Mathew Barzal
has been and is currently on fire. Whenever he touches the
puck, you stop eating popcorn or sipping your beverage to see what will happen
next. Whether on a regular shift or in overtime, he has factored into some big
moments for the New York Islanders this season. In last night’s 7-2 domination
over their rival New York Rangers, our Isles saw Barzal put the league on
notice yet again. His 2 goals and 3 assists (and +5 rating) galvanized the Isles’
attack at MSG and the Rangers could do nothing about it. Per Eric Hornick, “Barzal
also regained the lead in rookie points from Brock Boeser (44-40). It was
his 4th multi-assist game and 9th multi-point game. In the last 21 years, only
one Islander rookie (John Tavares -30 in 2009/10) has had more assists than
Barzal.” Barzal is the first Islander, ever, to score 5 points at MSG. Is this
thing on?
Mathew Barzal
is the only player in the NHL, rookie or otherwise, to have 2-5 point games
under his belt so far this season. Per Mike Morreale, “NYR coach Alain
Vigneault: "Barzal’s line just dominated Mika’s [Mika Zibanejad] line the
whole game. I had three of my top players there and they were dominated the
whole game." Anthony Beauvillier (+5 in the game) had 2 goals and an assist
in last night’s win. After a 3-game stint in the AHL, Beauvillier once again made
a statement to stick around with the big club. And Barzal likes his friend’s
game, “He's bringing his effort every night, that's the biggest thing,"
said Barzal. "He's playing exactly
how he's supposed to play, winning battles, burying his chances which is great
and doing a great job playing 200 feet. He's been really easy to adjustment
there with Ladd being out." Beauvillier seems to be feeling it as well. Here’s
what he had to say about the Isles first game back in action, “It’s always fun
to play the Rangers, especially here, and it’s been a good game for us. Coming
back from the break and just build off that last game against New Jersey. We
played a great game." Line mate Jordan Eberle had a career high 4 assists
(Hornick) in the game. Prince (1st goal since 12/16), Hickey (2nd of Ssn) and Clutterbuck (4 goals in last 4 games)
also scored goals in the game.
The Isles huge
second period rush added 3 goals to the scoresheet in the first seven minutes and
broke the confidence of the Rangers, eventually getting Ondrej Pavelec pulled
from the home net after goal number five. 9 different Islanders got at least a
point and Scott Mayfield had 2 points (career high) on the night. It was the Isles
3rd straight win vs the Rangers at MSG and 5th straight overall. Jaroslav Halak
was huge (now 16-7-0 vs Rangers) for the Islanders and stopped mounting
pressure by the Rangers after they forced the tie early in the game. Halak is 13-12-0
on the season.
Injuries have
affected the Isles a few times this season. Several key players have gone down
and that meant prospects were given an opportunity to fill their roles. The Isles
recalled Anthony Beauvillier and Michael Dal Colle on an emergency basis from
BPT. Along with D, Sebastian Aho to face the New York Rangers. Dal Colle looked
comfortable and Aho continues to do what’s asked of him in relief on the Isles blue
line. With Casey Cizikas leaving last night’s game after an un-penalized slash
to the wrist, Sound Tigers’ scoring leader, Tanner Fritz (37 pts) was recalled
again from Bridgeport.
On the other
side of the prospect coin, Josh Ho-Sang seems to be souring on his most recent time back down
with the Sound Tigers. Ho-Sang always plays hard and has all the talent in the
world, but his maturity and attitude have been called into question by critics.
This was the main reason the Islanders were able to get a player of his considerable
talent level with the 28th overall pick in 2014. Ho-Sang is now getting
scratched in the AHL. A place where he has been sent down to learn a lesson, re-ignite
his fire and ply his play-making craft like so many who came before him.
“When you start
the year in the NHL and then get scratched in the AHL in the same year, it’s
kind of … it’s kind of mentally tough,” Ho-Sang told The New York Post. Ho-Sang may not
be meshing with Sound Tigers coach, Brent Thompson. “I don’t think anybody can
break my confidence,” he said. “But it’s definitely put in a place where it’s
not very good. There’s certain things I can do on the ice to remind myself of
what I am and who I am. But it’s just tough when you have people getting on you
and sometimes when everyone’s talking to you about the negative, you may look
at yourself negatively.”
On Ho-Sang,
Thompson had this to say, “He’s a baby, he’s immature and he’s got a lot of
growing to do. I’m excited. The upside of him is outstanding. He worked hard
today, he’s been working really hard. We all make mistakes, we all have bad
games. It’s how do we respond from those and what do we learn from them? Every
piece of this season for Josh, with us, is a development piece. It’s just going
to be a longer process with some people.” In this writer’s opinion, “He’s a
baby” may not be the best quote or sound bite to put out there with a major NY
paper. Isles fans certainly remember the rift that started to form between the Islanders
organization and Nino Neidereitter. It engineered the talented prospect to be
traded to the Minnesota Wild for Cal Clutterbuck. No one knows what will happen
with Ho-Sang and when his next NHL call-up will be, but the work will need to
be there along with the message sent by the organization.
Per Josh
Ho-Sang, “Yeah, I’m only young, but I’m burning years off my NHL career. It
sucks,” he said. “You want to be up top. For me, I didn’t look at it this way
until this year. I was looking forward to hopefully my first [full] NHL
season.”
He added, “I
enjoy playing up there and I find that when I’m up there, I’ve had quite a bit
of success,” Ho-Sang said. “I think I’ve had more success up there than
hardship. But they want what they want.”
I love the prospect
of Ho-Sang rejoining the Islanders but dues have to be paid when asked by
management and the quickest way back up is to prove your doubters wrong without
speaking out or losing your cool to a reporter.
For nothing
else but an attempt to draw a parallel, please indulge me.
Coach, Doug
Weight on Beau’s attitude and game, "Anthony has been a different
person," Weight said of Beauvillier since his return. "Just his face,
his confidence and just in hindsight, speaking with him this morning he said
you were right, this was the greatest thing for me."
Here’s what Anthony
Beauvillier himself had to say on being sent down to the AHL, "It happened
to Bails [Josh Bailey] and a lot of Hall of Famers played in the American
League as well," Beauvillier said. "It's helped me a lot just finding
my game a little bit more, how to have success. No one wants to hear that, but
it was good for me to go down there."
Perspective.
Perspective.
Back to the main point of all of this.
The Metro
remains super tight. The Isles have a shootout win vs NJ and a big, tight defensive and road scoring win vs the NYR in their last 2 opportunities. A point separates 5 teams (Rangers through Carolina) with little relief in sight. It’s
all about the coming head-to-head match-ups and which team will rise above the
others as the playoff push into spring approaches. It’s going to take a full
team effort without any nights off. And that includes everyone on and off the
ice.
Challenge accepted.
Isles Notes:
Per Arthur
Staple, “Isles announce Tanner Fritz has been recalled and Andrew Ladd (upper)
is on IR.”
Josh Bailey and
Johnny Boychuk still out. No update on Casey Cizikas after being slashed on the
wrist in last names game vs. the Rangers. Per Andy Graziano, “Weight not
optimistic at all about Cizikas, said doesn't look good and won't make trip
Monday, opportunity there for guys to step up.”
Per NHL PR, “THIS
DATE IN 1988: Denis Potvin of the @NYIslanders
became the first defenseman in NHL history to score 300 career goals.”
Sound Tigers
Notes:
The #SoundTigers have
recalled Kellen Jones (F) & Mike Cornell (D) from the @RailersHC.
Christopher
Gibson is now 14-7-2 on the season with 2 shutouts.
Toews Undergoes
Successful Surgery.
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