Looking back before the Christmas break, your New York
Islanders took some steps forward, but left just enough doubt to keep the fans
from getting optimistic. The Rangers,
Ducks and Redwings faced off against the Isles during that stretch. Lets take a brief look back to the weekend
in question.
The Isles met the Rangers at MSG and picked a great time to
make some noise. They would open the
game with two short handed goals before the 17:00 mark by Cal Clutterbuck and
Michael Grabner, good enough for a 2-0 Isles lead. Both Clutterbuck and Grabner were due for a big nights. Clutterbuck would score on his
"controversial" penalty shot and show how agitating he could be to
the opposition by getting under the Rangers skin for the majority of the
game. It was Grabner's first goal since
opening night against Brodeur and the Devils.
It had to be a confidence builder for Grabner who called the prior
scoreless streak, "the longest of his career." The Rangers would score to bring the score
within 1 shortly after and then two more times in the second to take the lead,
3-2. Brian Strait (Bailey & Strome)
would tie the score at 3-3, mid-way through the second with a nice slap shot
that beat a struggling Henrik Lundqvist in the Ranger net.
At the start of the third period, the hard working Islanders scored the
4-3 go ahead goal off Thomas Vanek's stick (Okposo & Mac Donald) in the
opening minutes.
Throughout the game, the Isles PK came up big behind Evgeni Nabokov (24
saves with a .875Sv%) stopping an impressive 5/7 on the road against the rival
Rangers. Michael Grabner would add an
empty netter in the final minute to put the game out of reach at 5-3 for the
Islanders. The biggest concern was
another blown two goal lead, but the team did rally, turn up the checking game
and buckle down in front of Nabokov to hold on for the win, despite being out
shot by a 24-20 margin.
In the next game at home against the Ducks, the Islanders
would continue to keep fans guessing.
The Islanders would open the game scoring 3 of the first four goals from
Thomas Vankek (Okposo & Mac Donald), Vanek again and then Frans Nielsen
(Bailey & Hickey) for a 3-1 lead over the first two periods. The Isles PK was 2/2, but despite blocking 23
shots against in the game, the New York would lose focus and surrender 4
unanswered goals in the third period for a 5-3 Anaheim win. This was a compounded blown lead and
complete team break down in front of a home crowd sick of hearing about the
post Rangers hangover. Doubt would
again be front and center with the same old Islanders. Many fans have discounted last years run as
a fluke or at least an over estimation of the teams depth going into this year from watching games like this one.
At least your Islanders would get to play the Detroit Red
Wings at the Joe Louis Arena going into the Christmas break. The Isles strong play against Detroit would
continue with three first period Islanders goals in a 6:00 span for Kyle Okposo
(Tavares & Vanek), Michael Grabner (Bailey & Nielsen) and Casey Cizikas
(Martin & McDonald) for a 3-0 Isles lead that would become the final score
of the game. The Isles would play what
is now, their newest "best game of the season" while helping Evgeni
Nabokov make 23 saves for his 56th career shutout and 7th win (7-6-5) of the
season. Thomas Vanek and Josh Bailey
have a 3 game scoring streak going while Okposo and Nielsen pushed their
scoring streaks to 4 games. The
Redwings would come out hitting and moving the puck, but the Isles were solid
to a man and followed the example set by John Tavares in the game, stayed
focused and stood up to the pressure (out shot 23-19) from Detroit.
The Islanders remain in last place, but just 9 points out of
3rd place in the Metropolitan Division despite the losing streak. The Islanders sit with 29 points in 38 games
played, going 11-20-7. Although
coaching has been a major stumbling block in my opinion, a weak defense and
unbalanced scoring has kept the Islanders down in a big way. More efforts like the one in Detroit will do
wonders for this team. I think they can
still pull the nose up and rally for another strong finish. Consistently playing a solid 60 minutes in
each game and showing resilience in the face of adversity is the key.
Isles Notes:
Isles lines at
today's practice: Vanek-Nelson-Okposo; Grabner-Nielsen-Bailey;
Martin-Strome-Clutterbuck; Boulton-Regin-McDonald.
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