Prior to game time on
Thursday, Arthur Staple was again the hated messenger, "Waiting for
Capuano to confirm, but looks like Strome won't play tonight. Isles were wary
of dropping him in w/ no practice time."
The fans were angry yet again at the coaches decision for having a red
hot Ryan Strome miss a BST game and get called up after Bouchard cleared only
to sit against Phoenix because he hasn't had enough "practice" time with the
Isles. Brian Compton adds, "So if
Isles don't practice tomorrow (which they won't), does that mean Strome sits
again Saturday? Its not really a big
deal and may indeed benefit Strome in the long run, at least that's what they
are saying.
Evgeni Nabokov and
Brian Strait return to the line up.
Both players should help the teams chances to win. Arthur Staple commented, "Capuano
pointed out that Strait should help the PK. PK w/Strait this season: 21/24
(87.5%). PK w/o Strait: 51/77 (66.2%)."
Forwards: Vanek-Tavares-Okposo,
Grabner-Nielsen-Clutterbuck, Bailey-Nelson-McDonald, Martin-Cizikas-Boulton.
D-Pairings: de Haan-Hamonic, MacDonald-Hickey,
Ness-Strait.
Kevin Poulin will
make his second consecutive start and Evgeni Nabokov is back on bench.
Regin and Carkner are
the scratches tonight.
Eric Boulton
(MacDonald & Strait) opened the scoring for the Islanders, but the Coyotes
scored shortly after to tie the score at 1-1.
Kevin Poulin would then play well for the Islanders and make some big
saves in the first period to preserve the score going into first intermission. In the second period, Phoenix would break
through a shaky Isles defense and a myriad of mistakes to score 3 times by the
6 minute mark to bring the score to 4-1 Phoenix. “To give up six goals like that and leave our
goalie out to dry after making some big saves again is unacceptable,” Tavares
said. “We’re not going to win too many hockey games if we’re getting back to
habits like that.” There were deflections and bad luck for
Poulin (20/25 with a .835Sv%) in the second who despite giving his all,
couldn't save this one for his team.
The Islanders would
rally behind John Tavares (Vanek & Ness) and Kyle Okposo (Strait &
Nielsen) to close the gap, 4-3. The
Isles regrouped and were trying hard to even the score, but their confidence is
fragile. The Coyotes would score again
by the end of the period making the score 5-3.
In the third period, the Isles struggled with bad penalties and sloppy
plays, until they surrendered another goal to close the scoring at 6-3 in favor
of phoenix. Just after the 18 minute
mark, tempers flared for New York. Matt
Martin and Kyle Okposo got involved in frustrating situations that showed the
team is near the end of their composure rope.
The refusal by NHL
officials to make calls on behalf of the Islanders is getting laughable. High Sticking, or the lack there of has
become an every game occurrence and happens with a high frequency. Visnovsky was injured on a non call and that
has been a major component derailment of the season so far. last night, Casey Cizikas left the game and
never returned for what is being reported as a broken jaw. The Islanders cant afford to keep losing
these kind of players. The league
should be embarrassed that this goes on at all.
After 33 games this
season and 5 regulation wins, and other than acquiring Vanek for Moulson, Garth
Snow and Jack Capuano have pretty much kept the team the same. The Isles prospects pressed into service
right now should not be called upon to play these major roles at these minutes.
That's where the mistakes come from. Its not a fair assessment. de Haan looked great for a few games and
looked terrible last night just like Matt Donovan did before him. Capuano had a few quotes after the
game. On his defense, "That's
about the worst I've seen them play all year." And on possible changes,
"Changes? There's not a lot of options." Is that referring to Visnovsky and possibly Martinek being down,
or was it a passive aggressive lash at Snow and Wang's "Plan?"
Once again, as we ALL
have said, something has got to give with this team. I just hope our real core players don't get disenfranchised with
the team and ask to move on. This is
the kind of statement I used to roll my eyes at when other guys wrote it. Except now, I've witnessed some of the
lowest level of hockey an Islanders team has ever played. The team is spiritless at times and
continues to look lost. The opposition
is even taking liberties on John Tavares lately and I don't see enough pride in
the defense of team mates as a whole.
I am a die hard fan,
but I am losing my patience while watching the same failures repeating themselves
over and over again. Bring on Ryan
Strome. Hopefully, the pressure will be
managed correctly and he rides his hot streak onto Long Island.
Isles Notes:
Per Arthur Staple, "Looks like Nabokov may come off IR today as well. Poulin
will start, Nabokov backing up and Nilsson back to BPT."
Per Jay Figs,
"Kudos to Isles fans to being 1 of 4 teams to raise average attendance,
seriously."
The Islanders will be
home against Montreal on Saturday, 12/14 @ 7:00PM & Tampa Bay on Tuesday, 12/17 @ 7:00 PM. Then at MSG to face the Rangers on Friday,
12/20 @ 7:00 PM and back home against Anaheim on Saturday, 12/21 @ 7 PM.
Sound Tigers Notes:
"BST PLAYER
TRANSACTION: Matt Lowry and Scooter Vaughan have both been signed to
PTOs."
Three players will
make BST debut Friday night. Scooter Vaughan (wearing No. 7), Matt Lowry (No.
17) and Pierre-Marc Bouchard (No. 96).
No comments:
Post a Comment