Islanders Mistakes Bolster Bruins

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 100^th point.  Halak plays the puck behind the net, 3-2 Bruins with 4 seconds left in 2^nd.  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 4^th 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.