Black & Blued

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.