On Saturday night, your New York Islanders faced the Lightning in
Tampa Bay. The Isles were riding a 5 game winning streak, but had trouble
capitalizing on their chances and it cost them. After a strong start, the
Isles were out muscled and frustrated by the Lightning & fell to Tampa Bay
by the score of 5-2. Clutterbuck, Donovan & Strait were the scratches
for the Isles.
Forwards: Bailey-Tavares-Okposo,
Grabovski-Nielsen-Kulemin, Lee-Strome-Nelson, Martin-Cizikas-Conacher.
Defnsive Pairings: de Haan-Hamonic, Leddy-Boychuk,
Hickey-Visnovsky.
Chad Johnson got the start with Jaro Halak on the bench. Metrics.
Brock Nelson (Tavares & Okposo) opened the scoring and
gave the Isles a 1-0 lead. Callahan evened the score at 1-1 shortly
after the Isles opening goal by beating an out of position Johnson on the short
side. But Josh Bailey (Boychuk & Leddy) got his 3rd goal of the
season off a Boychuk deflection and gave the Isles a 2-1 lead. In less
than two minutes later, Tampa Bay would score two more times and take a 3-2
lead into the first intermission. The TBL led in shots 13-11 in the
period.
In the second & third periods, Tampa Bay scored two more
times to make the score 5-2 and that is how it would all finish. The Isles
had several opportunities, but were denied by Bishop. They were also off
their game and made some out of character errors. Watching Grabovski & Kulemin collide was a microcosm of the
night. And if that wasn't enough, it was
evident that the hockey gods just weren't going to favor New York in the
game. Even Frans Nielsen was close to giving a boost to his team, but
sent the puck wide. He was very frustrated when he got back to
the bench and wasn't trying to hide his disgust on the night. Chad Johnson
was 23-28 with a .821Sv%. He struggled for much of the night including a
couple of really bad goals late in the game that buried the Islanders' chances
of getting back into it. While their PK went 2/3, their PP had an
0/4 showing on the night. The Isles continue to struggle in the face off
circle, being out dueled by a 33-24 margin.
Some positives on the night was the continued play of Brock
Nelson. His work ethic and hands are starting to elevate
him from the pool of "good" NHL players. Watching the
Nelson, Strome & Lee line was something to get excited about, yet
again. These guys have skills and are
improving as a line. Josh Bailey looked
good again in his second game off injury. The Islanders moved the puck
well and got some good chances, but couldn't convert against a good Tampa team. In some ways, the Isles can learn a lot by
their experience in the game. While we
know they are a very good team, Tampa Bay executed and repelled all the Isles
had for them. They need to use this as
motivation to get even better. Their
first opportunity will come tomorrow night against the same Lightning team
at the NVMC.
Isles Notes:
Lines at Practice: Bailey-Tavares-Okposo,
Kulemin-Nielsen-Grabovski, Lee-Grabner-Strome-Nelson,
Martin-Cizikas-Conacher-Clutterbuck.
With Bishop in net against the Rangers tonight, Evgeni
Nabokov could very well see action tomorrow night on the Island.
Per Arthur Staple, "Capuano: Grabner not ready yet, but
"I think he'll be cleared (to return) pretty soon." Clutterbuck ready
to go tomorrow. Where Grabner skated "no indication of where he'll
be when he gets back." Also says waiver status won't determine roster
move... Translation of last two tweets, to me anyway: Lee is
staying."
Why was Josh Ho-Sang traded? “I don’t fake the
team concept,” Ho-Sang said. “I truly believe it takes a team to win. I
also believe in myself and I’m not afraid to tell people that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment