With the 10th straight regulation road loss (Ducks) for the Isles this season, they
are winless in 10 (0-8-2).
Arthur Staple reminds us, "Isles franchise record winless streak is 15, longest road
losing streak is also 15 -- both set in inaugural 1972-73 season." Tuesday night, the Eastern Conference's 15th
place Islanders faced the Western Conference's 3rd place San Jose Sharks.
Forwards: Vanek-Tavares-Okposo,
Grabner-Nielsen-Clutterbuck, Bailey-Nelson-McDonald, Martin-Cizikas-Boulton.
D-Pairings: de Haan-Hamonic, MacDonald-Hickey,
Ness-Carkner.
Kevin Poulin gets the
start with Anders Nilsson on the bench.
The Islanders played pretty well early in the
game, with Kevin Poulin somehow keeping a 0-0 tie into the first intermission
with some epic saves early that could have ended things for New York right
there. In the second period however,
they found themselves down, 2-0 to the mighty San Jose sharks who have a 16-1-1
record when leading after two periods. Exactly
the type of scenario that seems to terrify them and unravel their
composure. Usually, they seem unequipped
to retool their game plan and mount a sustainable comeback.
But this game would be different. When a gut check was needed, everybody
seemed to buy in. The Isles still
struggled on the PP going 0 for 1, they didn't get a well balanced offensive
assault or a start to finish, solid away game.
What they did get was a resilient comeback win behind a goaltending
prospect who was willing to stand on his head in net.
In the third period, the ever improving Thomas
Vanek (Okposo & Tavares) scored in the opening minute and Team U.S.A. Olympic
hopeful Kyle Okposo (Tavares) scored in the final two minutes to preserve the
Isles chances in this game. Kevin
Poulin was perfect in preserving the Isles come back and looked as confident as
ever with his chaotic style game. Going
to overtime got them a point. They
would need to endure overtime and score in the sessions to get the other
point. It was here that Kevin Poulin
really came to play. Poulin (going 46/48
and a .958Sv%) looked to hurt himself on a save in the shoot out. It looked as if he suffered an injury to his knee or
his leg, but it was probably a cramp, and he stayed in the game to close things out. Shortly after that,
Kyle Okposo scored again in the 4th round to give the Isles a much needed 3-2 win
and stop the 10 game losing streak in a powerful way.
Thomas Vanek is really starting to click with
John Tavres and Kyle Okposo. Their line
can be as good as any first line on certain nights. Brock Nelson did his thing and looks pretty good in big
situations. Hopefully, he and Ryan
Strome will be paired up again soon (with Anders Lee) and regain some line
magic from the AHL up here with the big boys.
Calvin de Haan continues to look solid on the Isles blue line in a time
where things aren't going easy for anyone back there.
What can be done for this team to show up all the time? Maybe just a few more tweaks and a handle on
consistency and we might have ourselves a team here. Or, it was just one game and the wheels will fall off again and
back to square one.
I say the season gets back on track soon.
Isles Notes:
Per Daniel Friedman, "John Tavares is four points away from moving past Ed
Westfall for 20th on Isles' all-time leaderboard."
Per Matt Saidman, "Isles in stat categories: Tavares 6th in NHL in
points (34), MacDonald leads NHL in blocked shots (103), Martin leads NHL in
hits (154)."
"Isles now 72
man games lost due to injury this season (31 team games). 81 man games lost
last season (48 team games)."
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