Weekend Lookback: St. Louis

Your New York Islanders faced the St. Louis Blues on Saturday at the NVMC.  They were coming off a difficult loss on Thursday from the Penguins, and really needed a bounce back effort in front of their home fans.  Once again, the Isles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first off goals from Thomas Vanek (Tavares & Okposo) and Kyle Okposo (Vanek & Hickey).  Okposo’s two points marks a career high of 54 points in scoring so far this season.  However, once again, they gave up the next two goals to St. Louis who tied the score at 2-2.  Matt Martin (McDonald & Cizikas) scored late in the second period to give the Isles a 3-2 edge going into the third period.  The game would take a few precarious turns as a few posts were rung by St. Louis and Kevin Poulin stood tall to keep the Isles in the lead until the final :30 seconds, where the game was tied at 3-3 and would go into overtime.

 

In the O.T. period, Thomas Vanek would score the apparent game winner, when a puck deflected off his skate in the front of the Blues net.  The goal was ratified by the on ice official behind the net, but Toronto had put the goal under review, and ruled no-goal.  They said that it was put in by a "distinct kicking motion."  Well, to me, it was a ridiculous claim.  Watching the replay over and over again, Vanek was moving in an arc across the front of the crease and made no such kicking motion, but it would not matter.  He told islanders.nhl.com “I thought it was a terrible call, I think we all know what a kicking motion is. To me a kicking motion is if I physically lift my foot and move the puck. My skate never elevated, it was on the ice the whole time. I got lucky there; it hit my skate blade and spun right in.”  The O.T. period would expire and despite another Vanek goal in the shootout, The Blues would be declared the winners of the game with a 4-3, shoot out win.  The Isles edged the Blues in shots 36 to 35 in the game, but went 0/6 on the PP.  Kevin Poulin finished the night stopping 32 of 35 with a .914Sv% and helped the team kill off both St. Louis PP chances for the Isles PK.

 

 

The Isles got a valuable point and played hard, but fell short.  Bad breaks come with the territory and they are still in the mix with a few big games coming up this week.  Boston is at the Coliseum on Monday @ 7pm and the Isles have a "home at home" against the New York Rangers on Wednesday @ 7:30pm and 7pm on Friday at MSG.  Wednesday's game will be the long awaited outdoor Stadium Series game at Yankee stadium.

 

 

 

 

I think the Isles Alternate uniforms look fine to me.

 

 

 

Isles Notes:

 

Per Brett Cyrgalis, “Hamonic, Visnovsky, Nabokov all skated this morning, and could play by Wednesday. Nabokov probable to backup Monday & play at Yankee Stadium.”