Maybe he did just need a better team in front of him. On Monday night, Robin Lehner made 35 saves to shut out the San Jose Sharks, 4-0 for the New York Islanders.
One game does not mean a season but Lehner struggled with the Buffalo Sabres.
“It was a fun game to play,” Lehner said. “It was a great atmosphere today in the building too against a good team. I felt real good.”
Anders Lee, Scott Mayfield, Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas scored for the Isles in the win.
“What we demand from ourselves and what we want to achieve every night is to be good defensively, and a lot of that has to do with the little things, that extra effort,” Lee said. “It’s fun to play offense, and defense is all about effort, commitment and playing smart, that structure that we have and taking pride in it.”
The Islanders are perfect on the season on the penalty kill, going 8-for8 so far.
“They played desperate,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “They blocked a lot of shots. They were heavy, they were hard. They played a good hockey game. That’s a one-goal game basically going into the third period on the road, so you’ve got to give them some credit. They played hard defensively. They didn’t give you a whole lot. They found a way to get the first power-play goal and we didn’t.
“You’ve got to give their goalie some credit. He made some big saves at the right time.”
[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Islanders highlights]
Martin Jones made 26 savesfor the Sharks in taking the loss.
“It was a game that was winnable. It’s frustrating we don’t stick any in the net with some of the looks we had, some of the power plays, the kind of momentum we felt like we had. It’s one of those games every time you get that Grade A [chance], it seems to hit him in the chest or finds his pad,” the Sharks’ Joe Pavelski said after the game.
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