This afternoon your 13th place, 8-11-2 New York Islanders face the 5th place, 2-7-3 Ottawa Senators. The Islanders need this game to stop their home slide and climb back into the race for 8th spot, to which they are 5 pts out at the start of todays game. Ottawa is still without Spezza, Karlson and Anderson. The Isles will need to put shots on the third Sens goaltender, Robin Lehner.
Forwards: Moulson-Tavares-Boyes,
Bailey-Nielsen-Okposo, Grabner-Reasoner-Ullstrom, Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.
Aucoin warmed up as well.
Defensive
Pairings: MacDonald-Hamonic,
Hickey-Visnovsky, Finley-Streit.
Evgeni Nabokov gets
the start with Kevin Poulin backing up.
* Tavares will play
today (Flu) and Ullstrom is in for Boulton.
In the first period,
the Islanders start with good speed and putting shots on the Ottawa goal. After the 7 minute mark, the Isles hard work creates
fast break and Brad Boyes scores (Moulson and Striet) to give the Isles
an early, and key 1-0 lead. They are
5-2-2 when scoring first. New York is
outworking the Sens so far in the game.
Matt Martin teasing Neil by not dropping the gloves, and continuing to
play physically with 8 hits in the first.
As a team, they had 18 hits.
They need this element in their game to win. New York out shot Ottawa, 11-6.
Islanders pick up in
the second where they left off in the first.
Some good pressure on the Ottawa goal and a good fore check. The second line continues to work, but cant
seem to finish consistently. Cizikas
and his linemates continue to make themselves known, to the dismay of
opponents. Ottawa reverses the
pressure. MacDonald makes a terrible
play in Isles own zone, creates a turnover near the net and Ottawa scores. Game tied at 1-1. This happens way too much.
Hamonic and MacDonald NEED to recover from this kind of thing. He put it right on Zibanejad's stick. The game opens up and both teams get their
chances. Ottawa hits a post and Isles
get several shots on net at the end of the second. Lehner is keeping Sens in it.
Isles have a 23-16 edge in shots.
Arthur Staple, "Isles will now have been tied or led in the 3rd
period in 17 of their 22 games. 8-6-2 thus far."
Matt Martin is up to
10 hits in the game (14 would be a new NHL record) as the third period
begins. Evgeni Nabokov remains a
stabilizing force in the Isles net thus far as the Senators try and take
advantage of what the Isles have allowed them to do. The Isles have 1 shot on net this period with less than 7:00
remaining. Michael Grabner makes it 2-1
Islanders with 3 minutes remaining.
After a late penalty on a contraversial tripping call by Kyle Okposo,
Ottawa ties the game at 2-2. We are
going to over time. Ottawa out shot New
York 10-7 in the period. The Isles led
30-27 in regulation play. Nabokov made
25 saves with a .926 Sv%. The Islanders
will pick up at least a point. Matt Martin finished the game with 11 hits, thus falling short of the NHL record.
In O.T., the Isles
have a few good rushes that come up empty, including a nice shot earmarked for
top right, Lehner with a big save.
Hickey and J.T with pressure, Lehner answers. Streit with a nice shot from Boyes, misses the net. Streit with two good shots in final 4
seconds, Sens blocking shots. The
Islanders look good in O.T., but fail to score. Isles outshot Sens 7-4 in O.T. period.
We are going to a
Shootout.
Frans Nielsen
scores! (24/39 -62% in shoot outs.)
Ottawa is denied by
Nabokov.
Brad Boyes misses.
Ottawa is denied by
Nabokov.
John Tavares scores
with a sweet move to win it in the shoot out.
Islanders win 3-2.
MaryBeth's Bitstrips comic of us at the end of the game.
Some positives today were the home losing streak is over. That Josh Bailey and Kyle
Okposo are making their presence known, while Michael Grabner got a goal. David Ullstrom continues to make me wonder
how Capuano scratches him for Eric Boulton.
Given half a chance, he may be able to make a regular impact on the
Islanders offensive game. The fourth
line brings energy on a regular basis and win some face offs.
John Tavares scores in the shootout to win it for the Isles in grand
style with a right to left, freezes Lehner and tucks it into the far side. Evgeni Nabokov quietly remains a solid positive for the Islanders and their team stability.
Consistency.
The Islanders really need to focus on playing a
quick and physical game. They need to
finish and score more goals. When they
are able to dominate, they need to put away their opponent and keep up the pace
until the end of the game. That's why
they give away games in the third period.
They need to control the remainder of their games after getting the lead
and close these games out. If you keep
the pace and fight through the opposition, you have a much better chance of
getting the win. If you lack discipline
and play an inconsistent game, you have a problem. Factor "bad" penalties into that, and you will lose a
lot of NHL games, especially in the
third period. They need a total team effort, home or away, each and every night. The Islanders cant always
expect their super stars to win the game for them, especially when they are
sick with the Flu.
Isles Notes:
Per Chris Botta, in
today's Newsday piece, sources: Nassau owes Isles $ and haven't met lease
requirements for years. I expect this to go to court. There is also speculation that the Isles will use this situation to
get out of their lease with SMG and Nassau County early.
The Islanders have
the Montreal Canadiens @ 7:00pm on Tuesday, the New York Rangers @ 7:00pm on
Thursday and close their homestand against the Washington Capitals on Saturday
@ 1:00pm. On Sunday, they go to
Pittsburgh to face the Penguins at 7:00pm.
I will be away this weekend and catch up early next week on the Caps and
Pengwhine games.
Per Islander Mania,
Today in 1992 - Mike Bossy's number 22 is retired.
Today in 1998 -
Trevor Linden was named Isles captain.
Sound Tigers Notes:
On 3/3 - Kenny Reiter and the BST met the
Connecticut Whale. BST fall to Whale 3-2 in O.T. They are seven points back with 21 games to
go.
On 3/2 - Sound Tigers win. Nelson w/ the
highlight-reel GWG, Combs w/ 3 pts (1g/2a), Rick DiPietro w/ 22 saves in a 4-3
win over the Phantoms. DiPietro on
winning: "Amazing. Can't even begin to describe it."
On 3/1 - The BST
fell, 7- 3 to the connecticut Whale. It
was the third time Bridgeport has allowed seven, 15th time five or more. Reiter replaced DiPietro for the 2nd period
after DP allowed 5 goals on 12 shots.
NHL Notes:
No comments:
Post a Comment