The prevailing sentiment for Patrick Roy is that his team should have gone home tied at one in its first-round series with Carolina.
Not because the Islanders held a three-goal lead in Game 2, but because they were the better team in Game 1.
“A lot of you see last game as a heartbreaking loss,” Roy said Wednesday. “But for me the heartbreaking loss was Game 1, because that’s the game we outplayed them. That’s the game we played better than what they did. Game 2, they deserved it, they played better than us.”
Naturally, then, Roy was looking for ways to return to the blueprint from the series opener before the Islanders tried to avoid a 3-0 deficit at home on Thursday.
A lengthy practice on Wednesday featured a heavy focus on breakouts and lots of instruction from the head coach.
“I think the guys know, we could be better on breakouts, we could be better on our regroup, we could be better offensively,” Roy said. “Obviously, we gotta go back to what we did really well in Game 1.”
The Islanders are not so much looking to dominate possession, though that would of course be nice, as they are looking to stop Carolina from reaching the same level of constant possession they had on Monday night.
“Limiting their time and space in our end and breaking pucks out well,” Bo Horvat said. “That’s what it came down to. We weren’t allowing them to wheel around and make plays [in Game 1], we were cutting plays off when they were trying to rim [the puck] back. We were breaking pucks out clean and if it wasn’t pretty, we were flipping it out in the neutral zone and creating foot races. We gotta get back for that [Thursday].”
Hudson Fasching is expected to draw back into the Islanders’ lineup for Game 3 with Simon Holmstrom coming out.
Matt Martin missed practice and was termed day-to-day with maintenance. Ruslan Iskhakov skated in Martin’s usual spot on the fourth line and could be an option if Martin can’t go in Game 3.
“We’ll make a decision [Thursday] afternoon, [Thursday] night, regarding if Marty can play or not,” Roy said.
Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce is expected to miss the rest of the series after suffering a non-contact lower-body injury during Game 2, the Raleigh News and Observer reported Wednesday.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour confirmed Pesce is “more than likely” out for the remainder of the series. Tony DeAngelo is likely to slot in for Pesce.
Jesper Fast did not practice Wednesday, meaning the Carolina forward who missed the first two games of the series will likely be out for Game 3 as well.
