Islanders Prey On Nashville

Tonight, the first place Nashville Predators are at the NVMC for their final regular season visit before the 15th sellout of the year and an MSG T.V. audience.  The Preds have won 6 games in a row and are 15-5-1 against eastern conference opponents.  The Isles have a 4 point lead in the metro division, winning 6 of their last 10 games with 77 points.  Jaroslav Halak will be back in net while, Lubomir Visnovsky will be in on defense for Calvin de Haan.  Casey Cizikas has been placed on the IR, retroactive to 2/16 with a lower body injury and Matt Donovan is a healthy scratch once again.  I am not quite sure of what to make on the recent scratches of de Haan after he got healthy.  I also think that Donovan should get more games in as well on defense.  We will have to see.

Forwards:  Lee-Tavares-Bailey, Grabner-Nielsen-Strome, Kulemin-Grabovski-Clutterbuck, Martin-Nelson-McDonald.

Defensive Pairings:  Leddy-Boychuk, Strait-Hamonic, Hickey-Visnovsky.

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

 

In the first period, Brian Strait (Nielsen & Grabner) makes Capuano look good by putting a nice wrist shot behind the mighty Pekke Rinne.  Its 1-0 Islanders who are 22-12-1 when scoring first.  The Islanders have come out strong and have the Preds scrambling in their own zone to start the game.  John Tavares rings it hard off the post as the Isles continue to press offensively.  Preds, Eric Nystrom puts Grabovski down hard with what looked like a shoulder to the head.  Grabovski refuses to be taken off on the stretcher and skates off under his own power and acknowledges the crowd to a thundering cheer.  The Isles First line forces Preds to ice the puck and after a key face off win, Johnny Boychuk (Leddy & Grabner) rips one from the blue line and gives New York a 2-0 lead just half way through the opening period.  Its Michael Grabner’s second assist of the night.  Jaro Halak comes up with a huge toe save shortly afterwards.  Brock Nelson’s hustle draws the (Bartley) penalty. Isles to the PP.  Josh Bailey with a good high shot, Rinne makes the save.  Travis Hamonic takes a hooking penalty (Nystrom), Isles to the PK.  Halak with a series of strong saves to kill the penalty.  It is announced that Mikhail Grabovski (Upper Body) will not return.  Isles to the PP as McDonald gets Gaustad to lose his cool and take a roughing penalty.  John Tavares (Leddy & Boychuk) puts in a juicy PP Boychuk rebound to make it 3-0 Islanders.  Preds, Filip Forsberg makes it a 3-1 game with just 17 seconds remaining in the first.  Shots are 17-15 Nashville after one, Isles with 14 takeaways to Preds 4.  There will be tremendous push back by Nashville next period.  Let’s see how the Isles answer.

The Islanders come out a little sloppy to start the 2^nd and Lubo Visnovsky gets called for hooking just 41 seconds in.  Isles do a good job to finish off the PK.  Visnovsky comes close with a wraparound deflection catching Rinne out of position.  Colin McDonald with Frans Nielsen & Nikolay Kulemin. If Grabovski’s injury keeps him out for any period of time, McDonald really isn't going anywhere soon.  Tonight’s game is a big indication of how good the Isles can really be. If they get this dialed in consistently, there is no reason they won’t contend for Cup.  JT takes a slash from Jones and looks bothered by it enough to get looked at by trainers.  Thomas Hickey rings a shot off the post.  Seems like the Officials are ignoring all kinds of slashes on Isles player tonight.  Both teams have registered 47 shots just over the halfway point in the game.  Nikolay Kulemin draws a holding penalty (Fischer) and send the Isles to another PP.  Nick Leddy hits the third post for New York, then Neal makes it a 3-2 game with 6:38 remaining the period.  Isles finish another strong period with a 14-8 advantage in shots for the period and hold a 29-25 edge after two.  NY has a 19-3-1 record with a 2^nd period lead.

The third opens with some good Islanders pressure against the Nashville net.  Grabner draws a penalty from Forsberg to give the Isles another PP opportunity.  Isles fail to register a shot with the man advantage.  Nick Leddy (McDonald & Martin) converts on a sweet pass from Colin McDonald to give the Isles a 4-2 lead.  Soon afterwards, Josh Bailey shows patience, drawing Rinne off the post and tucks it off the Pred’s goaltender and in.  5-2 New York.  It’s only 2nd time (Minnesota) Rinne has allowed 5 goals this season & won both games (7-5 & 6-5).  Isles return to the PP from a roughing call from Riberio on McDonald.  Clutterbuck evens things out with a crosscheck penalty on Fisher to make it a 4 on 4 for 47 seconds, but it matters not.  The Islanders win 5-2 and were perfect on the PK with a 3/3 effort.  They led in takeaways 28-12 and in shots for the period (11-7) and the game (40-32).  They have averaged an impressive 40 shots over the last 5 games.

 

Nick Leddy, John Tavares & Michael Grabner were named 3 stars of the game.

 

At times, The Isles struggled on defense and faltered on the PP (1/5), but tightened things up & played a very good game against an elite opponent with a hart & vezina candidate goaltender (2^nd in NHL with a .932Sv%, had an .875Sv% tonight).  The Islanders hit three posts and still beat the top team in the west by a score of 5-2.  The Isles reached the 39^th win plateau to tie Nashville for most wins in the NHL.  There was a big effort throughout the lineup tonight with notable showings by John Tavares, Johnny Boychuk, Josh Bailey, Michael Grabner, Nick Leddy, Thomas Hickey and Jaro Halak to name a few.  Halak (30 of 32 with a .938Sv%) ties the Isles single season franchise wins (32) record with tonight’s victory.  It was another great game to build on.  Hopefully, Mikhail Grabovski isn’t hurt too badly.

Isles are in Washington to face Alexander Ovechkin & the Washington Capitals for a 12:30 pm start on Saturday.

 

Isles Notes:

 

Agent: No extension talks between Isles and Visnovsky, who wants to continue NHL career.

On this day in 1979, Islanders Mike Bossy scored his 100th career NHL goal in just his 129th career game.

 

Sound Tigers Notes:

The BST have acquired Carson McMillan from the Toronto Marlies in exchange for Peter Sivak.

 

The Isles have reassigned Kevin Czuczman and Jesse Graham from the Sound Tigers to the @FL_Everblades.