Takeaways: Islanders Shut Out 1-0 by Red Wings

The New York Islanders peppered, but could not solve Alex Lyon on Tuesday night, as they were shut out by the Detroit Red Wings 1-0 at UBS Arena.

Lyon stopped all 29 Islanders shots on Tuesday night, sending New York to its third shutout loss in the first six games of the season. Patrick Kane scored the game’s only goal on a night where the Isles outshot the Red Wings 29-11. The 11 shots allowed marked the fewest the Islanders had ever allowed in a loss.

“We're all going to agree that’s not the result we wanted,” Head Coach Patrick Roy said. “It was 29-10, shots on net and I don't know how many chances against, we dominated every, department of the game.”

HOW IT HAPPENED:

The opening minutes of Tuesday’s game told the story. The Islanders got off to a fast start, opening up a 5-0 shot advantage early, but it was undercut by Patrick Kane scoring on Detroit’s first shot of the game. The Isles outshot the Wings 8-3 in the opening period.

The Isles outshot the Wings 14-6 in the second period, but couldn’t bury a handful of quality looks. Early in the frame Mathew Barzal seemingly had an open net – off another nice pass cross-ice from Romanov – but held the puck a little too long allowing Lyon to get across with the glove. Anders Lee couldn’t quite stuff a puck in on the doorstep on the Isles first power play, and Brock Nelson beat Lyon on the man advantage, but rang a shot off the crossbar.

All Bo Horvat could do was shake his head early in the third period when his wrister from the dot – set up by a slick touch pass by Barzal at the blue line – was pinned by Lyon up high. The Isles outshot the Wings 7-2 in the third period and pressured with an empty net, but could not convert. One area Roy said his team could have improved was getting bodies to the net.

“They did a good job boxing us out, I have to give credit to these guys, I mean, and their goalie was really good,” Roy said. “He made some really nice saves, but I thought we could have maybe worked to do a little bit of a better job in that area.”

While the lack of offense was frustrating, the Isles played well defensively, limiting Detroit to 11 shots and just two high-danger chances at five-on-five was something to build off of.

“You finish a hockey game, even with penalty kills and you give up 10 shots, you're playing some pretty good hockey,” Lee said. “We play a solid hockey game tonight. I think that's what's frustrating.”

LINEUP NOTES:

Liam Foudy made his New York Islanders debut, skating on a line with Kyle MacLean and Oliver Wahlstrom. Foudy finished the game with 7:52 TOI.

Simon Holmstrom was promoted to Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal’s line in the wake of Anthony Duclair’s injury, while Casey Cizikas skated alongside Anders Lee and JG Pageau.

The Islanders also switched up their power-play units on Tuesday, with Horvat, Lee, Kyle Palmieri, Pageau and Noah Dobson on one unit and Barzal, Nelson, Max Tsyplakov, Holmstrom and Mike Reilly on the other unit. The power play went 0-for-3 with seven shots.

ODDS AND ENDS:

• Ilya Sorokin stopped 10-of-11 shots in his first loss of the season, dropping to 1-1-1.
• Dobson led the Islanders with 12 shot attempts
• Nelson led the Islanders with five shots on goal
• The Isles outhit the Red Wings 13-9

QUOTE:

Roy on the tide eventually turning for the Isles offense:

"If you look at the analytics, they're saying that we're probably one of the team who has the most chances. So, I mean, would I be worried if we had no chances? Yes. But we have chances, so I do believe that eventually they'll turn our way."

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders travel to New Jersey to take on the Devils on Friday night. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.