Islanders get much-needed win but not without new injury worries

BUFFALO — A day after Halloween, the Islanders nearly suffered a Nightmare on Perry Street. They ended up escaping Buffalo with a badly needed 4-3 win but not without losing a trio of players in KeyBank Center, which felt like their own House of Horrors. The news of Mat Barzal having traveled back to Long Island with an upper-body injury came down in the morning, then Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly both got hurt during the game, with the latter suffering a potentially serious injury when appearing to hit his head on the ice after a second-period hit from Jordan Greenway. The Islanders survived a Barzal-less stretch two seasons ago, mostly on the back of Ilya Sorokin’s brilliance down the stretch, to get into the playoffs after all hope looked lost once Barzal went down toward the end of February.They also survived a slew of injuries to their defense during the first half of last season to ultimately make the playoffs, though that did not come without some serious lows that culminated when Lane Lambert was fired. Now, they might get both at the same time, and that is in the context of Friday’s game already feeling like a must-win, with the Islanders having dropped three games in a row to fall into last place in the Eastern Conference. They will need to survive again — with goaltending, defense and winning ugly — until Barzal, Anthony Duclair and their defensemen are back, whenever that might be, otherwise their playoff chances could be shot by Christmas. That’s what this Friday night at KeyBank Center was all about.

The Islanders, unlike much of the season so far, did not have most of the possession and could not talk about all their great chances.Also unlike most of the season so far: They won, and in regulation to boot, beating the Sabres to earn two points that probably mean more to the group’s collective mentality than they will in the standings. That came largely as a product of Max Tsyplakov’s best game yet as an NHLer, with the Russian ta...