The general feeling about Patrick Roy is that his team should have gone home with a one-point tie in the first round series against Carolina.
Not because the Islanders held a three-point lead in Game 2, but because they were the better team in Game 1.
“A lot of people consider the last game to be a heartbreaking loss,” Roy said Wednesday. “But the heartbreaking loss for me was Game 1, because that’s the game we outplayed them. It was a better game we played than they did. Game 2, they outplayed them. They deserved it, they played better than us.”
Unsurprisingly, before the Islanders tried to avoid a 3-0 deficit at home on Thursday, Roy was looking for a way to get back to the series-opening blueprint.
Wednesday’s long practice focused on breakouts, with plenty of guidance from the head coach.
“I think the players know, they can be better with a breakout, they can be better with a regrouping, they can be better offensively,” Roy said. “Obviously we have to get back to what we did really well in Game 1.”
The Islanders don’t really want to dominate possession, but that would of course be a good thing, as they want to prevent Carolina from reaching the same level of sustained possession as it did Monday night.
“We limited their time and space in our end and did a good job of breaking the puck away,” Bo Horvat said. “That’s what it ended up being. We didn’t allow them to drive around or play. [in Game 1]we were cutting off plays when they were trying to rim [the puck] return. We were breaking up the puck cleanly, and even if it wasn’t clean, we were flipping the puck in the neutral zone and creating a foot race.I have to go back for that [Thursday]”
Hudson Fassing is expected to return to the Islanders’ lineup for Game 3, along with Simon Holmstrom.
Matt Martin missed practice and was forced to come into work every day for maintenance. Ruslan Ishakov is skating in Martin’s usual fourth-row spot and could be an option if Martin is unavailable for Game 3.
“We make decisions [Thursday] afternoon, [Thursday] “We’ll talk tonight about whether Marty will be able to play or not,” Roy said.
Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce suffered a non-contact lower-body injury during Game 2 and is expected to miss the remainder of the series, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Wednesday. .
Hurricanes manager Rod Brind’Amour acknowledged there is a “high probability” that Pesce will miss the remainder of the series. Tony DeAngelo will likely replace Pesce.
Jesper Fast did not practice Wednesday, so the Carolina forward, who missed the first two games of the series, will likely miss Game 3 as well.
