Sole Possession

Tonight, your New York Islanders are in Ottawa to face the Senators for game 2 of their home-at-home series.  Former Sens Captain, Daniel Alfredsson will take the pre-game skate with the team after announcing his retirement from the NHL.  The Sens should be able to garner some inspiration from the ceremonies, especially after losing to the Isles in O.T. a couple of days ago at the NVMC.  The Islanders shouldn't need any inspiration to continue their quest to pile up the points in their divisional & conference standings.  Michael Grabner has been activated from IR & Griffin Reinhart has been recalled on an emergency basis from the BST.  Travis Hamonic (upper body) & Cal Clutterbuck (lower body) have been listed as day-to-day, Boychuk and Visnovsky placed on IR.  Josh Bailey was reported to be on a maintenance day today, but Staple believes, "Bailey took a shot off his foot/ankle on Tuesday, tested it this AM and couldn't go."  Tonight will be a big test for the patchwork Isles defense tonight.  And an even bigger one for Halak.  Ready?

Forwards:  Kulemin-Tavares-Okposo, Grabner-Nielsen-Grabovski, Lee-Nelson-Strome, Martin-Cizikas-Conacher.

Defensive pairings:  Leddy-Donovan, de Haan-Reinhart, Hickey-Strait.

Jaroslav Halak is in net with Chad Johnson backing up.

 

In the first period, the Isles came out generating some good chances early.  Michael Grabner is involved in an odd man rush and inadvertently runs into Anderson.  Isles to the PK.  When an Isles goaltender is run over in a similar scenario, the "offending" player is always said to be playing hard. Weak call on Grabner.  Isles to the PP as de Hann draws the advantage.  Isles with good movement on the PP, but misfire or fan on their shots.  Both teams with some ugly plays in the period and the Isles with a 5-4 shot advantage.  Something to build on in the second.

The second period is more of the same.  A little slow with some good chances on both sides.  Kulemin draws a penalty to put the Isles on their second PP of the game.  Isles get good movement on the man advantage & Brock Nelson (Nielsen & Leddy) is left alone in front and puts it over Anderson for his team leading 12th goal of the year, 1-0 Isles.  Cory Conancher comes close seconds after.  Isles to the PK off a cross-check by Nelson.  Strait called for a questionable high stick to give the Sens a 5 on 3 for 1:10.  Zibanejad scores to tie the score at 1-1.  Remaining PK time expires as Cizikas plays without his stick while al over Karlsson.  Sens come close again & hit the post behind Halak.  Neil levels Brock Nelson with a clean hit near the end of the period.  The second ends with the Isles generating more in the offensive zone, out shooting Ottawa 13-5.

The third is even slower paced than the previous two.  Just after midway through the period, Casey Cizikas and Thomas Hickey combine for a nice goal at the 13:33 mark, 2-1 New York.  Isles go to the PP late at the 18:28 mark and Ottawa pulls Anderson to keep their man power even on the ice.  Capuano calls a time out with 16.9 seconds remaining to settle things down.  Karlsson hits the post as time expires and throws his stick in frustration.  Islanders win 2-1 and improve to an NHL leading 19-7-0 with 38 pts. on the season.

 

New York completes their sweep of the Ottawa Senators with the win tonight.  The Isles were 1/2 on the PP and 2/3 on the PK.  They have won 8 of their last 9 & 13 of their last 15 and take sole possession of first place with a Pens loss tonight.  Jaroslav Halak (19/20 with a .950Sv%) breaks Billy Smith's (10) franchise record with 11 straight wins (and counting) with a victory tonight.  His patchwork defense limited the Sens in shots & blocked 22 that Halak didn't need to turn aside.

So defense wins championships, right?  Well, Nick Leddy & Thomas Hickey were very good for the Isles tonight.  Griffin Reinhart played an efficiently quiet game tonight in his first call up of the year & Matt Donovan gave another quality effort.  The defensive depth came up big in the win, especially when you consider the absence of 3 of their top 6 D, like Boychuk, Visnovsky & Hamonic.  Michael Grabner worked hard & looked to be getting back into his groove as the game went on.  John Tavares was solid on both sides of the puck tonight.  Brock Nelson has been consistent as one of the best players for the Isles this year & Casey Cizikas continues to make noise.  I have stated many times that I feel Ciziaks can be a Nystrom-esk player for this team and be a much bigger piece of this rebuild than many think.

 

 

Credit the Isles for staying with it and checking hard to get themselves back into a very slow moving game when they had to.  Jack Capuano is far from done, but he continues to prove to all of his detractors (including me) that he may have figured this NHL coaching thing out.  He has to be in consideration for one of the most improved coaches in the league and as far as Garth Snow is concerned, his consideration for GM of the year should be a lock with what he has already done coming into the season. 

The Isles have been not only been resilient, but competent so far this season.  Their experience has finally rounded out their game and as long as they keep playing their style, 1st in the division wont be the only achievement they can unlock.

 

 

Isles face the Blues @ 1pm on Saturday.

 

Isles Notes:

Per Eric Hornick, "Visnovsky skated on his own yesterday and today. Boychuk has not resumed skating yet. No update on Hamonic."

"Only 1 Isles defenseman has had more OT goals than @thomas_hickey14 -- Roman Hamrlik had 3. (Aucoin/Berard/Streit also had 2)."

Come out to the NVMC & donate blood to the Red Cross on 12/20 & receive a voucher for two Isles tickets. More details can be found here.  

 

Per Brett Cyrgalis, "Dan Boyle: "I think the hockey gods are not happy I signed here...I don't know if they're Islander fans or Detroit fans..."

BTW, it's too early to quit on Chad Johnson. I know his winning pedigree is shallow, but several fans wanted Halak out when he struggled & wanted CJ as starter early in season.

 

Sound Tigers Notes:

The Isles have loaned Sebastian Collberg to Stockton for some conditioning and more minutes.

The #ADevils have signed former BST D, Mike Keenan to a PTO. Keenan, who was playing with @OrlandoHockey, has been assigned #37