Sadly, The Season Comes To An End

Tonight’s game in Columbus was the final game of the season for your New York Islanders.  The 30^th place Blue Jackets defeated the Islanders by a score of 7-3.  Despite playing a pretty good game through the second period, the Isles were dominated towards the end of the game.  Al Montoya looked very shaky and has been suspect to the bad goal since coming back from injury in January.  He wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t working for New York.  Several issues need to be addressed this off-season.  The defense and secondary scoring are the biggest two issues I can see.

In the first period, the Isles went down 1-0 to Columbus.  Shots were even at 10-10.

In the second, Milan Jurcina (Nielsen and Grabner) and Kyle Okposo (Jurcina) scored for the Islanders.  Columbus scored 4 goals and started to turn the tables on the Islanders.  The Isles out shot the Blue Jackets 21-15 in the period.

The third period, Michael Grabner (Streit and Reese) was the only one to score for New York.  The Blue Jackets out worked the Isles and scored twice against them.  The Islanders were 0/6 on the PP and their PK allowed 2 goals on 5 opportunities.  Columbus out shot the Isles 12-7 with the Isles out shooting them in the game 38-37.  Al Montoya went 30/37 with a .811Sv%.

Kevin Schultz of IPB comments, “Isles finish with 79 points. The third time they've finished with 79 since they last made the playoffs in 2006-07.”  That means another top 5 draft pick from a 34-37-11 season which places them 14^th in the east out of 15 teams and 26^th in the league out of 30 teams.  With the draft lottery on Tuesday, they should remain at the 4^th pick in the first round this summer.  There is a slight chance to move up to 1^st or fall back to 5^th like last year when the Devils moved up to the 4^th position from 8^th.

I will review the players and the season in the days to come along with any other news that breaks for your New York Islanders.

Thank You to everyone who has followed me this season.  More to come.

Isles Notes:

Michael Grabner scores his 20th of the season. He's the fourth Islander to get to 20 goals for the season.

Per Arthur Staple, Isles are the only team in the NHL this season without a 5-on-3 goal.

Congratulations to Boston College for defeating Ferris State by the score of 4-1 to win their 5^th  NCAA Frozen Four Tournament.  Credit Ferris State for an amazing season.

Eastern Playoff Picture:  NYR vs. OTT, BOS vs. WSH, FLA vs. NJD, PIT vs. PHI.

Western Playoff Picture:  VAN vs. LA, STL vs. SJS, PHX vs. CHI, NSH vs. DET.