Islanders Feel The Saber

Last night, Your New York Islanders played Ryan Miller and the Buffalo Sabers. The Sabres’ expectations were high to start the season, but this deep and underachieving team has been a disappointment. The New York Islanders, wearing their alternate black jerseys, came out ready to play. Christian Arnold of @Isleshockeyblog mentions, “#Isles are 5-1-1 in their last seven games coming into tonight's game. 10-5-1 in last 16 games.”

The line up:

Forwards: Moulson-Tavares-Okposo, Grabner-Nielsen-Parenteau, Martin-Bailey-Rakhshani, Wallace-Pandolfo-Niederreiter.

Defensemen: MacDonald-Hamonic, Streit-Staios, Eaton-Reese. Montoya in goal, Nabokov backing up.

Montoya in goal for the Isles tonight.

Milan Jurcina, out, day to day (elbow); Dylan Reese in. Rolston scratched. Per Brian Compton, Head Coach Jack Capuano said Brian Rolston has been very professional. "We had to do something to try to change it up. He's real supportive of the guys."

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The Islanders jumped out to a 3-1 lead after being out shot 17-9 in the 1^st period with Frans Neilsen (2 and 1) and Josh Bailey scoring for the Islanders. They were able to capitalize on some suspect play by the Sabers. Al Montoya looked pretty good to start the game and the defense jumped right into the attack while taking care of business in their backend. Could it last against a pursuant Sabers team that needs to gain ground as much as the Isles do if they expect to compete for a playoff opportunity?

The second period would be a weaker effort by the Islanders as the Sabers continue to outshoot New York, 26-18 and cut the Islanders lead to 1. While the Isles led in blocked shots by a margin of 18-2, that means Buffalo is brought more pressure and caused the Isles to scramble in their own zone.

In the final period, the Islanders continued to battle, with the Sabers keeping on the offensive. Travis Hamonic got blasted in the face by a deflection, bleeding heavily as he was ushered off the ice. He is currently riding a streak of 113 consecutive games played for New York. While I knew Hamonic would be missed in the second half of the third period, I wouldn't have thought that Buffalo would tie it so quickly at 3-3 shortly after he left the ice. With time winding down, the Islanders turned up the pressure on Miller, but time expired. They blocked 24 shots to the Sabers 8.

Back to O.T.

With Buffalo buzzing, the Islanders’ hard work created a power play opportunity. The Isles outshot the Sabers 38-37 in the game. The Sabers were able to block most of the Islanders shots of their net, forcing the game to go to a shoot out.

P.A. Parenteau and Frans Neilsen failed to score on Ryan Miller. Boyes and Pominville went lower glove side and straight 5 hole to beat a seemingly out of sorts, Al Montoya.

So New York blows a 3-1 lead and 4 on 3 chance in O.T., falling to Buffalo in the Shootout by a score of 4-3 as they remain 10pts out of 8^th spot at 21-23-7.

Head Coach, Jack Capuano: "I thought we were a step behind tonight, but it's a game we should have won....it was a game of surges tonight."

Back to back games aside, last night’s game was mix of what is good and bad about this Islanders team. At times, they were buzzing, relentless, and strong on the puck. At others, their scoring touch dried up and the defense crumbled, but overall, their recent play has me optimistic. Recently, I’ve spoken about what has worked and what hasn’t with the team. I’ve implicated players and challenged the coaching staff.

In the present, although improving, I am still waiting for Niederreiter, Grabner and Streit to meet expectations. I think a lot of positives have evolved, despite the slow start so far. While Coach Capuano is a great X’s and O’s guy per Garth Snow, I am inspired by the recent surge the squad has shown and how good the special teams have been for most of the season. They are playing like a team and I think the coaching staff is getting a lot from the current roster, but I am not sure its enough to get the them to the next level.

Bridgeport has a strong group doing great things in the AHL. They lead the Atlantic division with a record of 23-18-3, good enough for 3rd in the conference as they continue to win. In the next two seasons, I see some players to really be excited about. Poulin, Ullstrom, Rakhshani and Reese are getting a look now and look like they belong. Strome, Cizikas, DiBennedetto are all intriguing on offense. Players like Kabanov and Petrov could prove to be exciting additions.  deHaan, Donovan and Ness seem to be strong defensive prospects with Nillson in net. I still believe Gillies and Haley have something to add to the mix and players like Nelson, Lee, Theoret, Katic, Kichton and Mayfield are bright spots for the future as well.

Comebacks and the results of 1-goal games can tell the story of a season. But losing leads and just not getting it done can tell one as well. Digging down deep in order to win the close game is what an NHL team needs to do to be great. Doing this consistently makes a good team, great. A contender. A winning culture.

Dave Maloney on MSG’s Hockey Night Live said, "The Isles are not a playoff team." What do you think?

 Isles Notes:

Remember Hamonic’s injury and hope he is ok.  No updates as of yet, not a good sign.
UPDATE:  Arthur Staple reports Travis Hamonic needed surgery to repair a broken nose, plus stitches. #Isles say he will miss 2 weeks. Took puck to the face last night.

Eric Hornick reported that an Islanders win last night would have gotten them to an NHL 500. The last time they were .500 this late in season @ 32-32-7 was in Mar 2008. They came into tonight’s contest at 21-22-7.

The Islanders are currently ranked 6^th in PP at 19.8% and 8^th in PK at 84.8%.

The Islanders will face the Flyers in Philadelphia on Tuesday @7 pm and the Canadiens, Thursday @7pm and Kings 1pm on Saturday at home in New York.

I will be covering the President's day game vs. the Ottawa Senators at 1pm on Monday, 2/20 for Dee Karl and her 7th Woman Islanders blog!

Good luck to my New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI today!