Isles Mauled By Wild

Jiggs McDonald will be in the booth as your New York Islanders are in Minnesota to face the Wild tonight.  Brock Nelson will be playing his 100th NHL game while it will be a home coming for Islanders named Okposo, Nelson, Lee & Leddy.  Jaroslav Halak is on the bench (upper body during morning skate), so Chad Johnson is back in goal tonight.  Lubomir Visnovsky comes off the IR and replaces Matt Donovan on defense. Why Brian Strait wasn't scratched instead of Matt Donovan is a mystery to me.  Josh Bailey replaces the injured Casey Cizikas, but Ryan Strome will start as the 4th line center to replace Cizikas. Per the team, Travis Hamonic (upper), Johnny Boychuk (upper) and Casey Cizikas (upper) all stayed behind on LI.  Team depth will surely be tested throughout the season.  Will it factor into tonight's game?

 

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

Defensive Pairings:  Leddy-Strait, de Haan-Reinhart, Hickey-Visnovsky.

Chad Johnson is in net with Jaro Halak backing up from the bench.

 

In the first period, the Isles come out with a few good chances but are stopped by Backstrom.  Griffin Reinhart turns the puck over, but  Isles remain good on the defense.  Ryan Strome with a good look to Matt Martin.  Michael Grabner (Lee & Reinhart) with some strong play early gets the Isles on the board for a 1-0 lead at the 8:31 mark.  That is a Reinhart's first career NHL point.  Isles successful on their first PK of the game.  Backstrom with another big stop on Anders Lee.  Isles to the PP on a Pominville penalty and Brock Nelson (Leddy & Tavares) converts a PPG & and grabs a 2-0 lead in the game.  Have the Isles solved Backstrom?  Yes.  Not long after, Thomas Hickey puts a shot on net & it deflects off Matt Martin.  It’s a dreaded 3-0 Islanders lead.  The Islanders are leading in shots by an 11-3 margin after 1.

The Islanders' Brock Nelson draws another PP chance just 2:26 into the game, but they fail to convert.  Weak pressure that time by the Isles.  Matt Martin hits Ballard hard into the bench, but Ballard hits his head and goes down hard on the ice.  Thankfully, Ballard left the ice under his own power, but Minnesota is angered by the event and should come out hard for the rest of the game.  That is a clean hit with a bad result for Ballard.   The same way the Lee hit wasn't “dirty” in the St. Louis game.  Kyle Okposo is waylayed by Granlund, retaliates and gets noticed for the penalty.  Wild go to the PP & Pominville puts it over Johnson. The score is 3-1 Isles.  Matt Martin is challenged by Brodziak and a brutal fight ensues.  Ex-Isle, Vanek jumps in after Johnson stops Parise in close.  Bad blood is officially here.  Vanek called for the penalty, Isles to the PP.  Strome with another penalty, Isles kill off the penalty.  Minnesota outshooting Isles 9-0 in the period & have pulled ahead in shots by a 15-11 margin with under 4 minutes remaining.  Isles are struggling in their own zone with Johnson holding the fort so far.  Josh Bailey scores on a backhander just after the 17:00 mark to give the Isles a 4-1 lead on their first shot of the period.  Yes, their first shot of the period.  The Isles were outshot 12-1 in the period and now 15-12 in the game, but still add the goal.  That was a huge gut check by your depleted Islanders team in the second period.  That doesn’t happen last year.  They need to improve in the face-off circle & be dialed in defensively for the third.  And they need to maintain aggressiveness in the offensive zone without taking stupid penalties to control play for the rest of the game.  Thankfully, Keith Ballard is conscious and was taken to the hospital for further evaluation & observation per Wild PR.

In less than 3 minutes into the third period, Koivu beats the defense & Johnson to make the score 4-2.  Reinhart is called for hooking and the Isles are back on the PK.  Momentum seems to be shifting in a big way since the Ballard injury.  Having Michael Grabner back on the Isles PK is a very good thing & the Isles thankfully kill off another one. Haula scores off a skate deflection for the Wild.  It’s 4-3 Isles with 8:57 remaining.  Erick Hornick points out that the Islanders have just 3 shots in the last 32+ minutes.  Vanek gets his 3^rd goal in 26 games to tie the score at 4-4.  Its his first 5 on 5 goal of the season.  Islanders getting outshot 26-14 at this point.  John Tavares draws a penalty off a blatantly ridiculous two handed slash across the back of his legs.  No major called.  Isles to the PP, then Nelson called to negate the advantage.  It is by no way an excuse, but the Officiating has been weak in the game tonight.  Niederreiter makes it 5-4 wild after Vanek tied the game.  You can’t make this stuff up.  Strait is a -3 so far and has been awful again tonight.  Isles to the PP with 2:28 remaining.  Isles pull Johnson late in the period but generate nothing.  The Wild recover from 3-0 lead to defeat the Islanders 5-4.  It’s the second consecutive game they have done that.

 

Tonight’s loss was a bad one.  I know the Wild rallied behind the Ballard injury, but the Islanders were outshot 12-1 & 15-7 in the second and third periods for a lopsided 30-91 shot total for the game.  And this was after a commanding 11-3 1^st period effort.  The Islanders were a dismal 1/5 on the PP & went 4/5 on the PK.  They have struggled in the face-off circle all season long and it let them down again tonight by a staggering 44-20 margin.  Strait (on for last 9 of 11 Isles goals against) was played instead of Donovan tonight and he was brutal on defense for New York.  John Tavares continues to put up positive numbers, but isn’t dominating games like he should.  Chad Johnson had a rough game, especially on rebounds but got very little help defensively.  Watching Vanek and first star, Niederreiter score big goals was tough to watch.  Thomas Hickey said it all.  "We got what we deserved tonight. Things don’t go your way when you don’t work for it. Out-played, out-competed, out-executed. We were on our heels for 40 minutes &left the G out to dry. It’s unacceptable.”  Gut check time.

 

The positive things for the Islanders are that they still stand at 19-9 and a point out of first place.  While the injuries have hurt, they still have had guys fill in and do a decent job.  Hopefully, Coach Capuano will rethink his defensive pairings and do a better job at remembering how to keep these 3-0 leads from spiraling out of control.  Kevin Poulin has been hot in Bridgeport and Matt Donovan or Ryan Pulock deserves a serious look to crack the lineup.  While there is plenty of fight in these guys, they can’t win every night.  It’s another opportunity for everyone in that room and on that staff to evaluate their game. As long as the correct adjustments are made, they can build on these kinds of terrible efforts and improve on the next one.

 

The Isles-Blues rematch is next.  That’s a great game in which to recover some snarl.

 

Isles Notes:

Islanders forward Anders Lee was not suspended, but has been fined $2,286.29 which is the maximum under the CBA, for elbowing St. Louis defenseman Carl Gunnarsson.  The fine for Anders Lee  will classify him as a repeat offender if he's ever summoned by @NHLPlayerSafety again per Arthur Staple.

Isles prospect Linus Soderstrom (2014, 4th round, 95th overall) was named to Sweden's World Junior Championship roster.

 

Per Larry Brooks, " ... three sources told me Barroway was backing out of deal. None has recanted."