Game #1 was one of the weirdest I can recall. Barzal scored with 12:36 remaining in the period but play continued until 10:07 when review showed that his shot fully crossed the line. Yay! Then the reset the clock back to 12:36 to restart the period. Okay. Carolina scored with like 10:45 left, so in essence, before the stoppage of play when Barzal's goal was reviewed, in a way.
And I sat there wondering- how do they handle the time on ice for a game where they add back 2:29 of playing time? Goalie stats? So Anderson played 62:29 in a game that didn't go to OT? Weird. Either way the Isles' celebration was very anticlimactic.
Scoring was back and forth. Carolina scored after Neiderreiter went wide on Chara, who hooked him. No goal called on the initial play with a ref standing at the back of the net, but there was a penalty called on Chara for hooking. After Carolina celebrated, the ref saw the puck in the back of the net and the officials met, then calling it a goal. Then Trotz challenged it, which I thought was moronic. Neiderreiter did bump Sorokin, but he was in the process of being hauled down by Chara, so he wasn't in control and Chara was already being called. At least I assume it was Chara being called. Either way, the Isles lost the challenge and not only were down 4-2 after having had a 1-0 lead and a 2-2 tie, then had a penalty for a failed challenge and no TO. Just dumb to challenge it. But I don't get how the ref said the call on the ice stood, when they didn't originally call it a goal.
A few penalty calls, nobody seemed to know who was going to the box for like 10 seconds. Isles got called for icing one time late in the game when Anderson played the puck in front of the goal line. It was on net so he used his stick to send it to the corner. Linesman was right there and called it icing. Cizikas asked how the fuck he could call it. Me too. I'm not saying the Isles got hosed but I think the officiating was in pre-season form all night. Missed shit both ways, but that one really screwed the Isles and was just so clearly not an icing once touched. And the puck changed direction by like 90 degrees. It's not like it just grazed his stick. You could hear it on TV, and it wasn't the puck hitting the net frame. Oh well. On a PK Clutterbuck put the puck past Tony QueAngelo who literally just punched Clutterbuck in the face and knocked him down. No call. It wasn't a check, wasn't a hand to the chest. Full punch to the face. Is that the new NHL? Any crosscheck will be called but face punches mid-play are okay?
Overall, the Isles also looked to be in pre-season form. They had flashes of looking very good (Beauvillier was flying at times, Lee with a very Lee goal), but the D was stir fried dog shit most of the night. 6-3 loss with an en. 28 shots on Andersen, 40 on Sorokin. That's not very Islanders.
Hoping they regroup and come out better vs the Panthers. 13 game road trip could be great for bonding or horrible if they keep playing poorly.