Your New York Islanders will face the rival New
Jersey Devils at the NVMC for some valuable points in the standings. The Isles won the first meeting on opening
night in Newark featuring the hot hands of Michael Grabner. If the Islanders are going to climb out of
the divisional basement, they had better start tonight. And if they plan on doing so, they will have
to do it without the services of Captain, John Tavares and his team leading 39
points. Tavares is out (ending a 245
game streak) with what is being called a previously existing lower body injury
that existed prior to the win against Detroit.
Brock Nelson will take JT's place and really has an opportunity to make
an impact as a center and special teams player. Corey Schneider will get his first start vs. the Isles in net as
a Devil.
Forwards:
Vanek-Nelson-Okposo;
Grabner-Nielsen-Bailey; Regin-Strome-Clutterbuck; Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.
Defense:
de Haan-Hamonic;
MacDonald-Hickey; Strait-Carkner.
Evgeni Nabokov will be in net again with Kevin
Poulin on the bench.
Tonight, your New York Islanders came out
flat. I am not sure what the reason
was, but they look lost in the offensive zone and lack serious urgency in their
game. The Devils love a slow, boring
game, especially after going up by 1-0 and did there best to keep it that way
for as long as possible. Several
penalties went uncalled and several opportunities wasted for the Islanders,
including an 0/3 mark on the PP. Frans
Nielsen played hard the whole game. He
scored (Vanek & Okposo) in the middle of the third period to tie the game
at 1-1. The Islanders seemed to get a
charge from the goal, and found some legs, really making the devils work at
playing defense. Unfortunately, despite a lot of effort, the Isles fell short, watching the Devils go ahead 2-1 at the
13:00 minute mark off of the third period. The goal deflected off Zajac's face or shoulder, redirected and went into the
net. With Nabokov (23/25 with a
.920Sv%) pulled, the Isles came up empty a lost to New Jersey 2-1. The Isles outs hot the Devils 31-25 for the
game. Credit Cory Schneider for a good
game in net for New Jersey.
Brock
Nelson, Ryan Strome and Calvin de Haan worked hard to contribute tonight. It seems that Nelson may have been benched
for the final 10 minutes or so and Ryan Strome never played as much as he should have in my opinion, even on
special teams. If the prospects cant fill those roles,
better options have to be utilized to fill in until they are ready. Not fair otherwise. B.D. Gallof puts it best when he says,
"No
clearer reason as Isles UFAs couldn't cut mustard, need for higher lvl
stopgaps, & despite prospect pool: timing not working with core."
Not having an elite player like John Tavares
hurts a lot. Lets be realistic, this
team has shown that it is not as deep as it seemed to be from last season, so having him out of
the line up was a big loss. As good as Hamonic played tonight, Calvin de Haan really made his presence felt. He is a solid player. A work horse who makes smart decisions
and should only get better if he stays healthy. Definitely a bright spot in light of all the blue line
injuries. Josh Bailey wasn't on the
bench late in the third period, Capuano didn't know of his status, "assuming" it's an upper body
injury. He has no update on John
Tavares either.
While Capuano deserved credit for using his time out when the team needed it, he had the 4th line out in the closing minute of the third period with the game on the line. Matt Saidman asked the head coach about this very scenario, "If he (Capuano) was able to get the guys he wanted out there in the final minute. He told me he thought it was more important to double shift the top guys for the rest of the PP after timeout. Then he couldn't get them back out as quickly as he would have liked to."
This makes 10 games for the Isles w/o a home win
in regulation play. The Players are
here, the coach wont be fired, so its up to Garth Snow and Charles Wang to
answer for why this thing has festered as long as it has. Not saying anything and seeming to "ignore" or sit back when you
promised not to, the situation has only managed to infuriate a fiercely loyal,
but small fan base. And when these long
suffering fans completely turn on you, you owe them a reason as to why.
Per @StephenCLorenzo,
Per Nabokov:
“That type of thing, ‘we played well,’ doesn’t cut it anymore. We have to find
a way to get points."
###
On a side, but very important note, Kyle Okposo
deserves a roster spot for the United States when they head to Sochi for the
2014 Winter Olympics. His leadership
and refusal to surrender is inspiring and his play matches his spirit Whenever he is on the ice, he gives you a
good chance to win battles and never surrenders.
Isles Notes:
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