BROOKLYN, N.Y. — It was telling that Anthony Beauvillier wasn’t talking about the beauty of his three goals, his first NHL hat trick that included two nicely placed tips from in front of Henrik Lundqvist and one breakaway goal on Thursday night here.



He instead talked about what made his four-point night happen after going the first 17 games of the season with a single point. “I got to play with Leo and Fil,” Beauvillier said of Leo Komarov and Valtteri Filppula, the two throwback 30-something forwards. “We got some grit in our game, we were hard to play against.”



That is Barry Trotz’s anti-modernist mantra with this Islanders team that now sits an eyebrow-raising 10-6-2 after Thursday’s sloppy win over the Rangers. The work is the thing for the Islanders, not the skill; that’s how Beauvillier ended up with a hat trick and Mathew Barzal ended up on the bench for the final 6:47 after his cross-checking penalty gave...