Consistently Inconsistent

Today, the Isles team practice should have been an urgent way for them to correct their unstable defensive struggles.  Looks like they were tweaking their offensive formations, which were lost, then found over the last two games.

Forwards:  Grabner-Tavares-Okposo; Bailey-Nielsen-Bouchard-Nelson; Moulson-Regin-Clutterbuck; Martin-Cizikas-McDonald-Boulton.

Have to agree with Daniel Friedman when he commented, "why break up the Bailey-Nielsen-Grabner line that had played so well? Mind-boggling. Absolutely mind-boggling."  Coach Capuano is fond of switching up lines when cold streaks happen.  I am not sure it is a sound thing to do with Bailey-Nielsen-Grabner though.  They have a combined 18 points.  Lets hope its just an exercise for practice.

Per Arthur Staple, "Radek Martinek on the ice with Isles today at practice. Still unsigned, except for the waiver he inked to be out here today."  I wonder if he is there to even out a practice line or there is something in the works.

Your 2-2-1 New York Islanders will face Buffalo on Tuesday, Edmonton on Thursday and Carolina on Saturday, all are home games & will start @ 7pm.  They need to turn things around and home would be a good place to do that.  Take that opportunity this week and work at some real consistency.

Oct 12, vs Predators

Forwards:  Moulson-Tavares-Okposo, Bailey-Nielsen-Grabner, Nelson-Regin-Clutterbuck, Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.

D-Pairings:  Hamonic-MacDonald, Visnovsky-Hickey, Carkner-Strait.

Evgeni Nabokov gets the start in net, with Kevin Poulin backing up.

Despite a sloppy effort, the Islanders once again get themselves back into the game, tied at two at the end of the second after goals from Frans Neilsen and John Tavares.  They continued to have issues and fell to Nashville by the score of 3-2.  The Isles offense was simple derailed and the team looked lost out there.  That's 35 shots on goal for the Isles in a pair of ugly loses over the weekend. 

Oct 11, vs Blackhawks

Forwards:  Moulson-Tavares-Okposo, Nielsen-Bailey-Grabner, Bouchard-Regin-Clutterbuck, Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.

D-Pairings:  Strait-Donovan, MacDonald-Hamonic, Hickey-Visnovsky.

Kevin Poulin gets first start in goal, with Evgeni Nabokov backing up.

The Isles fell behind, but managed to fight their way back into the game off goals from Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey just :49 seconds apart in the first period to tie the game at 2-2.  Kevin Poulin settled down and made 25 saves after falling behind early in his first start of the season, that turned out to be a 3-2 loss.  John Tavares said, "We got a couple of big goals there to get us back in the game and we weren't able to sustain that into the second period," Tavares said. "We've got to keep on generating opportunities."  I thought Peter Regin continued to do good things while the recently clutch Matt Donovan struggled with Brian Strait on defense.

The Islanders activated forward Cal Clutterbuck from injured reserve to play in the game.

Oct 8, vs Coyotes

Forwards:  Moulson-Tavares-Okposo; Bailey-Nielsen-Grabner; Nelson-Regin-Bouchard; Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.

D-Pairings:  MacDonald-Hamonic; Visnovsky-Hickey; Strait-Donovan.

Evgeni Nabokov got the start and Kevin Poulin was backing up.

Your New York Islanders faced the Phoenix Coyotes in what would be their most complete effort of the young season in a 6-1 win.  Peter Regin, John Tavares (2), Matt Donovan (first career NHL goal), Colin McDonald and Josh Bailey all scored for the Isles.  The most impressive part of the sustained and balanced offensive attack was watching the perfect passing and aggressive style of play New York brought to the game.  They were dialed in played a consistent game while frustrating and dominating their opponent.  Evgeni Nabokov was good with 33 saves and a .971 Sv%.

It was another strong effort by John Tavares, Peter Regin, Matt Donovan and Evgeni Nabokov.

Per Arthur Staple, " Isles 2-0-1 start best since 3-0-0 opening to 2001-02 season."

Per Chris Triantafilis, "Michael Grabner had 5 assists in 2013. He has 4 assists through three games in 2013-14."

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When I thanked some of those writers who have been a big help to me, I was sure I left off a few of them.  One I know I forgot is Kevin Schultz from IPB.  Kevin has linked my blog and mentioned it several times in his articles.  With the kind of traffic IPB gets, that makes a difference to KoC. 

Thanks Kevin!

# Give Knight of Cups a "Like," won't you? #

Isles Notes:

The Islanders returned D Griffin Reinhart to Edmonton of WHL.

Isles F, Frans Nielsen was been fined $5,000 for a slash on Coyotes Martin Hanzal.

The first meeting of the season for the Islanders Booster Club will be Wednesday, October 23rd at 7 PM at the Marriott Amphitheater.  The guest will be Islanders F, Matt Martin.

Former Isles Martin Biron & Arron Asham were placed on waivers today by New York Rangers.

Per @Mc79hockey,"Sportsnet just listed Rick DiPietro as an option for the Oilers."

Sound Tigers Notes:

On October 9th, the Islanders sent Kabanov to the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL after he was late to a team practice.

Per Arthur Staple, "Been told the Kabanov demotion is not a punishment, just trying to get him more minutes. Hadn't earned top-six role in BPT."