Pens Officiate Win Over Isles

Tonight, your New York Islanders face Crosby, Malkin & the Pittsburgh Penguins.  The Isles are desperate for a win and usually play the Pens tough.

 

 

Forwards:  Vanek-Tavares-Okposo; Grabner-Nielsen-Bailey; Bouchard-Regin-Clutterbuck; Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.

D-Pairings:  MacDonald-Hamonic; Hickey-de Haan; Ness-Carkner.

Anders Nilsson gets his second consecutive start.  Kevin Poulin is on the bench.

 

The Isles came out strong and played hard to start the game.  Kyle Okposo was great tonight and scored twice  (Tavares & Vanek) and (Tavares & MacDonald) in the first period to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead into intermission and came close to scoring a third.  Pittsburgh would get a PP goal in the second to make it 2-1, and then Frans Nielsen was awarded a penalty shot opportunity, but failed to score.  Eric Hornick reported that the Islanders are 0-5 against the penguins on penalty shots. The Islanders frustration levels started to rise around this point as a result of several high sticking, cross checking and questionable stick work by a Pittsburgh team that really plays a dirty game. Pittsburgh would score again on a PP to tie the game a short time later in the third period.  The shots were 30-23 in favor of Pittsburgh.
 

 

The questionable play by Pittsburgh would continue into overtime and continue to frustrate the Isles.  Crosby takes the puck from Vanek, splits Hamonic and de Haan and ramps the puck up Nilsson's stick and into the net to win the game 3-2.  Pens led in shots 4-0 in O.T.
 

 

Okposo: "The 3rd period, I don’t think we had the same pizzazz, the same jam. We’ve got to do a better job of closing out games."

 

 

To harp on the numerous missed penalty calls on the Isles behalf would cheapen how hard they worked tonight despite surrendering a 2-0 lead.  The skill of Crosby and Malkin is a tough thing to overcome.  But when you watch numerous infractions they produce go uncalled, it makes you wonder.  Watching Letang make two deliberate hard chops into the back of Vanek's locked knee in front of two NHL officials until he lost his composure is maddening as a fan.  Vanek, "This one’s probably on me. I lost my cool there at the end and I shouldn’t have." There must be a double standard that goes beyond a tough guy like Clutterbuck getting repeatedly high-sticked and not getting the benefit of a call.  Its about a team or that teams stars getting easier calls made for them over an opposing teams.  Can't be, right?  I didn't think so.

 

Ness and deHaan played well tonight on a depleted defense.  For young guys playing more minutes than they would normally be required to play at this stage of their pro career, both will make their mistakes, but have done well for the Islanders.  Matt Donovan played pretty well and should get another shot soon.  He was hardly the reason for the last few loses before being sent to down to the BST.

 

Anders Nilsson (31/34 with a .912Sv%) started strong and really kept the Islanders in the game.  He was poised and solid with his positioning, rebounds and making the big save.  Its easy to look at Nilssons AHL numbers and say he wont continue to play well, but to me, he didnt have enough AHL experience to really be evaluated.  He wouldn't be in the NHL if Nabokov wasn't injured.  But so far, he has played well in two O.T. loses against good teams.  If he gets a fair shake and remains comfortable with a better effort by the team in front of him, I think he will surprise some people with how well he can play in his first real NHL season look.

 

I think Brock Nelson needs to be left in the line up and Ryan Strome needs to be called up to cut his teeth on the Island.  They are both skilled and deserve a real shot at help reignite the secondary scoring.  Josh Bailey and Michael Grabner have been invisible after the first few games of the season with long and erratic scoring droughts, although Grabner has been good on PK.

Continuing to play this basic team formation with a piece or two swapped in and out has not worked.  I will continue to insist that something needs to give.  They need their injured vets to return to start the turnaround.  Barring that, a roster change must be made, a trade must be done or a qualified coach ready to coach the team at their current level must be found.

 

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

                                                                                                            - Albert Einstein






Isles Notes: 


Per Kevin Schultz, "Isles on pace for 61 points this year. Last time they did that (non-lockout) was 2008-09, which incidentally got them Tavares."


The Isles will face St. Louis @ 8pm on Thursday, 12/5, Los Angeles @ 10:30pm on Saturday, 12/7, Anaheim @ 10pm on Monday, 12/9, San Jose on Tuesday @ 10:30pm, 12/10 and Phoenix @ 9pm on Thursday, 12/12.