Tonight, your New York Islanders (4-4-3 11pts)
faced their rival, New York Rangers (3-7-0 6pts) for their first meeting on the
season. Newly acquired Thomas Vanek
will play along side John Tavares & Kyle Okposo on the Isles top line. The Rangers will start rookie, Cam Talbot in
net.
Forwards: Vanek-Tavares-Okposo;
Bouchard-Nielsen-Bailey; Grabner-Regin-Clutterbuck; Nelson-Cizikas-Martin.
D-Pairings: Hamonic-MacDonald, Donovan-Martinek,
Carkner-Hickey.
Evgeni Nabokov will
get the start with Kevin Poulin on the bench.
Vanek and Nelson in,
McDonald and Boulton out of the lineup tonight.
In the first period,
both teams come out looking a little disorganized. Clutterbuck with some good pressure. Isles get the first few shots on net, but Nabokov would come up
big in close on two Ranger chances.
Casey Cizikas is active in the offensive zone and irritating the
Rangers. An early Isles PP is
neutralized and becomes a Ranger PP & a Kreider rebound goal, 1-0
Rangers. Isles need more physicality in
their own zone in front of Nabokov.
Donovan with some good wheels and involved early. Vanek with some good pressure in close, but
Talbot makes the saves. Rangers
outplaying Isles. Islanders missing the
net on several shots, Talbot barely has to move. Isles out shoot Rangers 9-4, but trail in the game. The Ranger's take a rare lead into the
intermission.
Kyle Okposo
victimized again in the second period, Rangers to the PP. Isles look shakey again. Trouble settling the puck down, winning face
offs and dictating tempo. Isles with a
good kill, Nabby took a shot off the mask but looks ok. Isles being outplayed again so far in the
second. Big fan of how Donovan's game is improving. Cal Clutterbuck (Carkner) with
a nice steal off Staal, breaks into the zone and roofs it. Its his first goal as an Islander. Game tied at 1-1. Matt Martin goes after Derek Dorsett to stir it up for the
Isles. Bailey breaks in close, Talbot
equal to task. Josh Bailey is really
showing some maturity this season.
Isles starting to force Rangers into turnovers as period goes on. Both teams with an energetic back and forth
in the final two minutes of the period.
Isles came close a few times there.
Casey Cizikas is a penalty killing, offensive pressure wielding
monster. Peter Regin (MacDonald &
Hamonic) puts it in off Girardi for the go ahead goal, 2-1 Isles. Rangers out shoot Isles 15-7 in the period
and 19-16 in the game thus far.
Nabokov comes up big
again to start the period after the Rangers pressure the Isles net on a broken
play in the Isles zone. Isles get called
on a too many men penalty, McDonough scores through a screen, game tied at
2-2. Okposo cant seem to stay out of
the box. Martinek way out of position, Pouliot scores to give the Rangers a 3-2
lead at 13:46 mark of the third period.
Isles net is empty with 1:00 remaining.
Isles out shoot Rangers 8-5 in the period, tied at 24-24 for the
game. Richards and Clutterbuck throw
down as time expires.
Isles have some
bright spots in the game, but lose 3-2 with tons of Rangers fans in the lower
bowl cheering on their goals in all the game highlights for the world to
see. Talbot (22-24, .917Sv%) gets the
win. Rangers get the two points.
Its not that they
lost a close game and made a few mistakes in the process. It was they way they lost and were unable to
come out and show something. Not the
kind of statement game the Isles needed to make after the trade. They were and have been unable to play a
complete game on a regular basis. They
failed to play physical, fore-check, move the puck and cant finish
consistently. The team is never ready
to play. They sometimes just go through
the motions instead of fighting through those challenges. To me, that's what the head coach is there
for.
Their winning streak,
comeback and lockdown mentality of last season is missing. Instead of taking the next step, they seem
to be uncertain of what to do next.
Vanek should make the team better.
His chemistry will come with JT.
Help on defense is need and its needed now with their injuries on
defense. Waiting for the deep pool of
prospects probably wont cut it. Will
more trades come? Who would they add and at what price? Is it time for a gut
check? A players only meeting to call
out those who need to improve?
Kevin Schultz on Twitter
Isles Notes:
More on the
Moulson-Vanek trade:
Per Bob McKenzie,
"BUF retained approx $1.4M, give or take a few thousand $, or roughly 20
per cent of Thomas Vanek's remaining salary, as part of NYI trade."
Per Pierre
LeBrun," Another wrinkle in the Vanek deal: if the 1st round pick NYI sent
Buff ends up top 10 in June, Isles have option to defer the pick to 2015."
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