3 Takeaways: Islanders Fall to Oilers 3-1

After striking oil on Wednesday night in Vancouver, the New York Islanders well ran dry in a 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night at Rogers Place.
Anthony Beauvillier's power-play goal was the lone Islanders tally on a night they peppered the Oilers for 38 shots and plenty of quality looks. Cody Ceci, Zach Hyman and Jesse Puljujarvi scored for the Oilers, who picked up a win in Jay Woodcroft's NHL coaching debut.

"It's a pretty random sport sometimes, so you just try to control what we can control," Head Coach Barry Trotz said after the loss. "We can control our effort, which was really good, our pace to our game was pretty good, our structure to our game was good, our physicality was good, our discipline was good and our power play was dangerous. All that being said, there weren't that many negatives other than the score."
Here are three takeaways from Edmonton.

ISLES STONED BY SMITH:

The Islanders had plenty of chances on Friday night, racking up 38 shots and 14 high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick, on the Oilers.
Mike Smith was the difference, especially in the first period, stopping all 19 Islanders shots he faced, as New York swarmed early.
The 39-year-old netminder, who had allowed four goals in each of his previous two starts, looked spry early, flashing the leather on a Ryan Pulock slapper off the rush. Smith stopped the Islanders six even-strength high-danger chances in the period (courtesy of Natural Stat Trick), including a backdoor stop on Anders Lee and a pair of looks on Mat Barzal.
The Oilers netminder played with fire at times, winding up in a one-on-one puck battle with Beauvillier in the trapezoid, but the Islanders could not make him pay.
"Credit to Mike Smith," Trotz said. "We had breakaways and two-on-ohs and he came up with some big saves tonight."
Smith's heroics set the stage for the Edmonton to steal the period, which they did on Ceci's second goal of the season. Connor McDavid fed the defenseman at the point, where Ceci's slap shot found its way through a Puljujarvi screen and Ilya Sorokin with 56.6 seconds to play in the period.
The 1-0 deficit meant the Islanders were chasing an Oilers team who entered the game with a perfect 12-0-0 record when scoring the first goal of the game. The Isles needed a tying goal quick and had chances early in the second to tie the score, with Zach Parise shooting wide on a two-on-one rush with Noah Dobson, while Adam Pelech was denied on a chance in tight by Smith.
OILERS 3, ISLES 1
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There were other chances, including a Casey Cizikas breakaway in the second, a Beauvillier shot off the outside of the post on a two-on-one in the third, as well as an Oliver Wahlstrom look during a third period power play, but for naught.
"We had quite a few good looks, chances, just have to stick with more of that and know that they're going to go in," Brock Nelson said. "Some good things, a disappointing result, but good for our game."

OILERS BIG GUNS LEAD WAY:

While the Islanders offense was only able to muster one goal on the evening, the Oilers got sizable contributions from their top two lines.
McDavid finished the game with a pair of assists and three shots on goal, while his linemates - Hyman and Puljujarvi - each had a goal. Puljujarvi also had five shots on goal, as well as a screen on Ceci's tally - while Leon Draisaitl finished the game with an assist, five shots on goal and eight total attempts.
Hyman's goal, where the winger kept, shot and scored on a two-on-one rush, was his 14th of the season and 100th of his career. It also held up as the game-winner.
"I thought we handled a lot of their skill very well and generated a lot of stuff offensively," Trotz said. "Their top guys were really good. I thought we did a pretty good job of at least minimizing the damage they can do. I felt like we should have gotten a least a point out of it, but we didn't and that's the game."

SPECIAL TEAMS GET ISLES CLOSE, HELP OILERS PULL AWAY:

On a night where the Islanders threw the kitchen sink at the Oilers net, the power play provided the offense with Beauvillier's eighth goal of the season. The tally came at 15:04 of the second period, with the Islanders down 2-0, as Beauvillier caught Smith deep in his net, snapping a shot far glove side.
The Islanders did not allow a power play to the Oilers in their meeting on New Year's Day and that type of discipline was part of the game plan heading into Friday's meeting against the league's second-ranked power play.
After two clean periods, the Islanders allowed a power play to the Oilers and it proved costly. Down 2-1 in the third period, the Oilers scored three seconds into their man advantage. McDavid won a faceoff in the offensive zone and a bouncing puck eluded Pelech and Cal Clutterbuck, setting up Puljujarvi right in front of Sorokin. Puljujarvi swatted at a puck as he fell and poked it through Sorokin's five-hole.
Though the special teams battle was essentially a draw, the Puljujarvi goal proved to be pivotal hurdle in the Isles comeback effort.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders are back in action on Saturday night when they take on the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Puck drop is at 10 p.m. eastern.