An independent blog on the New York Islanders, the NHL and AHL by a guy from New York.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Weekend Lookback: Isles 3 - Pennsylvania 0


Let me start by thanking everyone for their patience and overwhelming support in my efforts to care for my Dad last weekend.  As difficult as each day caring for an elderly person is, he had a particularly rough few days.  But with MaryBeth's help, we will continue to do the best we can for him as he battles the challenging affects of cognitive impairment.


Joe


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Your New York Islanders swept the state of Pennsylvania last weekend.  It included a sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins in an exciting home at home series and finished off with the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday with an intense S.O. victory to break an Isles' team record. 

Prior to the Pittsburgh series, Coach Mike Johnston commented on playing the Isles: “I look forward to these two-game series we have. It gives us a chance to simulate playoff action."



11/21  Game 1:


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

Defensive Pairings:  de Haan-Hamonic, Leddy-Boychuk, Hickey-Visnovsky with Chad Johnson in goal, Jaro Halak backing up.


Pittsburgh drew first blood to take a 1-0 lead early in the first, but the Isles would fire back.  Matt Martin, Nikolay Kulemin & Ryan Strome gave New York a 3-1 lead in a 2 minute span.  Ex-Isle, Blake Comeau would bring the game to a 3-2 score by the end of the period.  Nick Leddy increased the Isles lead  to 4-2 in the second, while Pittsburgh tied the score by the 13:00 mark of the third to force overtime.  The Isles had a couple of chances to end the game, but couldn't score in the O.T. period.  In the shoot out, Frans Nielsen & Kyle Okposo scored to give the Isles a nice 5-4 win.


The Isles PP was 0/1 and the PK was untested in the game.  New York edged the Pens 27-26 in the face off circle & outshot them by a 35-30 margin.  I felt the Isles were able to take advantage of the Pens slow & sloppy line changes, and that was the difference in the game.  Ryan Strome had another strong effort with a goal & two assists, while Kyle Okposo played well in the game & absolutely undressed Fluery on the shootout winner.  Chad Johnson started slowly, but tightened up later in the contest.  He was 26/30 with an .867 Sv%.


Ryan Strome & Kyle Okposo were the 1st & 2nd stars of the game.

 
 
11/22  Game 2:


The Islanders organization honored hall of fame goaltender, Billy Smith in the pre game, that included the ceremonial face off with John Tavares & Sidney Crosby.  Smith was as fired up as he usually is & told stories with Butch Goring about noteworthy events and lore about the Islanders dynasty.

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

Defensive Pairings:  de Haan-Hamonic, Leddy-Boychuk, Hickey-Visnovsky with Jaro Halak in goal with Chad Johnson backing up.


The Islanders fell behind 1-0 in the first, but Matt Martin would tie the game in the second period at 1-1.  Anders Lee, Brock Nelson (PPG) & John Tavares put the Isles in control at 4-1 after dominating the third period and a sweep of the home at home series against the eastern leading rival Penguins.  They finished with a 35-28 shots advantage.


The Islanders had 11 players on the score sheet with JT netting 2 pts.  A key stat had to be that they won 61% of their face-offs in the game to help dictate play & control the flow of the game.  Jaroslav Halak turned in a great performance, stopping 27/28 shots with a .964 SV%.


Brett Cyrgalis got some good post game quotes, "Capuano: "Last year is in the past. This is a new hockey club with a new attitude.”  Tavares on 1st place: "We just want to continue what’s going on. If we’re there at the end of 82, that’s what’s most important.” 
 

Isles win a 4-1 final, shutdown Crosby, sweep home @ home beat Penguins on Billy Smith tribute night & share 1st in East.


Matt Martin, John Tavares & Anders Lee all had strong games & were named the 3 stars of the night.

 

11/24  Flyers


Your New York Islanders were coming off two big wins against the 1st place Penguins, so it wouldn't be out of the question to worry that a struggling Flyer's team could come out hard and maybe push for an early advantage.  It seems that the 2014-15 Isles team takes very little for granted and are only getting hungrier with each success they experience.

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

Defensive Pairings:  Leddy-Boychuk, Strait-Hamonic, Donovan-Visnovsky with Jaro Halak in goal with Chad Johnson backing up.


Calvin de Haan & Thomas Hickey missed the game due to illness.  That opened the door for Matt Donovan's debut & for Brian Strait's return from the bench to fill in on defense.  Per Eric Hornick, "With Thomas Hickey out of the lineup, only one player has played in last 73 Isles games. His name: Brock Nelson. "


Johnny Boychuk was pushed into the net by Coburn and got up slowly, but continued to play in the game.  He has been knocked around over the past few winning efforts, but you have to wonder if it is quietly taking its toll on the versatile D-man. 


