Top This!

John Tavares may not have been good enough in the eyes of ESPN’s Neil Greenberg last Wednesday to make the 25 best players under 25 years old, but he was good enough to once again, lead an improving Islanders team to another hard fought win. Tavares scored both goals for the Isles in their 2-1 O.T. win against the Carolina Hurricanes at the NVMC.

Watching JT’s play over the last few seasons and seeing his development, especially this season, you may disagree with Greenberg’s assessment that “Tavares is good, not great.” I am sure anyone who knows anything about hockey had a good laugh at the article. I want to say that ESPN should stick to college basketball and national lumberjack competitions, but that is not fair.  I worked with too many talented people who loved covering hockey during my time there, so I will take most of it back.  Ok, all of it.

Islanders.nhl.com explains, “The Islanders are riding a season-high, three-game win streak, John Tavares continued his league-leading 12-game point streak and Evgeni Nabokov won his fourth straight game, the most of any Islander goalie this season.” Nabby was solid, yet again making 32 saves on 33 shots while posting a .970 Sv%.

With each win against opponents that have proven difficult to beat in the past and each consistent effort, the young Islanders will continue to improve. The rebuild has taken some time to really show what can be. If the leadership continues to be there and the first team in the East to boast 3, 40point scorers continues to win, we may be closer to a winner than we think.

But that’s a big “if.”  I can't wait to find out.

Isles Notes:

Erick Hornick points out that the Isles finally won a game in their 3^rdjersey, where they sit at 1-4-1. Here’s to breaking any and all losing streaks.