Isles Are Resilient At Home Vs Sharks, Preds

After the their win on Saturday night, Your New York Islanders also knocked the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators from the ranks of the NHL’s undefeated.  Through a tenacious and relentless tempo of play, the Isles refused to become a statistic for their opponents.  With their stars leading the way and strong efforts throughout the lineup, New York set themselves up to reach 3-1-1 on the season that included 3 straight wins at home.

Your New York Islanders saw #1 goaltender, Jaroslav Halak and ironman D, Thomas Hickey make their season debut to face the San Jose Sharks at the Barclays Center.  After Mikhail Grabovski would miss on a penalty shot, the Sharks took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, but 5 goals (3 by NY) would be scored in the 2^nd period, resulting in the Isles tying the score 3 times.  Johnny Boychuk (Strome & Tavares) tied it at 1-1, then Anders Lee PPG (Strome & Tavares) knoted it at 2-2, then Josh Bailey (Nielsen & Okposo) tied it at 3-3.  The third period saw Kyle Okposo (Bailey), Brock Nelson and Frans Nielsen ENG (Okposo) stretch the Isles lead to a 6-3 final after 3 unanswered tallies.  Nielsen reached the 100^th goal and 200^th assist of his career in tonight’s game.  Jaro Halak got his first win of the season after going 22/25 with an .880Sv%.  The Isles were 1/3 on the PP and 2/2 on the PK.  Shots were 34-25 in favor of New York.  Line mates, Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen & Josh Bailey were named the top 3 stars of the game.  Seeing Sharks G, Stalock deliberately knocking his mask off to try and negate an eventual Isles goal had to be the low-light for San Jose in tonight’s game.

On Thursday, the undefeated Nashville Predators got off to a 2-0 lead, your New York Islanders fought back and scored 4 goals in the next 2 periods to take the lead and prove resilient throughout the game.  Anders Lee (Tavares & Strome) opened the scoring for the Isles and Kyle Okposo (Grabovski) tied the game in the second period with a determined snipe on Rinne.  Nikolay Kulemin (Nelson & Grabovski) scored his 100^th career goal and John Tavares (Lee & Hamonic) helped give New York a 4-2 lead mid-way through the 3^rd period.  The Preds would score again to close within 1, but the Islanders would hold on for an impressive, physical & hard fought 4-3 win.  Thomas Greiss kept his team in it, fighting off a strong Nashville attack and finished the night making 44 saves with a .936Sv% on 47 shots.  New York was 0/2 on the PP and 2/2 on the PK while Mikhail Grabovski & Kyle Okposo were named 2^nd and 3^rd stars of the game.  

The Isles are at Columbus on Tuesday @ 7pm, face Boston @ 7:30pm home on Friday & away in St. Louis @ 8pm on Saturday.

Isles Notes:

Eric Boulton is on IR with a lower body injury.

Per Arthur Staple, “Isles Midweek October home attendance last season: 10/16 vs. SJ, 11,248; 10/21 vs. TOR, 11,408; 10/28 vs. WPG, 11, 508.  So last two games at Barclays Center in line with last year at Coliseum.  Isles haven't been Oct. home draw in a long while.”

Louis Leblanc (NYI) on unconditional waivers.  Apparently going to KHL.