only three times but giving up four or more nine times.
“I saw some glimpses tonight. I think we’re getting a little bit better,” DeBoer said before the two-game trip that ends with a visit to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. “We’re going on the road in some tough buildings. I think that’s always the biggest test, when you go into these road buildings and you don’t have last change and you’re playing really good teams in their rinks.”
The lopsided loss was a rare hiccup for the Senators, who established themselves as one of the NHL’s biggest early-season surprises by winning five of their first six games.
“(Losses are) not fun,” Senators right winger Claude Giroux said. “Sadly, I’ve been a part of these a little too often, but you do learn from it. And you’ve got to take the feeling that we have right now and make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Ottawa made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons following a seven-year drought but was expected to take a step back after trading captain Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers in exchange for four draft picks.
The Senators outscored their first six opponents 19-12 before stumbling Tuesday, when the Blues took leads of 2-0 and 3-1 before scoring four goals in a span of fewer than nine minutes in the third period.
The Senators allowed their most goals while taking their most one-sided defeat since Jan. 8, when the Colorado Avalanche routed Ottawa 8-2.
“I don’t know if we stopped thinking or what, but you know we didn’t help our goaltender,” Giroux said of goalie Samuel Ersson, who stopped five of nine shots in the third. “And you know it wasn’t on him in the third. It was on us to play better.”