Cerberus In Brooklyn

Your New York Islanders are 4-3 in the month of February following the All-Star break.  While they have some games at hand over teams ahead of them in the playoff race, the 29-19-6 Isles have fallen to 4^th in the Metro and 8^th in the eastern conference.  That puts them just 1pt ahead of the 9^th place Penguins.  They enjoyed an 8-1 thumping of the Oilers last Sunday and helped J-F Berube to his first NHL win a couple of days later against the Wild.  They are doing a lot of things well, but still suffering from inconsistencies that are limiting their performance against eastern conference teams.  While special teams (11^th ranked PP w 6 goals in last 5 games and 2^nd ranked PK at 86.6%) are still holding and their offense is surging a little bit behind the improved play of John Tavares (6 & 9 for 14 in last 9 games) and the first line as a whole (Grabovski 25pts & Strome 21pts.)

Jaroslav Halak has a 13-12-0 record with a .914Sv% and a 2.42gaa so far this season.  Halak has had some very strong games, but has fallen off a bit after breaking the team record for wins last year.  Thomas Greiss has slowly outpaced Halak from the back up spot going 15-6-0 with a .930Sv% and a 2.21gaa in slightly less games between the pipes for New York.  Greiss has been very good when called upon and is certainly a solid safety net for his team just past the midpoint.  It must also be noted that Halak has missed some time due to injury and has not played a starter’s share of games for Capuano’s Islanders so far.  In his last outing against the Carolina Hurricanes, Halak was pulled after two periods of play in a 6-3 loss behind a shaky defensive effort.

Isles prospect goaltender, J-F Berube got his first NHL win vs the Minnesota Wild in a strange call-up, coming directly after the All-Star break.  The reports had Berube recalled by Jack Capuano for his prior 4-0 performance the week before in Bridgeport (0.97 GAA and .967 SV%) and will apparently be one of the Islanders 3 goaltenders going forward according to the coach.

So how secure are the Islanders in net if the coaching staff needs to rely on their back up so heavily and use a 3^rd goaltender in the rotation for the rest of the season?  Is Jaro Halak still the number one? Is he more injury prone than the team wants to admit and will their apparent stability in goal start to become suspect as April gets closer?  Will the Isles uncertainty with Travis Hamonic and the future plans of free agents Like Okposo and Nielsen be ignored until the off season?  As the trade deadline approaches, the Islanders are still in the thick of things with no reason to panic, but I think they have some serious concerns to reflect on in the coming weeks.

Will a three headed monster in net be enough to make it past the 1^st round of the NHL playoffs for this year’s team?

Isles Notes:

Brett Yormark’s comments about fans being able to use the jumbo-tron and cell phones to make up for obstructed views and the Barclays apparent ban on “If You Are Happy And You Know It” chant are just the latest topics are really not making positive strides among the fan base.  

UPDATE:  Yormark responded on Twitter by saying the song was not banned and fans would hear it on Monday.  This may be another concession based on the fans outcry.  If that is the case, good job by Barclays.

Per Arthur Staple, Kyle Okposo's 500th NHL game on 2/9 vs Columbus made only him the second African-American player to come up through the US amateur ranks to do so.

The New York Islanders game against the Philadelphia Flyers that was postponed on Saturday, January 23, has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 10 at 7PM and will be their final regular season game of the season.

“Isles equipment manager Scott Boggs named Team Europe's head equipment manager for 2016 World Cup.”

The Islanders have 1-1st Rd, 1-3rd, 1-4th, 1-6th & 1-7th round pick in this summer’s NHL Entry Draft.

@swedishislander “Congrats to @jsundstrom12 and @frolunda hc to the Champions Hockey League European Trophy today! #Isles #Soundtigers”