The Boston Bruins are in town on Mike Bossy
tribute night. I met the greatest pure
goal scorer in the NHL last night, and it was a huge thrill for me as a longtime
fan. The Bruins have earned points in 11
of their last 12, but your first place Islanders have shown that they are the
team to beat in the east. Especially at
17-4-0 playing in Coliseum. Look to
Johnny Boychuk to have another big game against his old team. He is going to make the curse of the Bambino
look tame.
Forwards:
Grabovski-Tavares-Bailey,
Lee-Nielsen-Strome, Grabner-Nelson-Kulemin, Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck.
Defensive Pairings: Leddy-Boychuk, de Haan-Hamonic, Hickey-Strait.
Jaroslav Halak is in net with Chad Johnson on
the bench.
In the first period, the first line is
buzzing. Grabovski looks like a
different player since his return. Lee
draws a hooking penalty from Krecji, Isles to the PP. Isles can’t convert on their first man
advantage. Bruins doing a great job in
the neutral zone against New York. Smith
victimizes Lee and gives Boston a 1-0 lead in the game. De Haan off for tripping, Isles to the
PK. How Hickey bites on that fake & lets Bergeron
skate in like that is beyond me, 2-0 Bruins.
That’s 2 goals in 2:10. Capuano
is juggling lines again to chance things up.
Martin with Tavares & Kulemin and Nielsen with Bailey &
Grabovski, then puts things back to “normal.”
Cizikas looks hurt after blocking a shot. He has trouble getting back to the
bench. Boston able to capitalize on the
mistakes made by New York. The period
ends with the Isles behind a couple of goals and in need of a much better
effort in the second. Shots are 15-11
Islanders.
The Isles start the second period strong
again, putting pressure against Boston in their own zone. Cizikas is back on the bench. Rask somehow stops Grabner just before the
goal line on a gaping net. What a
save. Nelson follows suit, but somehow
hits the post behind Rask. Isles are
turning it up. Casey Cizikas looks like
he reinjured himself as he skates to the bench.
John Tavares takes a Clutterbuck feed and chips in a puck on Rask, splits the Boston
defense and then gets his own rebound. 2-1 Bruins. Cizikas goes to the locker room. The Islanders are starting to control play
and are putting pucks on Rask (13-4 so far in period), who looks a little
rattled. John Tavares creates the
turnover and Michael Grabner (Boychuk & Tavares) rips it past Rask,
score tied at 2-2. Boychuk’s assist on
Grabner’s goal gives him his 100th point. Halak plays the puck behind the net, 3-2 Bruins with 4 seconds left in 2nd. Isles dominate most of the period, let up
late & but trail by one. Shots were
even at 16-16 in middle stanza, closed to 31-27 after two.
Cal Clutterbuck not on the bench to start the
third period, Casey Cizikas is back on the bench. Krug puts in a weak one through traffic,
4-2 Bruins. That's one in the closing seconds of 2nd and now one in the first
minutes of 3rd. Cizikas draws a penalty
off Soderberg for holding the stick, but fail to generate much on the PP. Nielsen & Lee stopped on a nice 2 on 1
breakaway opportunity. Isles seem to
have lost their polish in the third. John
Tavares mugged by Marchand, no call on the ice.
Halak is pulled at around with 3:20 remaining. Lucic scores an ENG with 2:06 remaining, 5-2
Bruins. Halak goes back to the Isles
net, but that will do it. Isles had a
14-6 shots advantage in the period, a 45-33 edge in the game. Their PP was 0/2 and their PK was 0/1. Rask was really good for much of the game, Halak was not.
The Isles started strong, but Boston feasted
on their mistakes and took the lead.
Somehow, they dug deep, changed the pace to get the game
tied late in the second period. Jaroslav
Halak (28/32 with an .875Sv%) turned the it over when he cleared the puck
with a few seconds left and the Bruins re-took the lead going into the third. It was a huge momentum killer and gave Boston
some life going into the intermission. It
was the 4th giveaway Halak was charged with according to Howie
Rose. After that, New York still managed
to apply pressure, get shots and generate some chances, but were never able to
get their rhythm back. It was far from
the kind of game we have become used to seeing by the Isles, but it should be of
some concern for them. When mistakes
are made by the Isles and capitalized on by the opposition with regularity,
their mortality becomes evident. A big
comeback is nice, but you can’t keep these guys in the game. It should serve as a huge building block and
lesson for the upcoming playoffs. It’s
hard to say Halak has been playing too much at this point because he has been
winning, but at some point the organization needs to tap Chad Johnson to steal
a few wins.
John Tavares was good again tonight. Matt Saidman quoted Tavares: "[Marchand] was head-locking me, the
ref was staring right at it. Different set of rules I guess." Tavares was the third star of the game with a
goal & an assist. Tough loss, but it’s
all good. They did some good things
tonight and should continue to build on them for the next game.
Islanders are in Detroit (without Jimmy Howard) on Saturday for a
2:00 start. They have done a lot of damage
there and should have a good sized chip on their collective shoulder.
Isles Notes:
Per Rich DeKorte, “Cappy says Lubomir Visnovsky's return is a "day by
day" situation.”
Cal Clutterbuck was fined
$2,000 by NHL for embellishment from a play that occurred on 1/19 against the
Flyers. There was no penalty for
embellishment on the play.
The AHL has approved the formation of a
five-team Pacific Division for the 2015-16 season.
An open letter from Brad Rowbotham (Stockton
Thunder) to you, the fans about the sale of the team.
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