Islanders Weather Hurricanes

Your New York Islanders are in Raleigh to face the Carolina Hurricanes tonight who sit 8^th in the metro division & 15^th in the eastern conference.  The Isles will be looking for their third straight win against the struggling Canes, who have gotten points in 7 of their last 10 games.  Michael Grabner has been removed from the team's IR list and will be in the lineup tonight for Casey Cizikas - who is out with a lower body injury.  Colin McDonald remains with the team as an emergency call-up.  Calvin de Haan will be in for Lubo Visnovsky on defense.  Chad Johnson will get the start in goal.  Look for Brock Nelson to try and make something happen tonight.  He was 3 & 3 for 6 pts in the home at home opener with Carolina to start the season.

 

 

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

 

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

 

Chad Johnson is in net with Jaroslav Halak backing up tonight.

 

 

The Islanders come out fast in a slow period and get a handful of chances, but fail to convert.  John Tavares with a nice takeaway and scoring chance late in the period, but. Khudobin with an even nicer save.  Ryan Strome follows up with a shot that goes off the post.  The offensive pressure results in a PP (Liles tripping on Nelson) chance for New York.  Anders Lee (Nielsen & Tavares) gets his 19^th of the season & gives the Isles a PPG and a 1-0 lead in the closing minutes of the first.  Travis Hamonic is called for delay of game with 6 seconds remaining.  The Islanders manage to keep the lead in a pretty sloppy period and outshoot the Canes 14-7.

 

 

 

Isles go to the PK for 1:53 to start the second period and complete the kill.  Chad Johnson is doing a good job in net so far.  Michael Grabner is looking good & has come close on the break away a couple of times tonight, picking up where he left off after returning from the last injury.  Brock Nelson (Martin & McDonald) scores his first goal in 18 games to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead at the 6:58 mark.  Terry goes off for boarding against Boychuk, Isles back to the PP to finish the period.  Isles are being dominated in shots by Canes, 18-8 in the period and now trail 25-22 after 2.  New York better pick up the pace. They are being outplayed by a weaker team and got badly outshot. They need to have the killer instinct & close these games out early.

 

 

The Islanders start the 3^rd period with 52 seconds on the PP.  Anders Lee gets a hooking penalty on Dwyer to negate the remainder of Isles PP time, allowing Carolina 1:15 of PP time.  The Isles kill off the Canes PP chance.  Michael Grabner nearly converts on another turnover.  Kulemin heads up with Grabovski on a breakaway chance, but fires it over the net.  Travis Hamonic gets hit by a shot and heads to the dressing room.  Michael Grabner (Hickey & Nielsen) gets another breakaway, but buries it this time, 3-0 Islanders.  Tlusty gets the Hurricanes on the board, 3-1 Islanders.  Gut check time.  Carolina uses the goal to mount another large offensive push and have a goal waived off on a Gerbe high sticking call.  Officials rule it non-reviewable with the war room in Toronto.  No goal.  Travis Hamonic is back on the bench, but his hand is still clearly in pain.  Carolina pulls Khudobin with 4:30 remaining and John Tavares makes it a 4-1 game with the ENG.  The Islanders were 1 for 2 on the PP and 2 for 2 on the PK.  They finished off the Hurricanes, got the win and the 2 pts.

 

 

Chad Johnson, John Tavares & Anders Lee were named the 3 stars of the game.

 

 

So let’s talk about the difference in tonight’s effort.  First liner, Anders Lee continuing his dominant play.  Brock Nelson finally breaking through on the score sheet.  Michael Grabner looked good again after returning from injury.  Again.  John Tavares played a heads up game and sealed the deal with the empty netter with just under 5 minutes remaining.  Colin McDonald continues to look seamless in relief and Calvin de Haan looked good after returning for being out a few games.  Chad Johnson (37 of 38 with a .974Sv%) looked very comfortable and was solid in finding his groove.  It was another good effort (Boston) for Johnson and it should be a huge boost to his confidence.  Per Chris King, Tavares on Chad Johnson: "he earned that one tonight...we've given him some tough efforts." 

 

 

 

 

But most importantly, while they dodged a bullet with the no goal late in the third and didn’t play their best game, they eventually dug deep, got it together and finished off their opponent as a team by controlling play to end the game. 

 

 

The Islanders welcome the Nashville Predators to the Coliseum on Thursday.  Huge challenge and a good gauge, especially for the offense for how good they really are.  The biggest point on interest: Lee vs Forsberg.