Flames Burn Out Islanders

Tonight, your 22-28-8 New York Islanders welcome the 21-28-7 Calgary Flames to the NVMC.  The Isles have the fewest home wins while the Flames have the second fewest road wins in the NHL.  Both teams has dismal PP numbers and decent PK stats.  Tonight is another must win for the Isles.

Forwards:  Vanek-Tavares-Okposo; Grabner-Nielsen-Clutterbuck; Bailey-Nelson-McDonald; Boulton-Cizikas-Martin.

D-Pairings:  Strait-MacDonald; Hickey-Visnovsky; de Haan-Donovan.

Evgeni Nabokov is in net tonight with Kevin Poulin on the bench.

 

The first period sees the Islanders outshoot the Flames 11-5 & get two PP chances.  After going 0/2 in the first, the Isles are 0 for 27 on the PP. They had good pressure in the Calgary zone and had a few nice odd man rushes, but failed to score.  Nabokov's shut out streak continues into the second period.  The Islanders continue to have glorious chances only to misfire or come up short while losing steam.  Calgary gives New York a third PP opportunity that goes no where. 0 for 28.  Calgary breaks the shutout streak at 94:16 (Per Matt Saidman) and take a 1-0 lead in the game despite being outplayed by the Isles for much of the game.  Flames make it 2-0 on a PPG late in the second.  The Islanders look lost until Thomas Hickey (Bailey & McDonald) gets them on the board in the closing seconds of the second, 2-1 Flames.  Credit Hickey for how hard he plays each and every shift.  Shots are in favor of NY at 11-6 in the period & 22-11 in the game.  Vanek leaves ice favoring his leg after tumbling awkwardly into the boards.

 

 

Vanek looks OK to start the third period.  Both teams get PP chances early in the period, but Calvin de Haan (Tavares & Vanek) finds the net through traffic to tie the game at 2-2 at the mid way point of the period.  The Flames score off a questionable non call for goaltender interference, take a 3-2 lead late in the third period.  Isles go back to the PP and call a time out in the offensive zone to draw up a play.  Calgary completes the kill and score an ENG with seconds left in the game.  Isles finish with a 30-22 shots advantage and an 0 for 4 PP effort.  Evgeni Nabokov finished18 for 21 with an .857Sv%.  4-2 Calgary in your final.

The story of the game is how the Isles dictated play, but failed to score repeatedly throughout the game and were complacent when they were called upon to answer their opponent.  It takes :60 minutes of strong play for the Isles to compete in each and every game, but they rarely execute with that efficiency.  A young team can not rely on the constant comeback to win games, especially against what they would consider an inferior opponent.  Calgary came out tonight with a superior work ethic, played defense and upset the hometown Islanders.  With only 23 games remaining, a playoff push is becoming more and more unlikely, especially from a team who rarely shows any sign of urgency when the rest of us see the season on the line.  Maybe a trade or two will shake things up.

Per Matt Saidman, "Charles Wang and Garth Snow just came downstairs. Snow went into Isles locker room." 

 

 

 

Isles Notes:

 

### I plan to be at the Bridgeport Sound Tigers game on Saturday with some friends, so I'll cover the Colorado game in a Weekend Lookback.  ###



Per IPB, "The Islanders have traded Peter Regin and Pierre Marc Bouchard to the Chicago Blackhawks for a 4th Round Pick."

Per Pierre LeBrun, "Isles retained 50 percent of salary/cap hit for both Bouchard and Regin in trade with Hawks."

Per Arthur Staple, " Islanders won't let Visnovsky play in Sochi games."  

Per Brett Cyrgalis, Andrew MacDonald recently turned down a 4-year, $16 million deal from the Islanders.

"By the way, Travis Hamonic had a long, hard practice with contact yesterday, and the Isles are hoping he comes back before the break."

 

Per BST, "PLAYER TRANSACTION: Defenseman Andrey Pedan has been reassigned to the @StocktonThunder (ECHL). 

Per Magnus Larrson, "Kirill Kabanov scored his first goal in Sweden tonight. In his fifth game..."