Isles Win & Knock Jets Down-A-Peg

Your New York Islanders are in Winnipeg to face the Jets on New Year’s Eve for their final tilt of the regular season.  They will try and start their 7 game road trip with another win & hope to build on what has been an impressive 36 games so far. 

 

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

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

Jaroslav Halak is in net with Chad Johnson on the bench.

 

In the first period, the Isles watched Jaro Halak make some big saves to keep the game scoreless, then Ryan Strome (Lee & Leddy) and Frans Nielsen (Boychuk & Strome-PPG) scored to give New York a 2-0 lead.  Strome’s goal came off an odd bounce off a shot from Leddy with Lee & Strome  getting busy in the paint while Frans Nielsen put in a nice 5 on 3 PPG off a broken stick shot from Boychuk.  The Isles outshot Winnipeg 12-7 in the period and gave a solid road effort despite a "tightly officiated" period.

 

 

The second would start with Halak coming up big again a few times before Ladd put the Jets on the board, capitalizing off bad defensive coverage by de Haan.  The physical play in the game has escalated with 7 penalties at only the 6 minute mark of the second.  Frans Nielsen breaks up a Jets play in the Islanders zone, stars a rush up ice with a dish to Strome who gives it right back to Nielsen for an absolutely filthy goal to give New York a 3-1 lead.  Its his second goal of the game.  Isles have some strong jump in the game so far.  Capuano is even changing up the d-pairings, going with Leddy-Visnovsky a few shifts in the period.  Grabovski is called for a suspect interference call in the final minute of play that will run over to give the Jets PP time to start the third.  Officiating has been “interesting” again tonight.  Halak has another big sequence of stops in the second as the Isles edge Winnipeg 13-11 in shots.

 

Ladd trickles the puck past Halak & scores on the opening PP for Winnipeg to start the third period to close the score within 1 at 3-2 Islanders.  Grabovski comes close on a nice rush, but Pavelec makes the stop.  Hamonic now out with Boychuk on defense.  Just after the 8:00 mark, Anders Lee (Strome & Nielsen) puts in a sick rebound over the left shoulder of Pavelec while in close to give the Isles a 4-2 lead.  Anders Lee has really found his game and is turning into a clutch player for New York.  The Islanders keep up the pressure late in the period while Jaroslav Halak cleans house for the defense to keep the Islanders in the lead.  Byfuglien gives the Isles a PP after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with under 2:00 remaining.  Happy New Year, Josh Bailey (Hamonic & de Haan) scores the PP/ENG off a homerun pass from Hammer to seal the win at 5-2 with just :31 seconds left in the third.  The Isles outshot the Jets 33-23 in the game & went 2/7 on the PP and 3/4 on the PK while being edged 30-29 in the face-off circle.

 

 

Casey Cizikas throws his hands up after the win to symbolize the "Yes!" Chant as his team celebrates the win.  You have got to love these guys and feel good about the team's overall game.  The Islanders improve to 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and 25-11-1 to close out 2014.

 

 

 

Jaro Halak (21/23 with a .921Sv%) was huge again tonight for the Islanders as he tallied his 20^th win of the season (17-2 in his last 19 starts).  Frans Nielsen is a consistent contributor who leads by example, how can you not love this guy?  The newly formed second line had a very impressive 9 points on the night.  Anders Lee scored his 9^th of the season tonight (3^rd on team) which is second best (Tavares) for 5 on 5 goals on the team.  Per Neil Sheehy, “Anders Lee had his 7th career NHL two-point game and now has 19 goals and 28 points in 55 NHL games. He had 25 g and 46 pt in 59 AHL games.  Grabovski & Kulemin have also been re-energized with Brock Nelson at center for their newly formed line.  The new defensive pairings were effective tonight as well.  Coach Capuano has gotten better at these in game adjustments.  Have to give him credit yet again where it is due.
 

Ryan Strome & Frans Nielsen were named the first two stars of the game.

 

The Islanders finish 2014 with a 14-4-0 at the Coliseum which is one more home win than all of last season. And with a win tonight, finish with their 8^th win in a row (11-7-1) on the road good enough to be tied with Chicago for most wins in the NHL (25) and with Pittsburgh for 2^nd place in the eastern conference with 51 pts (Tampa Bay has 52).  Oh, and Jiggs will be with Butch for the next four games in the booth.  Bring it.

 

Let me finish by saying that meeting some of you personally in 2014 at the NVMC has been a huge thrill for me.  I also want to send my sincere thanks to all of you who care enough about my opinion to follow me on Twitter and check in to read this blog.  I do this while working a full time job, taking care of my Dad full time and undertaking several part time commitments.  And I am a lone writer whose primary credential is my television & my love for our New York Islanders hockey club. 

 

I feel honored to write Knight of Cups for all of us.

Bring on the second half of the season.

 

Happy New Year everyone!

Isles Notes:

John Tavares befriends a bullied fan in Winnipeg.


Jiggs shares news that Al Arbour has been admitted to a Sarasota hospital, suffering from pneumonia.  Our thoughts are with Mr. Arbour for the New Year.

Hockey Notes:

Team USA loses to Canada to finish the WJC preliminary round in second place at 3-1.