"A Few Little Things."

Tonight, your Islanders start a 4 game road trip against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.  The Isles have a chance to extend their two game winning streak and get closer to the first place Penguins of the Metropolitan division.  And a loss would put the Capitals, who sit only 1 point behind the Isles into second place ahead of them. 

 

Forwards:  Vanek-Tavares-Okposo, Bouchard-Nielsen-Bailey, Grabner-Regin-Clutterbuck, Nelson-Cizikas-Martin.

D-Pairings:  MacDonald-Hamonic, Hickey-Carkner, Donovan-Martinek.

Evgeni Nabokov is in goal with Kevin Poulin on the bench.

 

Colin McDonald & Eric Boulton are still out.  Brock Nelson & Peter Regin both in.

Defense is the same with no call ups made.  Nabokov is 12-1-0-3 vs. Caps over his career.

 

In the first period, The Isles moving the puck well and putting pressure of the Caps.  JT draws a high sticking penalty and scores (Nielsen & Okposo) just before time expires, 1-0 Isles.  Per arthur Staple, "Tavares now with 8 goals in 15 career games vs. Caps."  Thomas Vanek is really starting to look comfortable with JT, you can see things happening.  Matt Donovan and Thomas Hickey continue to impress me.  Nabokov comfortable with a few good saves and seems to be into the game.  Isles will end period on PP opportunity.  They generate some good chances but come up empty.  There will be :09 seconds remaining on PP to start the second period.  Isles were strong on face-offs in the first, winning 14 of 23 taken.  Shots were tied at 11.

 

Isles start the 2nd period strong with good puck movement and strong play to the net.  The momentum stops rapidly when Kyle Okposo turns it over and Carlson scores for the Caps, score now tied at 1-1.  Clutterbuck goes off for tripping, Backstrom wins faceoff to Ovechkin, 2-1 Capitals 3 seconds in.  Kyle Okposo (Tavares & MacDonald) scores :16 seconds later, score tied at 2-2.  Before N.Y. can regroup, Washington gets a lucky bounce and Johansson gets a PP goal, 3-2 Caps.  Then Urbom makes it 4-2 Caps, Nabokov looks rattled after being left out to dry as the Isles are un-raveling before our eyes.  The Islanders need to recover their game and re-execute their game plan.  Nabokov cant be left alone  and expected to win the game alone either.  Once again, they need to stop being cute & play the body. Make Ovi miserable & fore-check, control the puck, the play, then the game.  Ovechkin scores a PP goal, 5-2 Capitals.  Isles lacking discipline, taking stupid penalties and the Caps taking advantage in a big way.  Our Coach needs to settle the team down and do it quickly.  Caps with a 16-10 shots advantage in the period & 27-21 in the game.  3 PP goals in 3:52 for Washington is unacceptable for the Isles PK.

 

The biggest problem I see if that when adversity comes, they have a fragile confidence and if the leadership isn't there, they tend to change their style of play for the worst.  Almost as if they are unraveling.  When they play hard like in the Ottawa game and keep to the plan, they are able to endure and fight there way back in with their offensive talent and energy.  If their play isn't psysical and they don't outwork their opponent, their game suffers.  Lets hope it has been addressed and corrected for the third period.

 

In the third period, sloppy line changes bring rushes for the Capitals, Isles still struggling to find their groove.  Isles to the PP early in the period with out results.  Casey Cizikas brings it every time he is out there, has a nice effort in close to Holtby trying to energize his team.  Isles PP is dismal and they look defeated with over half the third period remaining.  Capitals Wilson, makes it 6-2 off another Isles man down situation.  And with that, play degenerates into a too little, too late temper tantrum.  Isles had a 15-12 advantage in shots for the period while the Capitals out shot N.Y. 39-36 for the game.  Nabokov was 32/38 with an .842 Sv%.  After tonight, Evgeni Nabokovs Sv% will be below .900. 

 

 

 

Isles fall to third place, Capitals move up to second.

Lack of discipline, poorly played defense and stagnant special teams with an inability to adapt brought the Isles back to an NHL .500 tonight in a terrible loss after two strong prior efforts.  Coach Capuano thought his team didn't play that badly, "just need to improve on a few little things."

 

 

 

 

Per Arthur Staple, Nabokov: "We lost the game in 15 minutes, simple as that... The consistency is not there, the discipline is not there."

 

Tavares: "It should be embarrassing. Just don't know why we can't stick with it. You give 8 and 19 those easy plays, it'll be a long night."

 

Martin: "It's just unacceptable the way we (PK) played tonight. We were terrible. We didn't give our team a chance to do anything."

 

Per Eric Hornick, "have had 127 shots on goal in the last three games -- most by them in 3 game stretch since Feb 24-28, 1990. "

 

Isles Notes:

 

Per @Mike_Sulls, "an Isles goalie is putting up eye-popping numbers: 9-3-3, 1.58 GAA, .948 sv%. That man? Mikko Koskinen in the KHL."

 

Per Kevin Schultz, "Here's the full episode of Big Shot on YouTube."