3 Takeaways: Breakaways Cost Isles in 5-2 Loss to Maple Leafs

The New York Islanders winless streak reached five games on Monday night, as the Isles fell 5-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
Anders Lee scored a pair of goals for the Islanders, who are 0-3-2 in their last five games, 1-6-3 in their last 10 and 2-7-3 since the calendar flipped to 2023.

William Nylander led the Maple Leafs with a four-point night (2G, 2A) with all four points coming in an explosive second period for Toronto. John Tavares (1G, 1A), Calle Jarnkrok and Auston Matthews also scored for the Leafs, while Justin Holl had a pair of assists.
Ilya Sorokin stopped 34 of 39 shots in the loss, while Ilya Samsonov stopped 31 of 33 in the win, while also picking up an assist.

BREAKAWAYS BREAK ISLES IN SECOND PERIOD:

All-Star defenseman Adam Pelech played for the first time since Dec. 6, but the Maple Leafs cut up the Islanders defense on Monday night.
The damage was done in the second period, as Toronto, who entered the game with 63 second period goals - tied for third in the league - scored four times, vaulting to the top spot in the process.
MAPLE LEAFS 5, ISLANDERS 2
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"We let people get in behind us," Lambert said. "They're fast team, they're a rush team, they're a second period team that way. We knew that going into that period. We didn't manage it."
Three Maple Leafs goals came via breakaway on Monday night, including two in the second period. Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov caught the Islanders on a shorthanded change, hitting William Nylander at the Isles blue line, who sprung a charging John Tavares who backhanded the 2-2 goal past Ilya Sorokin.
One hundred seconds later the Maple Leafs turned another long pass into a breakaway, as Nylander lobbed a puck to Jarnkrok, who skated in alone and beat Sorokin to make it 3-2.
"Situational awareness. Individual awareness," Lambert said of what led to the breakaways. "Penalty kill goal was a bad change and a couple of guys getting behind us. Can't happen. It's unacceptable."
At that point, all of the momentum was in the Leafs favor. Sorokin stopped a Michael Bunting penalty shot to keep it 3-2, but Nylander's second goal - and fourth point - of the night made it 4-2 Leafs. That capped a second period that saw Toronto outshoot the Islanders 22-11.
Matthews put the game out of reach in the third period, getting behind the Islanders defense and fighting off a Ryan Pulock backcheck before beating Sorokin blocker side at 7:44.
"As a group back there, myself included, we kind of got outside of the dots they had speed going through the middle," Pelech said. "Unfortunately we kind of left Sorokin out to dry there."
The lopsided second period undid a quality first period for the Islanders, who had a 1-0 lead courtesy of Anders Lee going to the net and knocking in a Brock Nelson rebound at 19:37. Shortly after Nylander's first goal of the night, Lee scored his second, ripping a one-timer past Samsonov at 6:18. The Islanders did not score in the third period for a franchise-record 10th straight game.

PELECH AND PALMIERI RETURN:

The Islanders welcomed back a pair of injured players on Monday night, as Adam Pelech played for the first time since Dec. 6, while Kyle Palmieri played his first game since Dec. 16 and only his second game since suffering an injury in Toronto on Nov. 21.
Palmieri had an inspired first period, recording six shot attempts (one on goal, two blocked and three missed) and three hits in the opening 20 minutes. That included a knockdown on Michael Bunting, with Palmieri chasing him down and hitting him before the Maple Leafs forward could break loose for a breakaway.
"[I felt] good," Palmieri said. "I could have used a couple of TV timeouts in the first, since it was a long, long stretch, but it was it was fast paced hockey. Sometimes with the way the schedule is, you don't get a ton of practice time as far as line reps and things like that, so it was just good to be back in."

Palmieri finished the game with an assist, nine shot attempts and a career-high seven hits in 16:03 of ice time. Palmieri, who had missed 27-of-28 games, said he was conservative with his return to make sure he didn't suffer another injury upon return.
"You want to be smart. I wanted to get back and stay back, so I thought I'd take my time on it," Palmieri said. "It's something you take day by day and just go from there."
Pelech finished the game with two shots attempts and two hits in 16:55 playing with Ryan Pulock. He also took a penalty and was -3 on the game.
"It's obviously nice to be back with the team," Pelech said. "It's been a while. The result wasn't what we wanted and I personally feel like I have to be better."

BOLDUC DEBUTS:

Samuel Bolduc made his NHL debut on Monday night. The 2019 second round pick (57th overall) skated 14:28 TOI with a shot on goal, three total attempts, three hits and a block. The 22-year-old said it was a dream come true to take his first rookie lap (at any level).
"It's pretty amazing," Bolduc said. "At first it was hard to realize that I was realizing one of my dreams, but a couple of shifts in just come back in and focus on the game."
Lambert said he was happy with Bolduc's poise in his first game. He was paired with Sebastian Aho. Noah Dobson missed the game and is considered day to day, so whether or not he plays Wednesday in Ottawa is up in the air, but the rookie is taking things day by day after day one.
"It's still my first game so I still have a lot of things to learn," Bolduc said. "The more experienced I'm going to take, the better it's going to be."

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders conclude their two-game road trip on Wednesday night in Ottawa as they take on the Senators. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.