Isles Finding Their Way In Brooklyn

On Friday, Your New York Islanders opened the Brooklyn era with a 3-2 OT loss (Kane) to the defending Stanley Cups Champion, Chicago Blackhawks.  The Isles were aggressive and came out hard & physical in a closely contested game 1.  John Tavares (Boychuk & Cizikas) tied the it in the 2nd period and Marek Zidlicky (Nelson & Kulemin) scored late to force the extra session, but Thomas Greiss (32/35 with a .914Sv%) and the Isles could only muster a point in their Barclays debut.  New York was 0/2 on the PP and 2/3 on the PK and edged the Hawks in shots, 36-35.  John Tavares was named the 2nd star.

Game 2 on Saturday in Chicago would be a different story.  The Islanders were out played for much of the night while Jean-Francois Berube finished with 30 saves on 34 shots (.882Sv%).  Chicago had a commanding 4-0 lead into the final minutes of the game before Cal Clutterbuck scored a SHG to spoil the shut out for Crawford with a 4-1 score.  The Isles had only 29 shots in the game and were 0/2 on the PP.  Their PK played well, killing 6 of 7 advantages for Chicago.  New York was physical again, but were playing catch up from the box for much of the night.  Even frustrated Captain, John Tavares was given a game misconduct at the 13;55 mark of the 3rd after arguing with officials about calls against his team.

The Isles came back to the Barclays Center for a Columbus Day matinee before 11,183 fans to face the undefeated Winnipeg Jets.  They were much more focused to start the game and tallied a 3-0 lead off goals from Ryan Strome PPG (Okposo & Tavares), Brock Nelson (Tavares & Boychuk) and John Tavares PPG (Lee & Zidlicky).  Winnipeg would score late in the second and midway through the third to close the Isles lead to 1 before Josh Bailey (Nielsen & Okposo) scored the ENG to seal the deal for New York and give them their first regular season franchise win (4-2) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.  It is interesting to know that the Isles first regular season win at the Barclays Center came exactly 43 years after their first win at Nassau.  John Tavares was stopped on a slow motion penalty shot opportunity by Pavelec late in the third period.  The Isles put 44 shots on net (24 for WPG) and got 2 PPG’s on 6 attempts to help them hold on to overcome a very physical (some would say dirty) and aggressive game by the Jets.  Thomas Greiss (22/24 with a .917Sv%) had another solid effort in the win and got his 1st as an Islander.  John Tavares & Brock Nelson were named 1st & 2nd stars of the game.

After Mondays win, the Isles sit at 1-1-1 with 3 points, 2nd in the Metro (Rangers 6 pts) and are 6th in the East.  They have shown flashes of some solid hockey, but have also been shaky at holding leads and are still struggling badly on the man advantage, ranked 18th in the league at 20%.  While their PK has been good, it still ranks 16th with a 76.9% rate of success.  Improvement on special teams must happen for the Isles to contend in the east and it needs to start sooner rather than later.

I know it has been a small sample size, but Greiss has been as advertised for New York. In my opinion, he is a solid back up with a calming veteran presence who is capable of making some big time plays. Just the kind of measure that Snow anticipated when they signed him to back up Jaro Halak who still remains out with an upper body injury.  “Greiss on Isles crowd ‘Was fun to play (here) especially coming from Pittsburgh, its pretty dead there." Per @IslesInsight. 

In other news, Locker room guy and part time enforcer, Eric Boulton, 39, agreed to terms ($575K) with the Islanders on a one year, one way contract today.  Boulton scored 2 goals in 10 games with the Isles last season and is usually inserted into the lineup when the team feels his physical presence is beneficial to the game in question.  Boulton’s name is always mentioned when asked about who has the biggest and most popular presence in the room, so his worth to management seems to be worth more than just his grit.

Isles Notes:

Ryan Pulock was loaned to Bridgeport today and should get some regular, big minutes with the Sound Tigers.

Per Arthur Staple on 10/12, “… believe Thomas Hickey (fractured thumb) had protective cast removed late last week. Midway through his 4-week recovery period.”

Former Isles D, Matt Donovan was put on waivers today by the Buffalo Sabers.

ECHL Notes:

The ECHL is painting its goal posts blue this season as part of an advertising deal.  A sign of things to come in pro hockey?