The Capitals outshot the Islanders 31-13 at five-on-five on Saturday afternoon at UBS Arena. The final score was closer, 2-0, but the result was still an offensive effort the Islanders would like to forget as soon as possible.
Again and again, the Capitals stymied the Islanders in the neutral zone, turned them over in the defensive zone and got the puck back before the home team could get into a cycle. Afterward, Scott Mayfield compared Washington’s forechecking to what the Islanders would like to do when they play at their best. But on Saturday, the Capitals set the tone.
“They get on us hard,” Mayfield said. “They’re physical, they’re fast. They play like how we want to. … We’re physical on other teams.”
Associate coach Lane Lambert spent his press conference repeatedly noting a lack of execution on the Islanders’ part. That was evident both at even strength and on a late power play, on which the Islanders failed to even seriously threaten Vitek Vanecek.
“They did a good job on their kill of getting in shot lanes,” Lambert said. “Sometimes the shot isn’t there. We can want shots all we want, but if it’s not there, you can’t take it.”
Scott Mayfield USA TODAY Sports“They kept us outside,” Anders Lee added. “Five-on-five, we gotta get to the interior, but then on the power play like I said, [they] did a good job of forcing our guys up top not to have a whole lot.”
The Islanders constantly failed to get through the middle of the ice. In the final numbers, the Islanders had 15 giveaways — nearly triple Washington’s six. Once the Islanders were forced to try and make something happen on the wing, that was all she wrote.
“When we’re pinched out, we gotta make our reads,” Mayfield said. “Whether it’s bypassing a guy, hitting the middle, whatever we gotta do to get out cleaner.”
Semyon Varlamov made 34 saves in his first start following a two-week layoff. It’s the second straight two-week gap between starts for the Russian, who played quite well in both games.
“Gave up a goal in the first period and then after that, made some saves, got the confidence back,” Varlamov said. “But overall played a decent game today
Matt Martin played in place of Ross Johnston, who was serving the first game of a three-game suspension, notching three hits and a blocked shot in 11:17. Kyle Palmieri remained on injured reserve.
Oliver Wahlstrom had seven shots on goal, more than triple any other Islanders player.
The Capitals were missing Dmitry Orlov, Carl Hagelin and Conor Sheary due to COVID-19 protocol. T.J. Oshie also left the game with an upper-body injury and didn’t return.
