It was going to take a lot for the excitement of trade-deadline day to be sucked out of the Islanders’ locker room.
But the Rangers did their absolute best, taking a 4-3 victory over the Islanders in overtime at the Coliseum on Tuesday night after the the Isles clawed their way back from a two-goal deficit in the third period.
It was impossible for the Islanders not to have some wind taken out of their sails after losing two players to injury during the game and having a key goal waved off in the third period.
And finishing their regular-season series against the crosstown rival Rangers with a 1-2-1 record didn’t help much either.
Despite a game-tying goal from Brock Nelson with 17.9 seconds left in regulation, it was the Islanders’ newest addition, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who proved to be the brightest spot in the loss.
Pageau, who became an Islander a little more than 24 hours earlier, recorded his first goal for his new team at 17:04 of the second to cut the Islanders’ deficit to one. A long shot from Ryan Pulock ricocheted off the glass behind Rangers netminder Alexandar Georgiev. Pageau gloved it down and tapped it in.
“Here’s a player, we wanted him, we got him for the next six years, he’s impactful, you see how he changes our team in so many ways,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “You saw how he stepped up. What a great pickup by [general manager Lou Lamoriello]. The picks are nothing, I can tell you that.”
Those three draft picks Lamoriello sent to Ottawa in exchange for Pageau looked to be a bargain shortly into the game. The right-handed center saw some time on the power play with the second unit and logged just over 12 minutes. Oh, and he immediately came to teammate Michael Dal Colle’s defense after Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba laid out Dal Colle at center ice in the third period.
“I want to prove that I want to be part of the family and be part of that group,” said Pageau, who spent the balance of the third period in the locker room after being assessed a two-minute penalty, a five-minute major and a 10-game misconduct for jumping Trouba. “You saw [Josh Bailey] dropped his gloves right away, too. I think it just shows how guys care for one another here.”
Dal Colle was the second Islander to head to the locker room due to injury. Andy Greene, who joined the Islanders from the Devils this month, dove into the boards to clear a loose puck in the Isles’ zone in the first period and never returned to the ice.
When Trotz was asked about Trouba’s hit on Dal Colle, the coach said that he thought it was a shot to the head on an unsuspecting player.
It was Devon Toews who would’ve been credited for the Islanders’ third-period tally that was waved off. The Islanders challenged the call but ultimately lost.
“I thought we were winning that challenge for sure,” Trotz said. “I thought Georgiev engaged with Lee. … It was a hell of a comeback by us to get a point.”