Tonight, your New York Islanders welcomed the Montreal
Canadiens to the NVMC on their final game before the Christmas break. Fans
sold out the old barn for the 8th time this season and hoped for the Isles to
extend their 4 game winning streak. Chad Johnson was named the starter
and Kevin Poulin was recalled to serve as back up. Coach Capuano called
it another maintenance day for Jaro Halak who said he feels great to those who
are quick to fear the worst in these kind of situations. Johnson has
struggled in his last few starts, but would have a full compliment of Isles
defense in front of him tonight. Johnson wore a NYPD hat when he met the press
to show support for slain police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian
Liu. The Islanders organization had a moment of silence before the
game tonight to honor their memory.
Forwards: Bailey-Tavares-Okposo,
Grabovski-Nielsen-Kulemin, Lee-Nelson-Strome, Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck.
Defensive Pairings: de Haan-Hamonic, Leddy-Boychuk,
Visnovsky-Hickey.
Chad Johnson gets the start with Kevin Poulin backing up.
The Islanders opened the game on the attack, outshooting
Montreal 14-3. Kyle Okposo (Tavares & Visnovsky) has had some really
strong efforts lately and found a way to open the scoring just after the midway
point of the period when he took a Tavares pass and put it behind Price for a
1-0 Islanders lead. The Isles did a good job controlling play in both
zones and were good at moving the puck, but once again showed that
dominating a period in every way except on the scoreboard is a sure way to keep
your opponent in the game.
Markov & Gallagher scored for Montreal in a second that could have been the complete opposite of the first period
effort put forth by the Isles. The Habs played the middle stanza
with a little more jump, especially in the Islanders zone. The Isles were
unable to match their intensity and regain control of the game. Coach Capuano mixed
up lines (18-91-21, 17-51-15, 27-29-86 & 12-53-84) for a few shifts
trying to create an offensive spark, but there was none to be found. The
Isles defense needed to "activate" & control play in their
own zone, but seemed content to react to the Canadiens attack allowing the
shift in momentum. It was a two way failure for New York to which they
would never recover. While they out hit Montreal, the Isles also lacked
the physical and goal front pressures that were so prevalent in the last few
games of the winning streak. Price was able to settle down and have good
visibility against any shots he was made to face, which were even at 9-9
in the second period.
Although Montreal felt the need to call their time out in the third, the
Isles were never able to mount any real sustained pressure. Desharnais
scored the empty netter around the final minute to give
Montreal the 3-1 win. Chad Johnson (18/21 with an .857Sv%) was
pretty good in net for the Isles. If anything, he wasn't able to
establish a rhythm by the time Montreal got going and fell victim to the Isles
weak defensive game that manifested itself in the second period. Isles were outshot 38-21 in the game. The PP was a brutal 0/2 again
tonight, going 2 for the last 22, 0 for its last 11. Their PK was good again &
held against two PP chances by the opposition. They edged Montreal
28-27 in the face off circle.
Although the Isles uninspired 2nd period & soft play
were enough to snap their 4 game winning streak in the final game before the
Christmas break, it wasn't a melt down or a major setback in any way.
They sit at 23-11-0 and have given the fans a pretty solid holiday gift thus
far. They still have room to improve in many parts of their game as individuals
and as a team, especially on the PP and on face-offs, but they
have improved enough to force the NHL to take notice are definitely a
team Isles fans can be excited about.
Isles Notes:
FYI: Per the NYI, Kevin Poulin has been returned on loan to the Soundtigers.
Per Arthur Staple, "Tavares said he got stitches on the
outside and inside of his ear. Puck split open his ear like a zipper being
unzipped. But Tavares is fine, no thanks to the high shot from Tampa's Radko
Gudas, not exactly changing his status as 91's least favorite NHLer."
Per Rich DeKorte, "Boychuk: 'I knew we were gonna be
really good you don't know how you're gonna start the season (until you do), be
we started great."
Isles Prospect Report: Russia's Ilya Sorokin stones Canada
in World Junior exhibition play.
January 19th will be the un-official, fan inspired Frans
Nielsen tribute night.
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