An independent blog on the New York Islanders, the NHL and AHL by a guy from New York.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Isles Best Sens In Our Time


Tonight, your New York Islanders opened a home at home series with the Ottawa Senators in front of 13,888 Isles fans on a cold Tuesday night in Uniondale.  Jaro Halak was named first star of the week by NHL.  Halak "posted a 3-0-0 record with a 0.95 goals-against average, .964 save percentage and one shutout to help the Islanders (17-7-0, 34 points) win three of four starts and complete (Isles) best November in 34 years. "  The great Billy Smith has a 10 game streak that Halak can tie with a win tonight.  Halak said, "It feels good. It's a reflection on everyone."  The struggling Sens, losers in their last 4 of 5, are a dangerous test for the Isles.  They play their best hockey when taking advantage of their opponents turn overs.  They should however, allow a lot of scoring chances for New York.  Game on.


Forwards:  Kulemin-Tavares-Okposo, Grabovski-Nielsen-Bailey, Lee-Nelson-Strome, Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck.


Defensive Pairings:  de Haan-Hamonic, Leddy-Donovan, Hickey-Strait.

Jaroslav Halak is in net with Chad Johnson on the bench.

 

Early in the first period, the Isles out joust the Sens in scoring chances, but fail to convert.  Anderson is looking strong for the Sens against some decent pressure by the Isles.  An uncovered Hoffman puts Ottawa up 1-0 around the 10 minute mark by cleanly beating Halak.  Islanders need to limit mistakes and play a better defensive game tonight.  Ryan Strome in close with a great chance, by Anderson robs him of a goal.  Period ends with a 9-5 edge in shots for New York, but a 1-0 lead for Ottawa.  A few mistakes, but not a terrible period, but the Isles need to be better.  Matt Donovan looks good in relief for the Islanders.


In the second period, The Isles came out with more energy.  Come close again off a de Haan rebound.  John Tavares trickles it wide and off the post.  The Lee, Nelson & Strome line has been the best for the Isles so far tonight and will probably be the ones to score first.  Senators using a defensive-first mentality tonight coupled with a solid effort by Anderson. It has been problematic for the Isles thus far.  Cal Clutterbuck goes into the dressing room.  Brock Nelson (Okposo) scores a nifty goal, up high while coming off the change, game tied at 1-1 with less than 2:00 remaining in the period.  Isles to the PP with 52.4 remaining, but neutralize it :31 seconds later.  Casey Cizikas scores the go-ahead goal at the buzzer, but the play is under review. It wont count as it crosses the goal line with 1/10 of a second after the counter reaches zero.  No goal, tough break for New York.  Both teams get 6 shots on net in a period that saw the Isles raise their "battle level" and almost took the lead because of it.  The third should be interesting.


 

Ryan Strome (Hickey & Strait) scores at 1:07 of the third period to give the Isles a 2-1 lead off a Thomas Hickey wrap-around shot from the left post.  I Hope Clutterbuck is ok. If not, he will be the casualty for Grabner's return.  Travis Hamonic takes a "questionable" hit from Niel & grabs his shoulder at the bench after drawing PP for the Isles.  Cal Clutterbuck returns to the ice, but goes back in the locker room after Hamonic.  Harrowing scene.  Sens kill the penalty.  Hamonic returns to the bench.  You can all breathe.  Macarthur converts a de Haan turnover & ties the game at 2-2 with 8:46 left in the period.  Halak had no chance on that one.  Travis Hamonic leaves the bench again.  Not good.  Losing Boychuk, Visnovsky, Clutterbuck & Hamonic would be very, very bad for the Isles.  Turris hits the post in the final minutes.  Ottawa has been much better in second half of the period.  The game will go to O.T., our time.  See what I did there?  Isles lead 24-18 in shots and were 0/2 on the PP and 1/1 on the PK.  Halak was 12/13 with a .923Sv% through regulation.

 

In overtime, the Isles had 4 shots on goal.  The fourth one went in.  Thomas Hickey (Matt Donovan & Nelson) wins it for the Islanders, 3-2!  Jaro Halak ties Billy Smiths 33 year old franchise winning streak record at 10 and the Isles improve to 18-7-0.  They are the only NHL team still undefeated in O.T.'s & the shootout and still have room for improvement.  "It's business-like in here...It's wasn't rah-rah. We know we need to be better," - Hickey.


It would appear that the injury bug has caught up with them.  If Boychuk, Visnovsky, Clutterbuck & Hamonic are all injured, the team will struggle defensively and be limited on the rush.  Clutterbuck & Hamonic are day-to-day at this point.  We should know more tomorrow.  Pulock would be interesting to see if a call up is mandated, but he is untested in the kind of pressure cooker the Isles have been playing in.  It would be a deep deficit to overcome, even for them.

 

Zeeker was big and Butch's "Kid" line looked great again, Thomas Hickey had a great game prior to O.T. and Calvin de Haan was good as well.  I want to give another mention to Matt Donovan.  He was solid on the Isles blue line in relief and even got an assist on the game winner.  The Islanders dug down deep, corrected some suspect play and won another big game with flair.  How much better can this get?

Wanna see?

 
 

Isles Notes:

 

Johnny Boychuk and Lubomir Visnovsky are both still day-to-day.

 
Michael Grabner should return to the line up soon.  Josh Bailey (5 games w/o a pt. coming into tonight's game) is the most likely roster casualty in my opinion.


Senators now confirm that Daniel Alfredsson will join the Sens team on the ice for the pre-game warm-up at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
 

Yesterday, news broke of a 5 yr clause built into the Islanders/Barclays Center contract.  It states that if both sides agree, the clause would allow them to negate the rest of contract.  But what it doesn't say is that it means the Isles would option to move back to the NVMC.  The new ownership would be firmly in place and despite what you might think about Charles Wang, they MAY not go through all the pains Wang did to keep the team in the area.  Nor do I mean to say they would actively work at moving them.  Right now its speculation on a few vague details.  Arthur Staple says, "And for the wishful-thinking crowd, you really think LI will have the foresight to prepare to bring em back? That ship has sailed, folks."
 

Ryan Pulock gets the nod, but Josh Ho-Sang is not invited to Canada's World Junior Camp.  I Wouldn't be surprised if Ho-Sang went Hull route & put things in place to become citizen & play for the US. The chip on his shoulder is likely growing. This is only my opinion.


Sound Tigers Notes:

 
The Isles reassign goaltender Kent Simpson to the Stockton Thunder from the BST.

 

NHL Notes:


St. Louis Blues sign (G) Martin Brodeur to a one-year $1 million, incentive ladened contract.



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