Holiday Lookback: Philadelphia

This afternoon, the Isles faced the Philadelphia Flyers for a Marin Luther King Jr. Day matinee.  The Islanders needed to bring it against a Flyers team that was desperate for a win, and they did.  Well, mostly anyway.  Six different players scored for the Islanders in a game that saw lots of big offense, but not so much defense. 

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

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

Jaroslav Halak is in net again with Chad Johnson backing up.

 

While Michael Grabner (Kulemin & Boychuk) opened the scoring with an impressive snipe against Zepp on a partial break-away, leading the way was Nikolay Kulemin who scored the 2^nd (Boychuk & Grabner) & 3rd (unassisted SHG) goals of the game. Kulemin has impressed me all season long as a diverse player who can fill most any role asked of him by the coaching staff.  With a 3-0 lead, the Isles started to fade going into the second period, really having trouble playing a consistent defensive game.

Their defensive struggles continued in the second period after Streit & Del Zotto would trade goals with Josh Bailey (Leddy & Strome) & John Tavares (Nielsen) for a 5-2 score after two periods of play. The Flyers rookie goaltender, Rob Zepp, was pulled after allowing 4 goals on 20 shots.  Ray Emery would make some good saves in relief, but couldn’t help his mates from Philadelphia stop the tide of offense brought by New York.  Tavares roofed a nasty backhand goal behind Emery and the NVMC went nuts.  The energy was infectious to me as I listened to the game from work, Yes,Yes,Yes!  Peter Botte remarked, “Understand not everyone out there is a hockey fan, but watch Tavares regularly. He will make you one.”

Halak wandered from his crease at the start of the third and turned the puck over to Giroux who made it a 5-3 game with one of the easiest goals he would ever score.  Nick Leddy would add another tally through a Kyle Okposo screen to increase the Isles lead to 3 at 6-3.  VandeVelde added another goal for the Flyers for a 6-4 score with a few minutes remaining.  Philadelphia would pull Emery for the extra man.  Anders Lee would add an ENG to close the scoring and give the Islanders a 7-4 win.

 

I had a few impressions from the game today.  The Isles continue to pour on shots against opposing net minders and have gotten a well-balanced contribution from several players.  They outshot Philly by a 41-29 margin today and never stopped applying pressure in the offensive zone.  Jaroslav Halak (25/29 & .862Sv%) got the win for the Isles, but didn’t look polished in the game despite being 22-4 in his last 26 starts.  Let’s hope extra play at the All-Star game doesn’t do more harm than good.  The Isles need to get dialed in defensively and on special teams.  Their PP was 1/4 while their PK was 2/3.  They gave up too many goals today and need to be better in their own zone.  “It’s a win, but we have to play better defensively still,” Nikolay Kulemin said. “We gave up four goals. That’s not the type of game you’re supposed to play.”  They threw the body with 59 hits and were physical in the game.  You can't hide from our 4th line. They can smell your blood and sense your beating heart.  Martin, Cizikas & Clutterbuck were relentless as usual.  Kulemin, Leddy & Grabner were the 3 stars of the game.

With the win, your New York Islanders secured 1^st place in the metropolitan division and tops in the eastern conference with an NHL best at 31 wins & are 9-0 in the metro at home.

 

 

The Islanders return to action next Tuesday as they welcome the New York Rangers to the Coliseum.

 

Isles Notes:

 

The Isles reached the 8 SHG mark in the game, which is tops in the NHL.

Johnny Boychuk, Nick Leddy & Ryan Strome are an impressive +15, +15 & +16 on the season after today’s game.

Kyle Okposo has been named third NHL star of the week.

Rick DiPietro took part in the pregame with Shannon Hogan and made himself available to the packed house in and around the concourse.  On Twitter, DP had a message to the Isles fans.  “Today was another reminder of how truly blessed I am to have been an Islander. THANK YOU!!!!”