#Adam Pelech doing all the little things for Islanders
“#Adam Pelech doing all the little things for Islanders”
August 21, 2020 | 2:21am
It could be debated that much of the Islanders’ success in general this postseason wouldn’t be possible without Pelech, whom the team missed dearly while he was out for a majority of the regular season with an Achilles injury. Since returning to the lineup, Pelech has quietly contributed in making the Islanders a more complete team.
That continued in Thursday night’s 4-0 win at Scotiabank Arena, in which Pelech jump-started the play that resulted in Anthony Beauvillier’s second goal of the night when he pinned Capitals star Evgeny Kuznetsov along the boards. With Kuznetsov out of the play, Josh Bailey was able to scoop up the puck on the rush and feed it to Beauvillier for the score.
“It was coming back into the D-zone, he got to the puck first,” Pelech said of his play on Kuznetsov. “He turned up the wall and I just took the body on him. It’s great to have that support as a defenseman if you can get a leg on someone in the corner and someone comes and grabs the puck, we’re out of the zone.
“[Bailey] made an outstanding play there and Beau driving to the net and the goal was huge.”
Pelech has only registered two assists since arriving in the Toronto bubble, but it’s in the grittier stats that the 26-year-old has thrived.
Leading all skaters with 22:59 of ice time, Pelech finished plus-two with four blocked shots and a team-high six hits.
“I think we did a great job as a team,” Pelech said. “It takes everyone, it takes the forwards, it takes the defensemen and great goaltending to limit a team like that’s offense. I think we showed a ton of commitment.”
Barry Trotz said he found out Cal Clutterbuck wasn’t available Thursday morning after the fourth-line winger skated.
Clutterbuck took a low hit from Capitals defenseman Radko Gudas along the boards late in the second period of the Isles’ Game 4 loss Tuesday and was a game-time decision heading into Thursday night.
“Cal did skate and then after the skate he said, ‘For me to play the game that I need to play, I think I’m not quite there,’ ” Trotz said. “We had a plan going into it just in case.”
With Clutterbuck unavailable, Trotz inserted Michael Dal Colle and Ross Johnston on the third line with Jean-Gabriel Pageau in the middle. That bumped Leo Komarov down to fulfil Clutterbuck’s spot on the fourth line with Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas. Derick Brassard was a healthy scratch.
Trotz had deployed the same lineup for five straight games.
“Derick has played pretty well, I just felt it was going to be a different style of game and we wanted to put a little more weight and grind in our game,” Trotz said.
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