Islanders Fall To Montreal

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.