Tonight, your New York Islanders get another shot at the
Blues in St. Louis. They will need to play their style of game, get
traffic in front of Allen in the Blues net and keep tight defensively in
front of Halak. After surrendering two 3 goal leads to the Wild & the
same Blues team, the Isles The news of the day included that the Isles have
activated Eric Boulton off IR to replace Josh Bailey, Matt Donovan will be in
for Griffin Reinhart & Jaroslav Halak will get the start in goal.
Arthur Staple reports, "Bailey injury is a "nagging" lower body
problem, according to Capuano." Also says Reinhart has played well, wants
experienced guys in tonight." So all that means that Brian Strait
will remain in the line up for tonight's game. The main thing is that the
Islanders have still played well enough to be within 1pt of first place in the
Metro division.
Forwards: Kulemin-Tavares-Okposo,
Grabovski-Nielsen-Clutterbuck, Grabner-Nelson-Lee, Martin-Strome-Boulton.
Defensive Pairings:
Leddy-Strait, Visnovsky-Hickey, de Haan-Donovan.
Jaro Halak is in net with Chad Johnson on the bench.
A few minutes in to the first period, the Isles take a
penalty (Strait) and Steen puts the blues up 1-0. New York is soft of their positioning and St. Louis makes them
pay for it. Blues are 4 for 6 on the PP
so far vs the Isles. Jaro Halak goes down hard after taking a Bakes
shot off his mask, but looks to be ok.
Boulton drops the gloves to go after Reaves, but the officials jump in
to break it up and send both to the box.
Donovan draws a penalty and the Isles will go to the 4 on 3 PP. Isles are able to generate some pressure,
but can score. Blues make it 2-0 off a
blown play by Strait. I hate to beat
this horse, but Brian Strait has been in the box for the first goal and was a
contributing factor to the second.
Isles go back to the PP and generate some pressure, but fail to
convert. Even John Tavares continues to
struggle with turnovers tonight. The
Islanders look flat as the period expires. Capuano juggles lines going with
29-91-21 & 40-84-86 to end the period.
Blues out shooting Isles 9-8.
84-51-15 start the second period for the Islanders. Halak
keeping the score at 2-0 for the Isles and had made some big saves early in the
period. Eric Boulton with a nice shot
on goal and some more rough stuff after the stoppage. The Isles are having a tough time moving the puck and playing as
a team over this rough patch. Nelson
draws a penalty, so the Isles back to the PP mid-way through the period, but
fall short again. 0/3 so far tonight
& completely disorganized. Halak
with a nice poke check to do his own house cleaning on a Schwartz breakaway
opportunity. Grabner is now out with
Tavares & Okposo. Nice
sequence by the Grabovski-Nielsen-Clutterbuck line there late in the
period. Isles generating some pressure
and putting shots on Allen. John
Tavares (Okposo) gathers in a muffed puck and puts it in to get the Isles on
the board, 2-1 Blues. 40-29-86
combination is on the ice after the goal.
Mikhail Grabovski (Nielsen) ties the game a 2-2 with seconds
remaining. It started with Halak making
some big saves early in the second, Capuano making some adjustments, the
forwards generating pressure and the captain & Grabo getting the
goals. Lets hope this is a turning
point. Isles lead 22-17 in shots &
tied 23 all in the circle. Eric Hornick
points out that the Isles won 43% of face-offs in 1st pd, 58% in 2nd pd.
In the third, the Islanders come out with purpose and looked to have
tightened up defensively until Steen gets
his second of the game off an Oshie rebound, 3-2 Blues. Three Isles forwards to one side left Steen
wide open there. Halak makes the stop
off a de Haan giveaway. Donovan
continues to work hard on defense for the Islanders & has made some nice
plays tonight. Halak bails out his team
mates with a huge save off a Visnovsky giveaway to Oshie at the blue line. Ken
Hitchcock calls their time out with 5:22 remaining. 36-91-21 & Oshie goes high and makes it 4-2 Blues late. Those are kind of decisions that make me
think that Cappy feels he's got it more figured out than anyone else. 36-91-21
final the minutes & down by 1? Isles
to the PK (Clutterbuck). Stastny makes
it 5-2 Blues with a PPG. Blues are
2/2. Kyle Okposo (Donovan) gets a goal
to make it 5-3. Halak (26/31 with an
.839Sv%) goes to the bench for the extra skater. Tavares goes head first into the empty net trying to stop the
puck he inadvertently knocked in and gets up slowly skating to the bench. That sums it up. 6-3 is the final. Blues outshoot Isles 16-6 in the third and 33-28
in the game. Isles ell behind 37-30
again in face-offs and were 0/3 on the man advantage.
Isles drop this one after the last two games, but are still
in good position as far as the standings are concerned. They came out with a much better effort in
the second half of the game despite the players missing from the roster, but
fall short again in final five minutes. John
Kreiser sums it up well. "The Isles have scored 11 goals in past
three games - and won none of the three. Hurry back, Johnny Boychuk and Travis
Hamonic." I really think steps were taken towards getting back in this thing, but there needs to be a much better effort on Saturday to get after
another elite team like Chicago. Lets
hope they can make all the right moves on and off the bench this time.
The Islanders return home against the Blackhawks on Saturday
& Devils on Monday. Both are 7PM starts.
Isles Notes:
Wild Coach, Mike Yeo on Matt Martin's hit on Ballard:
"he's seeking him out. He's on a mission there." I am not sure
what play he watched. It appears, and justly so, that Matt Martin
will not have a hearing for the check that injured Keith Ballard.
"Matt Martin and Keith Ballard exchanged texts yesterday. No issues
between them," per Arthur Staple. Thankfully though, Keith
Ballard is out of hospital. Unfortunately he suffered multiple facial
fractures & a concussion on his collision with the bench rail and ice
surface.
Wild's Marco Scandella was suspended two games for his hit
on Isles Brock Nelson. "Brock Nelson said he's been feeling fine
after Scandella head hit. Nelson and other Isles more angered by Scandella
slash to Tavares' leg." per Staple.
The Islanders announce that Clark Gillies will be on ice
with team at the Saturday morning skate prior to Hawks game and will
be available to the media after that.
Sound Tigers Notes:
Jason Bast has been released from his Professional Try
Out.
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