Weekend Lookback: Avalanche

Your New York Islanders and Travis Hamonic would face P.A. Parenteau and the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, February 8th for their final game before the Olympic break.  The Isles would sport their Stadium Series jerseys in front of  a home crowd who wanted something to cheer about.  Wins are something the Isles need badly to stay afloat in the playoff race, but lately they haven't been able to stay in games, let alone mount a successful comeback recently.

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

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

Evgeni Nabokov in net with Kevin Poulin on the bench.

Colorado jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the first two periods of the game, despite some strong efforts to start the game by the Islanders that included a 13-6 SOG at one point.  Former Islander, PA Parenteau had an assist on the second goal of the game.  The Isles then rallied behind a pair of PPG in the third period by John Tavares (Bailey & Visnovsky) and Lubomir Visnovsky (Okposo & Vanek) to close the gap to within one at 3-2 Avs.  The comeback would fall short as Colorado would add a pair of ENG's in the final minute to win the game with a 5-2 score.

Tavares told islanders.nhl.com, “It’s a tough go and it’s frustrating not getting to where we want to be,” he said. “Clearly as each game goes by, the window gets smaller and smaller.”

 

The Islanders held the SOG advantage 32-26 and went 2 for 6 on the PP and a perfect 3 for 3 on the PK.  Evgeni Nabokov went 20 of 23 with a .880 Sv%.  Per the New York Post, “A lot of guys need to look in the mirror and get better,” said Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, who made 22 saves. “I think it’s pretty much every which one of us. I know we can be [better]. We have to dig in a little bit, get [ticked] off, get mad. I don’t care what we have to do, but we have to find it.

“Maybe we need to stop being nice to each other.”

 

The Islanders return to action after the 19 day Olympic break at home on Thursday 2/27 against the Maple Leafs @ 7pm and a pair of matinees on Saturday, 3/1 against the Devils @ 1pm and Sunday, 3/2 against the Panthers @ 3pm.

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I headed out to see the Bridgeport Sound Tigers take on the Devils Saturday night.  It was their 1000th game in franchise history and my friends and I watched from choice seats gifted to us courtesy of Talking Finger social media marketing agency.  Even though the good guys lost, I always have a great time watching the #BST and the future of Islanders hockey.

 

 

Isles Notes:

Good luck to @91Tavares, @grabs40 & @T_Vanek26 as they make their way to Sochi to compete in the Olympics! #Isles

Olympic Schedule. 

Per Neil Sheehy, "As disappointing as it is for Lubo Visnovsky to not play in the Olympics for Slovakia, the right decision was made for his longterm health."

Arthur Staple, "Last RT from Visnovsky's agent should put talk that Isles are the big bad guys in this scenario to rest. Team decision, player accepted it."

 

2/8  Defenseman Matt Donovan has been loaned to @TheSoundTigers.

 

2/7  Defenseman Travis Hamonic has been activated off injured reserve.