"We're Right There ..."

Your New York Islanders sit in 8th place of the Metropolitan division with 19pts.  A win against the Flyers tonight would move them over Philadelphia and they could bump Carolina down and assume 5th position.  Although they have faltered, The Isles managed to stay close by getting points in games that got away from them, but time is running out.  Teams like the Flyers & Rangers have improved where they have declined.  They need to play better and they need to do it now.

 

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

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

Kevin Poulin gets the start with Anders Nilsson backing up.

 

"Good luck comes from hard work and opportunity."

The Islanders reach their 7th loss in a row and are only 2-8-0 in last 10 games.  Despite a nice effort to get the game back to within one goal after John Tavares (Vanek & Donovan) and Eric Boulton (Cizikas) made the score 3-2 after the first few minutes of the third period had a chance to cap off a nice comeback.  But the Flyers, who have made improvements from the start of their season, continued to man handle the Islanders and ended the game 5-2 with an open net goal.  Isles had the edge in sog 38-30.

 

Kevin Poulin started well, keeping the Isles in the game during the first period was left alone again and finished 13/16 with a .812 Sv%.  He allowed 3 goals in 3:02.  Anders Nilsson relieved Poulin and went 12/13 with a .923 Sv%.

 

The Flyers won all the physical battles, beat the Isles to the loose pucks and dictated the pace of play for most of the game.  The Isles were poor on special teams and missed some key opportunities in both zones.  The Isles opponent has been able to crowd the Isles net regularly during the losing streak.  The Offense & Defense have not been consistent enough to garner any kind of success either.  Other than John Tavares and the 3rd and 4th lines, very little is generated by the offense.  Any offense is hard to come by if your players are being run over by the opposition with no price to pay.  Even JT was abused a lot tonight with no repercussions by Isles enforcers.

 

You should always try to play smarter than harder and if you follow the system, play a physical game and dictate play, success will come.  The Isles have looked good for "parts" of games, but they need to play hard for 3 periods and resist an offensive flourish from an opponent.  Coach Capuano says, "We're right there," when asked how close the Isles are.  That leadership needs to come from the coach and the captain. 

 

So where is it?

 

The Islanders fall to 8-13-3 and remain in last place.  Next week, The Isles will have 3 home games vs. Winnipeg on Wednesday @ 7 p.m., Detroit on Friday @ 4 p.m. and Washington on Saturday @ 7 p.m.