Sunday, January 11, 2015

Weekend Lookback: New Jersey & Columbus


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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