Islanders Downed By Jets

The Winnipeg Jets are on the Island to night to face your first place, New York Islanders in front of 11,508 Isles faithful.  Jaro Halak (3-2-0, 3.38 gaa. & .891 Sv%) is back in net after two wins backstopped by back-up, Chad Johnson.  Halak will probably be very focused on bringing his "A" game tonight and further establish himself as the Isles go-to guy.  John Tavares has plenty of confidence in Halak, "Jaro's been around for a while; he's not an old guy, but he's been around and has proved a lot at this level on a consistent basis," Tavares said. "You just know Jaro is going to make the saves he needs to make. He's been huge for us." 

Forwards:  Conacher-Tavares-Okposo, Grabovski-Nielsen-Kulemin, Lee-Nelson-Strome, Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck.

Defensive pairings:  Leddy-Boychuk, Hickey-Visnovsky, de Haan-Strait.

Jaro Halak is in net with Chad Johnson on the bench.

In the first period, Brock Nelson (Boychuk & Okposo) puts in a deflected Boychuk shot that redirected off the post, and gives the Islanders a 1-0 lead (PPG) early in the game.  The Isles get two more chances on the PP, but come up short.  PK was 1/1.  They were guilty of a few giveaways, but play a strong period.  Isles controlling much of the play in the period and win 12 face-offs to Winnipeg's 10.  Isles with a 9-7 shots advantage.

Nikolay Kulemin gets ejected (and a 5 minute major) for hitting a Jets player into the boards to open the period.  Winnipeg gets 2 goals in their major advantage to take a 2-1 lead in the game.  Halak made some big saves in the PK, but wasn't seeing the puck well enough behind a tentative PK and allowed 2 weak goals.  Islanders frustrated, but show some jump after the kill with some pressure in the offensive zone.  They can not allow Winnipeg to gain any more confidence than they already have.  Isles Martin is held, then somehow called for diving.  Martin and bench are furious.  Halak gives up a weak 4 on 4 goal, Jets lead 3-1.  Isles have lost their focus and cant seem to recover since Kuemin's ejection.  It may be the turning point of the game.  Hickey is brutally hit from behind & into the boards, but only get a 2:00 PP chance, Isles take exception.  Kulemin was ejected and should have been, but the hit on Hickey was far worse.  John Tavares (Nelson & Boychuk) gets the PPG, Isles come to within 1, score 3-2.  Islanders playing with an edge, Mikhail Grabovski from Lubo Visnovsky execute some sick moves to tie the game at 3-3.  The Islanders are showing tons of heart here, using their frustration as the extra motivation they needed to get the justice they feel was deserved.  Fun to watch.  Halak gets another chance to be the hero.  Jets go up 19-14 in shots.  Isles still up 22-18 in face offs.  Isles and Winnipeg are 2/4 on the PP.  Offense has been King for both teams through 2 periods.

The Jets get the go ahead score just 3:31 into the third period.  Winnipeg has averaged 2 goals a game coming into tonight.  The major PP helped with their goal scoring chances, but the Islanders have to play better defense and expect more form their goaltenders, especially Jaroslav Halak.  Capuano continues to shuffle lines to try and capture something missing from the line up tonight.  Grabovski with a great individual breakaway effort, hits post, but draws penalty that yields nothing.  Conacher draws a high sticking penalty and Isles pull Halak.  Time expires, Isles fall to Winnipeg 4-3.

Before I sum up tonight's game, my point on the Nikolay Kulemin ejection is the need for consistency. He was ejected & may face further discipline.  So what about the Mark Scheifele hit from behind & into the boards on Thomas  Hickey? It wasn't worse? Please.  It was a far more intentional and inflammatory version of the same call.  If its bad enough for Kulemin to get ejected, its bad enough for Scheifele.

Now with that rant off my chest, there were a quite few negatives to tonight's Isles game.  Giveaways were everywhere tonight for New York, especially in the first period.  John Tavares was guilty, Kyle Okposo was guilty.  Travis Hamonic has been missed.  Accountability on defense has to be spread across the whole team.  The forwards have to be responsible, the defense has to do their job and the net minders need to have a .900 Sv% for the Islanders to be a top team.  Halak was 26/30, .867 Sv%.  The Isles have given up 3 or more goals in 8 of their 9 games this season.  The Officials helped botch tonight's game for the Islanders, but their sub par defense and shaky goaltending did them in.  I wont even comment on ice time tonight.  Its all been said.

I loved the fight the team showed tonight to climb back into the game after the Kulemin ejection.  That tenacity is a big component of what a champion needs to possess.  Brock Nelson has really developed into a strong & steady leader on the ice for the Islanders.  He is really turning into a more complete player.  Mikhail Grabovski & Lubo Visnovsky were bright spots for their individual and team play tonight.  It was a tough loss with Kulemin out, but this team needs to use their depth to recover from stuff like this and the head coach needs to coordinate their new plan of attack and settle down his bench.  He did a great job to rally them in the second period, but there needed to be more to finish with a win.  As a team, they did some good things tonight, but their shortcomings are creating a pattern of concern.  Halak: "bottom line, I need to be better." 

There are still a lot of good things here.  Isles will have another chance in Colorado on Thursday.

Isles Notes:

Frans Nielsen (@NYIslanders) named an NHL Star of the week.

Nielsen: "something I'm really proud of."  Any praise that Frans gets is LONG overdue. Just sayin.

Happy Birthday to former Islander, Benoit Hogue.