East Division Update - March 27th

Six of the eight teams in the East were in action last night, with two of the games being very close. The Penguins and Islanders featured a lot of goals and the only dominant performance by one team of the evening. Pittsburgh hosted the Isles, the Rangers visited Philidelphia again, and the Bruins hosted Buffalo at TD Garden. My analysis of these games below.

(Image Credits: 1 - Bleacher Report, 2 - Times Now Canada, 3 - USA Today)

ISLANDERS @ PENGUINS

The Pens and Isles started their last two meetings of the season with this game last night. The Penguins were coming off two wins against Buffalo and looked to keep it going, while the Isles remained hot beating Boston in overtime in their last contest. The Pens started fast and never looked back, getting 3 goals on their first 9 shots of the game. The Islanders were forced to pull goaltender Illy Sorokin in the second period and replace him with Semyon Varlamov. The Penguins didn't hold back on the other goaltender either, putting up 2 goals on him. Pittsburgh would add an empty netter to complete the hattrick for Bryan Rust and seal the 6-3 victory. The Isles pushed midway through the third period, but it wasn't nearly enough to recover from the damage the Penguins had done early on. The Pens are now 2 points behind Washington and the Islanders for first place in the East, and their balanced scoring is a big part of that. The Isles missed out on an opportunity to distance themselves from Pittsburgh and will look to bounce back Monday night at PPG Paints Arena.

Scoring:

Islanders: Matt Barzal (10), Anthony Beauvillier (6), Jordan Eberle (11).

Penguins: Fredric Gaudreau (1), Evan Rodrigues (4), Sidney Crosby (14-PPG), Bryan Rust (12-PPG, 13, 14 - EN/Hattrick Goal).

RANGERS @ FLYERS

The Flyers and Rangers met for the second time in three days in a series that has been dominated by New York. The Rangers have scored in bunches against the Flyers, and have been dominating the offensive zone time as well. Mika Zibanijad has been on fire against Philidelphia, scoring two hattricks in three games. This one started with more of the same, as the Rangers scored early on the man advantage. The Flyers kept the game tight though and got two unanswered goals to pull off a 2-1 win at Wells Fargo Center. The Rangers have been playing a lot better lately, and this win won't hurt their confidence. The Flyers finally got some good goaltending from Brian Elliot which helped them secure this win.

Scoring:

Rangers: Mika Zibanejad (11-PPG).

Flyers: Nolan Patrick (4-PPG), Samuel Morin (1st NHL Goal).

SABERS @ BRUINS

The Bruins were in a bit of a slump getting into this one, and they needed to get two points. The Sabers have been as bad as possible and looked like they wanted to end their losing skid. Buffalo played very hard at the beginning of the game, but let their foot off the gas and lost 3-2 giving up a crucial goal late in the third period to break the tie. The Bruins recently lost Tukka Rask to injury, which requires them to play through some adversity as Brad Marchand was also placed on the Covid Protocol list before this game. The Bruins are still 7 points behind Pittsburgh in the standings and need to start picking up some points if they don't want to be fighting for a playoff spot at the end of the season. The Sabers have now lost 17 straight games, and can only hope they will get two points sometime in the near future.

Scoring:

Bruins: Matt Grzelcyk (2), Nick Ritchie (9), Craig Smith (6).

Sabers: Sam Reinhart (12-PPG), Kyle Okposo (2).

Standings Update After Tonight:

1. Washington

2. NY Islanders

3. Pittsburgh

4. Boston

5. Philidelphia

6. NY Rangers

7. Devils

8. Sabers