Isles Make Mistakes In Montreal

Tonight, your New York Islanders are in Montreal to face the Canadiens.  Kyle Okposo is coming off his stellar 4 goal game & his 30 win Isles will be looking to ride that wave to another win tonight.  Carey Price is day-to-day, so Tokarski will be in net to face Jaro Halak for his return to Montreal.  The Isles have outshot their opponents in their last 15 games, so Tokarski better be ready. 

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

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

 

Jaro Halak is in net with Chad Johnson backing up.

Ryan Strome gets called for tripping Beaulieu less than a minute in to the first period.  Halak is pushed into the net as the whistle is blown, no goal.  But a short time later, Subban gets the one timer past a screened Halak to make it 1-0 Montreal less than two minutes in.  Matt Martin tangles with Prust right off the draw to set the tone early.  Tokarski with a big save on Tavares in front of the net.  Grabner & Nelson getting their chances, but fail to score. Isles getting pressure deep into the Canadien’s zone, but Montreal seems to fire right back.  Halak has been good, making a few big saves in the first half of the period to keep the Isles in this game.  Brock Nelson draws an elbowing penalty from Beaulieu, Isles to their first PP.  New York has trouble generating much and the penalty expires without a goal.  Josh Bailey is still playing very well, especially on the first line. He has to be shocking a lot of people.  Nikolay Kulemin does so much. There are tons of small things that he does each & every night that really make difference in the Isles overall game.  New York with a 7-6 advantage in shots and they escape the period only down by one thanks to the play of Jaro Halak.  The Isles can’t continue to play this kind of loose, sloppy game and expect a win tonight.  They have to be better.  Arthur Staple reports, “Isles have more wins (6-4-0) when trailing after 1 period than Habs do when leading after one (5-1-1).”

 

Weise puts the Habs up 2-0 just 10 seconds in to the second period.  Bailey missed it on the defensive play that time.  Capuano shuffling lines agin to try and make things happen.  Nielsen is out with Lee and Kulemin after the Montreal goal.   Nelson with Grabner & Kulemin soon after that while Strome sits.  Isles are definitely on their heels in the first five minutes of the second period & having a lot of trouble in their own zone.  They look tired.  Hamonic with a weak call for hooking on Gallagher, Isles go to the PK and kill the penalty.  Kyle Okposo (Tavares & Bailey) puts the Islanders on the board off a Bailey rebound, 2-1 Montreal.  Eller high sticks Bailey, Isles back to the PP.  Nothing doing for New York on the man advantage and they even come close to giving up a shortie.  Hickey goes off for tripping, Isles back to the kill.  Isles PK continues to struggle as Plekanec makes it 3-1 Montreal.  Brock Nelson draws two defenders & Nikolay Kulemin (Nelson & Bailey) dazzles with his stick work, now just 3-2 Canadiens.  That was a big goal for the Islanders who look very tired tonight.  Halak with a big save on Weise.  Michael Grabner makes a huge defensive play after Boychuk breaks his stick.  Timeout Montreal to settle things down with 25.9 seconds remaining, face off in the Habs zone.  Time expires with shots tied at 22 each.

Isles are 4-8-0 when trailing after two.  Montreal scores again early in the period off a Galchenyuk tally, 4-2 Montreal.  The Isles continue to struggle for much of the period and can’t seem to find a rhythm.  Desharnais’ slap shot makes it 5-2 Montreal.  More missed plays in the defensive game gives Plekanec his second of the night for a 6-2 Canadiens lead with 6:17 to play.  Chad Johnson comes in to relieve Halak.  Anders Lee (Strome) makes it 6-3 Montreal from a sheer will to score.  Isles to the PP from a Malholtra hook on Nielsen.  John Tavares (Nielsen) puts in a puck from along the Montreal goal line.  It’s the sixth time JT has reached the 20 goal mark in a season.  Score is now 6-4 and the Islanders are trying to make things happen late in the game.  Chad Johnson goes to the bench as the Isles call a time out with 2:17 remaining trying to and engineer a miracle.  Isles negate the man advantage (Nielsen) shortly after by taking another penalty and time expires.  Montreal holds on to win 6-4.  Too many mistakes by the Isles.  They are outshot 35-31, go 1/3 on the PP and 2/4 on the PK.  Montreal had a 37-30 edge in face offs and led 6-2 on takeaways.  Chad Johnson was 2/2 in relief for Halak.

You can say the Isles had a letdown tonight after two big wins against the Rangers & Penguins or that they are a tired team who has played too many games without sufficient time off.  You could be right.  But they have been winning regularly and had plenty of chances to put something together tonight, but couldn't get it done.  They were outshot for the first time in 16 games (Dec.11) and looked out of sync.  You can also say that the Isles struggled at the start each period, they struggled to stay out of the box, they struggled defensively & struggled on the PK.  It’s hard to surrender a goal at the start of each period and expect to be able to recover each time.  When they make these kinds of mistakes against good teams, even they will be hard pressed to keep going to the well & pull out wins.  Their defensive game needs to be intact to help their goaltending, which in turn helps their offense fire on all cylinders.   When they struggle to get the puck out their own zone or move it well, especially on the PP, they won’t find too much success in their game. 

 

 

So, the Isles made mistakes tonight and it cost them.  Montreal got the win in the first meeting of the season and they did it again tonight.  To make things worse, the Isles move to 2^nd in the east with a TBL win tonight.  But we all know that they can't win every game and are bound for an occasional let down like the one we witnessed tonight.  Not the end of the world.

 

 

I liked most of what Jaroslav Halak (27/33 with an .818Sv%) brought tonight and he didn't get too much help from the Isles defensive game before being pulled late.  I also thought Bailey had a pretty good game except for the bad defensive play that cost the Isles a goal at the start of the second period.  Don't forget that JT is back on a point per game pace since playing with Josh Bailey, so there’s that.  Kyle Okposo scored again, Nikolay Kulemin and the 2nd line was good as well.  It seems like if the Isles can get past an inferior Flyers team on Monday, the timing for the week off from the All-Star break will do them some good.  And some big timing for John Tavares & Jaro Halak should be a positive thing for them as well, as the represent New York in the game.

 

I don’t have the day off from work, so I’ll see you for a Lookback on Monday night to recap the Flyers game.

 

Isles Notes

 

Okposo in the 12^th Islander to register 4 goals in a game.  Prior to Okposo, the last player to do it was Matt Moulson in Dallas, Steve Thomas was the last Isles player to do so at the NVMC.