While the Flyers did a good job forcing the Isles outside and got sticks on everything up the middle of the ice to keep the game scoreless, Steve Mason was the difference in a game that could have been much different on the score sheet.  Mason was 46/46 through overtime for Philadelphia.  Credit the Isles for being relentless in the O zone and Jaroslav Halak (10-4-0 on the season) for being a stabilizing force in the Isles net, yet again, for his 3rd shut out (21/21) of the season (3rd best in the NHL). The Islanders were 0/3 on the PP and 2/2 on the PK.  The bottom line was that the team kept working and manufactured the opportunity to make good things happen.


Frans Nielsen & John Tavares scored for the Isles to win 1-0 in the shootout and Jaro Halak had some huge saves to give New York a chance in both the O.T. & S.O. extra sessions.  Frans Nielsen is now 37/65 in all-time shootout attempts.  His 56.9% success rate is the best among active NHLers with at least 20 attempts.  The Isles improve to 62-41 all-time in shootouts.  Only Pittsburgh (63-34) has more shootout wins.  The Isles held NHL leading scorer Jakub Voracek to just one shot, after holding Sidney Crosby to 0 shots and 1 shot in the home-and-home series with Pittsburgh per Eric Hornick.


This is the first in franchise history the Islanders have started the season winning 15 of 21 games.  They have now won 9/10 and are 6-0 in OT/shootout games.




Have the Isles beaten many of their own weaknesses?  They share first place in the Metro and are winning conference & divisional games regularly and their ability to hold on to leads, win at home & in the month of November (9-2-0) have been consistent to this point.  They are playing well, but can still improve greatly on special teams & will get back Michael Grabner soon.
 

 Tonight, the Islanders host the Washington Capitals @ 7pm, face the same Capitals in Washington @ 5pm on Black Friday and then home again for the Devils on Saturday @ 7pm.


On an aside, Apparently radio host, Boomer Esiason called out Islanders fans for not selling out every game, despite the team is doing so well on the season.  While its hard to realistically expect sellouts at every home game, especially weeknight games, the Isles have been weak for several seasons and may have to prove something first.  The remaining long-time fan base of the Islanders have endured a lot of organizational shortcomings and it will take time to make up for 20+ years of failure.  Some media & fans will always bash the Islanders and complain about even the slightest detail while others will condemn and malign the team only to jump on the "praise" bandwagon like they haven't ever been over critical.  It's best to call out the team when it is warranted & praise them when it's deserved.  Right now, the whole organization deserves the respect of the entire hockey world for what they have accomplished so far.  Especially because the coaches & players have not basked in this season's success. While they have embraced their successes, they have also been quick to point out elements of their game that can or must be improved.

 

Isles Notes:


Per Arthur Staple, "Hickey, de Haan on the ice for Isles practice. Grabner out there as well," & mentioned, "Boychuk not on the ice for Isles practice."  Boychuk had a maintenance day.


The Isles have acquired F, Alexandre Mallet & 2016 3rd-rd pick from Vancouver for D, Andrey Pedan.  Alexandre Mallet has been reassigned from the Kalamazoo Wings to the ECHL's Stockton Thunder.  The Canucks originally drafted Mallet in the 2nd round, 57th overall in 2012. In his final QMJHL season he tallied 81 points in 68 games.  Pedan is the Isles 2011, 3rd round pick.  He split time between ECHL Stockton and AHL Bridgeport this season, his 2nd full pro season.  The Islanders were not happy with Pedan & were able to trade him due to the depth of their system at defense and most likely moved him while he would bring back what they felt was maximum value.

Pedan commented on Twitter:

"Thanks @NYIslanders organization for everything ,good luck to my old teammates! Really exited to start my journey with @VanCanucks !!"


Jaroslav Halak is 7-1 with a1.35 GAA & .950 SV% in November.

Per Forbes, the Isles franchise value has increased by 54% since 2013, the largest jump of any NHL team during that span.  Rangers are valued at $1.1 billion.

Congratulations to radio play-by-play voice Chris King, who is broadcasted his 1,500th career regular season game on 11/21.

 

Hockey Notes:


Well respected Player, Coach, Manager & Owner, Pat Quinn along with legendary Russian coach, Viktor Tikhonov passed away on 11/24.

 

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