West Coast Lookback: Vancouver

Last night, your New York Islanders were in Vancouver to face the Canucks in an attempt to put the lack luster effort in Edmonton behind them and get another win on their west coast swing.  They would have to do so without the services of Lubo Visnovsky (upper body to IR from 1/4) and Josh Bailey (scratch), but would see Matt Donovan in for Lubo & Michael Grabner return from the IR list.  Donovan gets another chance to make an impact the way Thomas Hickey has done in a bid to make the Islanders as a regular while Michael Grabner returns with a chance to play with JT & KO.  Grabner must feel pressure to try and carve out a niche for himself on a much improved Isles squad and become a relevant piece of the machine.

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

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

Jaroslav Halak in net with Chad Johnson backing up.

 

The Isles started the game very flat and struggled to find a rhythm behind a good defensive effort by Jaro Halak.  Matt Martin would generate a little jump & get New York a 1-0 lead around the half way mark of the first off a nice feed from Travis Hamonic.  It was Martin’s 5^th goal of the season.  A few minutes later, Stanton would add one for VAN by taking a terrible Brock Nelson drop pass and going behind Donovan & off a bad defensive read by Hickey. Vancouver would add two more goals in second from Bonino & Vey to take a 3-1 lead into the third period.  Thomas Hickey was victimized on the other two Vancouver goals as well and had a rough night on defense.  The Isles would add a goal to bring the score within 1 off a Mikhail Grabovski (Okposo) one-timer late in the period, but that would be it for the Islanders who would fall to the Canucks by the score of 3-2.  Matt Martin was named 2^nd star of the game.

 

The Isles were physical with 36 hits in the game and outshot Vancouver by a 23-20 margin, but saw the Canucks block 26 shots on their net.  On special teams, the PP was an dismal 0/3 while the PK stayed true, going 2/2 on the night.  Halak made 17 saves & generated an .850 Sv% in the loss.  New York was good in the face-off circle with a 35-20 advantage, but would turn the puck over enough to play from behind for much of the game.  Turnovers were the story of the game and mistakes, the tale of the last two.  They negated offensive rushes and forced the Isles back into their own zone on several occasions.  It was the second such sloppy game for the Isles and as a result, many players and fans were very disappointed in the loss.  While I think the fan reactions was a little much, the concern for the Islanders essentially giving both of their last two games away has merit.  All 3 Vancouver goals came off miscues by the Islanders.  Several Islanders made no excuses for the loss and took ownership on their mistakes.  Hickey said, "There's got to be a higher standard of play and it starts with myself," while Okposo said “We weren’t sharp, we didn’t execute.”  The Isles will have time to regroup in the coming days.

 

The Islanders will face the Devils in New Jersey on Friday, Blue Jackets in Columbus on Saturday and visit MSG to face the rival Rangers the following Tuesday night.  Let’s hope they right the ship and do it quickly in the next three divisional games. 

 

Isles Notes:

Sorokin takes silver at 2015 WJC. Read about all the Isles prospects at the WJC here. 

 

Sound Tigers Notes:

Ryan Pulock was named to the AHL All-Star team.

Griffin Reinhart practices for 2^nd straight day and Ryan Pulock met with Doctors per Connecticut Post.