Islanders win 1st outing since firing Capuano as coach
Getting a new coach this week didn’t change things much for the Islanders — and oddly enough, that’s a good thing for New York.
John Tavares narrowly missed out on his second hat trick in a week, Thomas Greiss got his second consecutive shutout and the Islanders beat the Dallas Stars, 3-0, Thursday night in their first game since firing longtime coach Jack Capuano.
New York canned Capuano in the middle of his seventh season Tuesday, replacing him on an interim basis with Doug Weight.
“We had guys battle,” Weight said. “Top-to-bottom effort led by our captain and goalie.”
The new boss made a few adjustments, namely on the power play — though after going 0 for 7, that’s still a work in progress.
In the end, New York got this victory in a familiar fashion.
Tavares scored three times in a 5-2 win over Florida last Friday, then appeared to have a hat trick until a video review took away his apparent goal against Carolina on Saturday.
He again scored twice against Dallas, getting a flashy even-strength goal in the first period, and then converting on a short-handed breakaway with 3:06 left in the third.
Moments after the latter goal, he had an empty-net shot just deflected wide.
The Islanders captain has seven goals in four games despite the big personnel change in the middle of that run.
“A good response from the guys after a pretty emotional day and a half,” Tavares said. “Came out and played some good hockey. A good effort all around.”
And then there’s Greiss, who stopped 23 shots against Dallas after making 32 saves in a 4-0 win Monday over Boston. The consecutive shutouts come after Greiss allowed seven goals against Carolina last Saturday.
He called this “an awesome night.”
“Our goaltending was a 10 — cool, calm and collected,” defenseman Thomas Hickey said. “It rubs off on everybody.”
Other games
Capitals 7, Blues 3: Andre Burakovsky, T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov each had a goal and an assist to lead visiting Washington past St. Louis. Jay Beagle, Brett Connolly, Marcus Johansson and Justin Williams also scored, and Alex Ovechkin and Daniel Winnik each had two assists to help Washington earn at least a point in its 12th consecutive game (10-0-2) for an NHL-best 66 points. Braden Holtby bounced back from his roughest outing of the season with 22 saves. Holtby was pulled after giving up a season-high five goals on 26 shots in an 8-7 overtime loss Monday to the Penguins. Alexander Steen scored twice for the Blues.
Senators 2, Blue Jackets 0: Kyle Turris and Ryan Dzingel scored goals and Mike Condon made 42 saves to lead visiting Ottawa past Columbus. Condon was always where he needed to be for the Senators, who have won four of their past five and handed Columbus its fifth loss in the past eight games. The Blue Jackets had trouble establishing passing lanes, and when they got the open looks, shot the puck right at Condon or off target. Eleven Columbus players took multiple shots with nothing to show for it. Sergei Bobrovsky had 26 saves for the Blue Jackets, who were shut out for the first time since a 5-0 loss Jan. 5 at Washington to end a franchise-record 16game winning streak.
Rangers 5, Maple Leafs 2: Michael Grabner scored two goals against his former team, helping visiting New York snap a three-game losing streak. Pavel Buchnevich, Brady Skjei and J.T. Miller added goals for New York, and Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves following a series of rough outings. Tyler Bozak and Zach Hyman scored for Toronto, which loses its three-game winning streak.
Wild 4, Coyotes 3: Nino Niederreiter had two powerplay goals and an assist, including the go-ahead score for host Minnesota with 7:06 remaining in a victory against Arizona. With Shane Doan in the penalty box for hooking, Niederreiter knocked in a redirect of Mikael Granlund’s slap shot for the winner. Devan Dubnyk stopped 20 shots for the Wild.