On Friday & Saturday, your New York
Islanders visited New Jersey to face the Devils & Columbus to play the Blue
Jackets. Now it’s no secret that after two sub-par efforts in Edmonton &
Vancouver, the Isles needed wins against these Metro Division, Eastern Conference
teams. Read on!
Last Friday, the Isles had Jaro Halak in
net, with Josh Bailey in for Cal Clutterbuck
(day-to-day, upper body) at forward & Brian Strait in for Matt Donovan on
defense. Devils goaltender & Long Island
native, Keith Kinkaid would get the start for New Jersey again against the
Isles, probably based on the strong effort he brought in their last meeting.
Forwards: Grabovski-Tavares-Okposo, Lee-Nielsen-Strome, Grabner-Nelson-Bailey,
Martin-Cizikas-Kulemin.
Defnsive Pairings: de Haan-Hamonic, Leddy-Boychuk, Hickey-Strait.
Jaroslav Halak gets the
start with Chad Johnson backing up.
The first period saw the Isles outpace the
Devils, but get nothing to show for it. To
make things worse, Zajac looked to grab the lead when he pushed the puck and
Halak who made the initial stop, into the Isles net. The goal was waved off. Zajac would get another chance, but would convert
this time to put N.J. up 1-0 about half way through the second off an Okposo
miscue in front of Halak. A few minutes later, Matt Martin scraps with Fraser
and makes a statement for the Isles who needed a little more spark in their
game. John Tavares was livid after getting
called for a phantom tripping call on Harrold, but the Isles would kill the
penalty. The Isles would get more bad news
when Mikhail Grabovski left the game with a lower body injury.
Kinkaid did a great job to keep the Isles off
the score sheet going into the third period. The Islanders would find their missing spark
just a minute into the period when Josh Bailey (Tavares & de Haan) tipped
in a Calvin de Haan blast from up top to tie the game at 1-1. The Islanders
continued to apply pressure until Gomez grabbed the puck away from Halak behind
his net to make it 2-1 Devils. That’s Halak’s
2nd giveaway for a goal in 3 games.
The Isles would rally behind the play of John Tavares (Okposo &
Boychuk) who tied the game at 2-2 with around six minutes to go to force
overtime. Tavares would come through again to give the Isles a
3-2 O.T. win. Tavares celebrated the
goal by looking up to the thousands of Isles fans who invaded the Rock and pumped
his arms in salute to the Yes! chant. John Tavares was named 1st
star of the game. Jaroslav Halak had a tough night for the winning team, going 21/23 with a
.913Sv%.
It was an ugly start to the game, but an
equally strong character comeback in the third period for the Isles, who hit the midpoint of the season with
27 wins to tie the franchise record set in 1978-79 (in 80-gm season). The Isles improved to 3-2-0 on their road
trip & outshot N.J. 31-23 in the game, going 0/4 on the PP & were perfect
on the PK. They won the face-off battle
37-25. Another important item to note is
the Isles 11-2-0 record against Metropolitan Division teams.
***
On Saturday against the
Jackets, Johnson got the start in goal.
Mikhail Grabovski was labelled day-to-day (lower body), but Cal
Clutterbuck returned to the lineup.
Forwards: Bailey-Tavares-Okposo, Lee-Nielsen-Strome, Grabner-Nelson-Kulemin,
Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck.
Defensive Pairings: de Haan-Hamonic, Leddy-Boychuk, Hickey-Strait.
Chad Johnson gets the
start with Jaro Halak backing up.
The Islanders would look
to have a more complete effort against the difficult to play, Blue Jackets in
Columbus. There would need to be more
focus on a team game from both the offensive & defensive sides of the puck
and there was. Whether it was better
preparation by the coaching staff, better focus by the team or a combination of
both, The Islanders came out to play a better game and get another crucial divisional
win.
Just 31 seconds in,
Nikolay Kulemin (Leddy & Grabner) put the Isles up 1-0 off a shot from the
circle by Nick Leddy. About 4 minutes
later, Johnson would score a PPG through a screen to tie the game at 1-1 for
Columbus. New York outshot the Blue
Jackets 16-4 in the first period. In the
second, Chad Johnson would make some nice saves early, especially through traffic
to keep the game tied that included a breakaway behind a stick less Travis
Hamonic as the lone defensemen.
