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.
###
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.
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