Jaroslav Halak went out and earned Doug Weight’s praise
Doug Weight offered a strong endorsement of his goalies, Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss, before the Islanders took the ice against the Capitals on Monday night.
“I feel good about both our goalies,” he said at the team’s morning skate. “No one else does. I don’t really care.”
Halak left Weight, plus 11,053 fans in attendance at Barclays Center on Monday, feeling even better after making 31 saves to fend off the Capitals in a 3-1 Islanders win.
“I felt good out there,” Halak said. “Obviously it would be nicer to get a shutout, but a win is a win, two points at home.”
Halak was eyeing the Islanders’ first shutout of the year, but the Capitals recorded the lone blemish of his night when Dmitry Orlov scored on a two-on-one with 11:37 left in the game. Still, it hardly changed how Weight felt, calling it Halak’s best game of the year.
“He was the difference tonight,” Weight said. “He was a huge percentage of the win tonight for us and that’s refreshing.”
Making his third straight start, Halak shut down the Capitals’ high-powered first line of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson.
“Every time Ovi is on the ice, you are aware of that,” Halak said.
see also Islanders angry as NHL shrugs at John Tavares hit Sunday came and went without the NHL issuing any further...
Sunday came and went without the NHL issuing any further discipline to Bruins forward Brad Marchand for his high hit on John Tavares on Saturday night. Marchand was assessed a five-minute major penalty for the hit, but will not face any other repercussions from the NHL’s department of player safety.
Tavares said Monday the “video speaks for itself,” and that he wasn’t worried about the lack of punishment, but Weight’s reaction was more pointed.
“Things are targeted, things happen spontaneously,” Weight said. “But to me, the ones that are premeditated, it’s unfortunate when we only look at results. So if Johnny lies there and he is hurt, there’d probably be something done. I don’t know the logic in that.”
The Islanders snapped out of their special teams funk Monday by killing a pair of Capitals power plays. It was the first time in eight games that they did not allow a goal on the penalty kill. In their previous seven games, they had allowed opponents to score 11 power-play goals.
On the flip side, the Islanders’ own power-play unit went 0-for-3 and has now scored just twice in its last 23 chances.
Defenseman Johnny Boychuk missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury. Weight said he should be back in “a couple days,” but wasn’t certain about his status for Wednesday against the Stars.