Around the 10 minute
mark, Casey Cizikas led a rush into the offensive zone, dropping it to Thomas Hickey
who passed it across to Ryan Strome, who put a hard shot on net that Matt
Martin was able to tip past Bobrovsky for a 2-1 Isles lead. A few minutes after that, Anders Lee (Strome
& Hickey) strips the puck from Connauton and scores an absolutely sick five
hole goal to make it 3-1 New York. Brian
Strait (Cizikas & Clutterbuck), who played a good gamefor the Isles, made
it a 4-1 New York lead just a few minutes later.
In the third, Foligno tightened
the score to 4-2 a little over 3 minutes in.
Despite the goal, the Islanders continued to outwork the Blue Jackets
throughout the game and out played them through the third period as well. Kyle Okposo (Bailey & Strait) would add
an odd goal with about 5 minutes remaining to close the scoring at 5-2 and seal
the win for New York, who failed to convert on significant PP time that
included a late 5 on 3 opportunity. Columbus
stayed classy with some late-game goonery as time expired. It would be the first ever regulation win for
the Isles in Columbus and get them to a 4-2 mark on the current road trip.
Chad Johnson was only 16/18
with an .889 Sv%, but played a pretty good game in net for the Isles. It will definitely be something to build on
for Johnson, who has struggled after some early season success. The Islanders played a solid defensive game,
blocking 16 shots & outshooting the Blue Jackets by a 40-18 margin. New York was a dismal 0/6 on the PP and surrendered
1 goal on 3 PKs. The Isles had 5
different goal scorers in the game and played a complete team game on the road. Ryan Strome, Anders Lee & Thomas Hickey
were named the 3 stars of the night.
The Islanders visit Manhattan
on Tuesday to face a Ranger team who has won 13 of their last 14 & has gone
11-1-0 behind Henrik Lundqvist, who has boasted 1.57ga, a .939Sv% and 1 S.O. in
his last 12 games. But the Isles have
turned some heads going 28-13-1 so far this season, especially on the road
(14-9-1) to get to 1st place in their division and 4th in
the entire NHL with 57 pts in 42 games.
Get ready for the whole, "The Rangers
don't make a big deal out of playing the Islanders. It's really an Islanders
thing." We know it’s all crap, but whatever you believe, both teams will
be ready to face each other on Tuesday.
It will be the first time, long time that an Isles-rags game has meant
this much, so late in the season for quite some time.
Isles Notes:
Islanders Captain, John Tavares has been
named to the 2015 NHL All-Star game.
Per Nick Sheehy, “NYI F Anders Lee is 3rd on team in goals with 10, 2nd in
5-on-five goals with 9, 4th in +/- with +5 and 18th in total ice-time this
season.”
“NYI Nick Leddy played his 300th consecutive regular
season NHL game since his Chicago Blackhawks debut as a 19 year-old Sat. v.
Columbus. Leddy has 26 goals, 86 assists
for 112 points and +10 in 300 consecutive NHL games played at the young age of
23 years old.”
The Islanders released an image of the "Fisherman" throwback that is to be worn on February 3rd game against the Florida Panthers during warm ups. I hate the jersey and the idea, but I'll get over it.
Former Islander, J.P Parise lost his battle
with lung cancer. Parise was a storied
Islander who scored an O.T. goal against the Rangers in the first round of the
1975 playoffs to give the fledgling Isles their 1st franchise extra
session victory. Parise was a major piece of the Isles organization while they were building to be a Stanley Cup contender. Kyle Okposo had this to
say on his relationship with Parise, “Not many people seemingly have all the right things to
say, but JP Parise was one of them. He was infinitely wise as he was kind. I
will miss his wise cracks and his advice. To someone who had such a huge impact
on me as a person, au revoir. May you rest in peace.”
Howie Rose reminded us
JP Parise was the first Islander to have his name chanted at NVMC.
Stan Fischler said
Parise was bestowed the highest honor a Brooklynite could give, he was referred
to as an "ACE."
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