3 Takeaways: Islanders Fall to Kraken 4-1

The New York Islanders four-game western swing started off on a sour note, as the Isles fell 4-1 to the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
Mathew Barzal's 100th career goal was the lone tally for the Islanders, while Adam Larsson, Eeli Tolvanen, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Brandon Tanev (ENG) scored for the Kraken. The loss snapped the Islanders three-game winning streak.

"It wasn't great," Barzal said of the loss. "[We didn't have] a lot of possession, [there were] a lot of errors. Some ugly hockey out there, so we just have to regroup."
Ilya Sorokin stopped 31 of 34 shots in the loss, snapping his personal three-game winning streak, while Martin Jones stopped 18 of 19 in the win.
The Islanders are 0-2-1 in their last three road games and 1-3-2 in their last six away from UBS Arena.

ISLES NOT CRISP VS UP-TEMPO KRAKEN:

The Islanders could not find their sea legs on Sunday.
After holding their last three opponents to 23, 21 and 21 shots respectively, the Islanders were outshot 34-19 by a shoot-from-everywhere Kraken squad who looked motivated after suffering a 7-2 loss in their most recent outing vs Edmonton.
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"We just weren't crisp tonight," Anders Lee said. "It just felt like it was bouncing on all of us and we couldn't get through that and couldn't figure out to get to our game tonight. We're all pretty frustrated with that."
Seattle came out swinging, holding the Islanders without a shot on goal for the first 9:35 of the contest. At the 14:33 mark, the Islanders were being outshot 11-2 and after the first period, shots favored Seattle 12-6.
Shortly after the Isles recorded their first shot, Seattle took the lead, as Larsson extended his personal point streak to six games with the opening goal at 9:53, pinching off the blue line and finishing a Ryan Donato feed after the forward circled the net.
While Mathew Barzal had the Islanders in a 1-1 tie at the end of the first period, the ice remained tilted in the second period. Seattle outshot the Isles 14-6 in the middle frame, taking a 3-1 lead on an Eeli Tolvanen power-play goal at 3:58 and an Oliver Bjorkstrand goal at 13:04.
It would have been a bigger lead, had Ilya Sorokin not come up with a scorpion-style save on a Bjorkstrand chance point blank, or outstretched his left pad on a Ryan Donato shorthanded breakaway. There was little he could do about the two goals.
The shot totals were closer in the third period, with the Kraken holding an 8-7 edge. The Islanders 19 shots for were the fourth fewest they'd taken this season.
"We weren't executing. We weren't clean on our breakouts, and it starts there," Head Coach Lane Lambert said. "You can't play with speed if you don't execute or exit cleanly and we didn't do that… We didn't generate anything because we just didn't play the game the right way."

BARZAL SCORES 100TH GOAL IN MOVE TO WING

While the Islanders lineup remained the same, there was a notable change up front.
Mathew Barzal shifted to the wing, while Casey Cizikas played down the middle, a move that Lambert experimented with against Columbus. Lambert said Cizikas' faceoff ability was also a factor in the decision.
The move paid off in the first period, as Barzal tucked in his ninth of the season, slipping a Cizikas feed through Martin Jones' five-hole.
The goal extended Barzal's scoring streak to three games (four total goals). The goal was Barzal's 100th of his career, which also came in his 400th game, though the center was not thinking about milestones after the loss.
"At the end of the day, I would have rather gotten a win tonight," Barzal said.
On a night where Lambert was critical of his team, he praised Barzal's play on the wing, which he said was evidenced in his 21:09 TOI.
"I thought he played well," Lambert said. "Really moving his feet, he was trying to create and generate. He played over 20 minutes because he was one of the guys that was actually getting things accomplished, so to speak."

SPECIAL TEAMS STRUGGLE IN SEATTLE:

The Islanders could not take advantage of the Kraken's struggling special teams, which entered the game in the bottom tier in both power play (22nd) and penalty kill (32nd).
Despite Seattle only killing off 66.7% of its penalties this season, the Islanders couldn't convert and also gave up a shorthanded breakaway to Donato that required a highlight reel save - a long left pad stretch - from Sorokin.
The Kraken power play also came through, as Tolvanen ripped a one-timer past Sorokin in his first game with Seattle since being claimed off waivers.
The Isles power play went 0-for-2 on Sunday and is 1-for-30 in past 10 games.
"We have to be better," Barzal said. "We could have broken that game open, 1-1 with a power play in the second. We have to be better."

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders head to beautiful British Columbia to take on the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night. Puck drop is at 10 p.m. eastern.