The Islanders completely crushed visiting New Jersey - and won 9–0. Jacob Markström, an Olympic qualifier, probably has a lot to think about after the game, in which he made 15 saves.
"We want to apologize to our fans," Markström told nhl.com, calling the match a joke.
"I'm ashamed of myself and my teammates."
The final score may have been 9–0 to the Islanders, but visiting New Jersey outshot them by far. Despite a whopping 44 shots on goal, the team was unable to find a hole in the Islanders' net against Ilja Sorokin.
"It's unacceptable how we started the game in terms of the quality of the chances we gave up. It creates a hole that's hard to get out of," New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe told nhl.com.
Russian Sorokin, who returned from an injury layoff, recorded the 26th shutout of his NHL career in the game and is now the Islanders' career leader in shutouts.
"After every shot I started to feel more confident and the guys helped me by scoring a lot of goals tonight. It was an interesting game," Sorokin told nhl.com.
Among the Islanders' scorers was Sweden's Simon Holmström, who made it 5-0 in the second period. Anthony Duclair scored a hat trick by making it 2-0, 3-0 and 4-0. As if that weren't enough, he also had two assists.
