Isles Fall to Columbus

On Friday, your New York Islanders met the Columbus Blue Jackets.  The Isles traded goals with Columbus in the first two periods with Frans Nielsen (Boulton & MacDonald) and Thomas Hickey (Tavares & Donovan) answering for New York.  In the third period, Columbus scored three unanswered goals for a 5-2 final.  The Isles were out shot 29-26 in the game and Evgeni Nabokov struggled with a 22/24 night with a .852Sv%.

Thomas Vanek was injured by what is being termed as an "upper body injury."  Not much is known on his status and more information should be available in the coming days.

Forwards:  Thomas Vanek – John Tavares – Kyle Okposo, Pierre-Marc Bouchard – Frans Nielsen – Josh Bailey, Michael Grabner – Peter Regin – Colin McDonald, Eric Boulton – Casey Cizikas – Matt Martin

D-Pairings:  Andrew MacDonald – Travis Hamonic, Thomas Hickey – Aaron Ness, Matt Donovan – Matt Carkner

Evgeni Nabokov - Starter in net, Kevin Poulin w in reserve.

 

While you could say the Isles were unlucky with a few examples of bad luck, they once again fell short in the consistency department.  The team seemed to un ravel in the third period and get beat by Columbus in every aspect of the game.  That wont be good enough if the team wants to take their game to next level this season.

Per Arthur Staple, "Colin McDonald: "I think it's time to stop talking about last year. We need to focus on what's happening now.

 

Matt Martin: "This is what we did 2-3 years ago, when we were in the basement of the league. It's unacceptable. We did it again."

Capuano: "They've got to figure it out. We're not talking systems and structure here, we're talking battles. We're losing battles."

 

 

Isles Notes:

 

Isles "prospect?" Corey Trivino scored a goal for the Stockton Thunder yesterday.