Isles Scoreless In Carolina

Your New York Islanders will face the Carolina Hurricanes tonight in Raleigh, NC.  The Hurricanes are down to their minor league goaltenders due to injuries to Cam Ward & Anton Khudobin.  Kevin Poulin will guard the net for Long Island.

 

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

Aaron Ness & Colin McDonald will be in tonight as well.  Cal Clutterbuck (Upper Body) & (Healthy) Matt Carkner are out tonight.

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

Kevin Poulin in goal, 2-1-0 lifetime against the Hurricanes.  Evgeni Nabokov will be on the bench.

 

In the first period, the islanders managed to control most of the play in both zones, but never managed to get any consistent pressure on the Carolina net.  Dvorak makes it 1-0 Hurricanes.  Their transition play must improve and their passes need to connect to open up lanes for the offense to get the best chances to score.  Thomas Hickey with some nice looks on net in the game so far.  Isles continue to dictate pace, but struggle to cash in.  Michael Grabner looks like he has forgotten how to score.  Carolina leads in sog, 7-5.

 

The Islanders need more grit and shots on goal to get this game going in the second period.  Casey Cizikas continues to draw PP opportunities for the Isles, but the special teams are M.I.A., Matt Moulson is indeed missed on the Isles PP.  Kyle Okposo continues to punish anyone who touches Tavares.  Isles playing with a little jump. Michael Grabner misses on another breakaway.  He and Bailey have lost their scoring touch.  Canes out shoot Isles 11-7 in the period, 18-12 in the game so far.  Credit Kevin Poulin for staying sharp and making the good saves when called upon.  Donovan and Nelson.

 

The Isles continue to struggle getting shots on net in the third period and seem satisfied in taking low percentage chances when they are given to them.  Peters looks way too comfortable in net for Carolina.  This needs to change going forward.  Like the game by Aaron Ness so far tonight.  He looks pretty comfortable.  The Isles slowly come alive in the offensive zone late in the period after Poulin has put on a clinic here to keep the Isles down by only one goal.  At very least, he has shown that he deserves more time in the Isles net very soon.  With time running out, Isles net is empty for the extra attacker.  Isles let time expire, unable to score the equalizer.  Shots on goal in the period were 9-6 Isles and Carolina with a 24-21 advantage in the game.

Kevin Poulin takes the loss in a 1-0 game to the Carolina Hurricanes.  The Isles drop to 4th place, with Carolina moving up to 3rd as the Rangers move to within a point after beating Columbus.  The Islanders are 6-7-3 with 15 pts. and on a 2 game losing skid.

 

A couple bright spots tonight were the play of Kevin Poulin who was 23/24 with a .958Sv%.  Call-up, Aaron Ness was impressive in his first game of the season.  He had 13:29 of ice time & saw time in the final minute of the game.

 

 

I wont go off on the head Coach again tonight.  The team was better on defense and in the net.  They fell short by missing the net on shots and on special teams.  They simply need to be better if the want to win.  That goes from the top line on down to the secondary scoring and defensemen joining the rush.  They still failed to keep a physical game on the ice, effectively fore check and control the pace of the game.  When a head coach continues to say that his team played well after being shut out by a third string, 1-5 goaltender, the culture will stay the same.  The worst thing they were guilty of was not getting the win for Kevin Poulin.