Weekend Lookback: Chicago and Carolina

On Thursday, your New York Islanders faced the 2013 Stanley Cup Champion, Chicago Blackhawks and answered every challenge they faced en-route to a 3-2 OT win at the NVMC.  Casey Cizikas scored in the first and Thomas Vanek (Okposo & MacDonald) scored in the second to give the Isles a 2-0 lead in the game.  The Isles gave a spirited and hard fought effort through out the game behind another solid comeback from injury, performance by Evgeni Nabokov (37/38 with a .949Sv%) and a seemingly re-focused defensive squad. 

 

Chicago would comeback and tie the game to force an OT period, but spurned U.S. Olympian, Kyle Okposo (Tavares & MacDonald) showed his mettle when he brought the puck towards the net and put it past Corey Crawford to win the game and the extra point for New York.  It would put Okposo at 2 pts on the night & extend his eight game point scoring streak.  It would also put him in the NHL's top 10 in scoring.  It pushed the Isles win streak to 3.

 

Per Brian Compton, "You're giving me chills right now." Okposo to crowd on USA chants. "

 

 

 

 

Just two days later, the Isles would look to push their winning streak to 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes.  But as they have many times this season, they followed up another season’s best performance with another substandard effort against a weaker team to end the streak.  John Tavares (Vanek) tied the game at 1-1 in the first period, only to see the Hurricanes take a 3-1 lead through two periods.  Thomas Vanek (MacDonald & Strome) would score late in the third to bring the Isles within 1, but New York would ultimately fall short in their efforts by a 3-2 score.  The Isles outshot Carolina by a 40-30 margin.  Evgeni Nabokov was 25/28 and a .900Sv%.  Capuano told islanders.nhl.com, “On two of the goals, we had the puck on our stick,” Head coach Jack Capuano said. “[We gave them] three gifts and on two of them, we had possession of the puck [and gave it up]. Puck decisions are what get us into trouble.” 


The struggling Islanders defense had another bad game, allowing turnovers and odd man rushes against that contributed to the loss.  Hurricanes net minder, Anton Khudobin, a free agent in last summer’s goalie pool, stood tall in the game for Carolina bringing some of the Islanders scoring issues to light.  Khudobin’s biggest stops were again Vanek and Tavares on fast break opportunities including a late scoring attempt by Andrew MacDonald.  While Okposo’s scoring streak was ended, Thomas Vanek’s eight game streak (matching a career high) continues.  The Isles will have a home game on Monday against Dallas @ 7 pm and go on the road Tuesday vs. Toronto @ 7 pm and on Friday against Colorado @ 9 pm.

 

Isles Notes:

 

Congratulations to Isles prospect Ville Pokka and Team Finland on winning the gold medal at the 2014 World Junior Championship.

 

Attention Isles Booster Club Members!

The next Islanders Booster Club meeting will be held Wednesday, Jan. 8 at the Long Island Marriott amphitheater (across the parking lot from Nassau Coliseum). Booster club members will be joined by two very special guests, Isles rookies Ryan Strome and Calvin de Haan. Both players will be on hand to meet fans and answer questions.

The NYI recalled, D Matt Donovan from the AHL affiliate, Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Thursday.

 

NHL Notes:

Per Michele Catalano, "8.2 million people in North America watched the Winter Classic. 105,000 were at the game. But nobody cares about hockey."  Nice.