Islanders Pay The Price

Forwards: Moulson-Tavares-Okposo; Grabner-Nielsen-Parenteau; Martin-Bailey-Rakhshani; Niederreiter-Pandolfo-Wallace.

Defensemen: Streit-Staios; Jurcina-MacDonald; Eaton-Ness

Nabokov gets the start in net

Milan Jurcina returns to the line up.  Aaron Ness will get his first game at home as an Islander.

DiPietro out for 10 weeks with sports hernia/knee swelling.  Mark Katic sShoulder), Mike Mottau (concussion) and Marty Reasoner (broken hand) are out indefinitely or with no timetable for their return.

The Islanders lead the NHL with 907 blocked shots coming into tonight’s game.

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The Montreal Canadiens came to town in a similar scenario as their hosts.  Your New York Islanders with a record of 22-22-8 and Montreal at 21-24-9 know the importance of each and every game left in the season. 

Arthur Staple reported that the Isles have allowed a goal on the first shot against for the 11^th time in 53 games tonight, just 1:23 into the first period.  They were 2-6-2 when doing so previously.  The Islanders play tonight reminded me of Tuesdays’ game against the Flyers, loose and scattered.  They had some good chances develop as time went on, but failed to capitalize on chances with all four lines.

There was some good effort to start the second period on a power play opportunity.  Shots were 16-10 Islanders, 3 minutes into the period.   Montreal buzzed and Pacioretty scored again.  Price was in the zone and the Isles continued to fight, but could only manage outside shots and came up short.  Montreal controled play, capitalized on New York’s mistakes and limited the isles offensively as 2^nd period ended.  Eric Hornick reported the Islanders scoreless streak was at 152:43 to that point.

In the Third period, Tim Wallace and Matt Martin continued to play physical.  Brian Compton reported that Head Coach, Jack Capuano had Parenteau back on top line with Tavares and Moulson.  And Gomez scored with his first goal this season and his first in over a year (2/5/11).  So glad it could come against the Isles (sarcasm).  Montreal lead 3-0 at the time.  Islanders scoreless streak was up to 163.11 at the time so far and they had difficulty getting shots on net.  Would they be shut out for the 9^th time this season? 

The Islanders continued to battle and Matt Moulson scored a cherry picker goal from out of mid air.  It ended a scoring drought of over 172 minutes.  Evgeni Nabokov was pulled for an extra attacker, and just like that, Isles scored again.  Streit brought it to within 1.  Isles scored 2 goals in 48 seconds with the score, 3-2 Canadiens late in the third period.  The Islanders continued to buzz, but time expired. 

Officials missed an icing call in the final seconds of the game that could have given New York another face off in the Montreal zone with Nabokov pulled.  But instead, Pacioretty made it a 3 goal game with an empty net goal at the buzzer with just 1/10 of a second remaining.

The Islanders are under .500 again at 22-23-8, losing 4-2 to Montreal.  Its hard to keep playing from behind while you spot the opponent a multiple goal cushion, but it must be said that New York did not show any signs of quit and fought their way back into the game.  They had Montreal reeling, but just ran out of time.  Their record when giving up the first goal is now 2-7-2.

Give the credit to Carey Price (31 saves, .939 Sv%) and Max Pacioretty with his first career hat-trick.  Montreal move up and Isles move down in the standings, other games in progress.

Islanders Shoot Down Flyers

Forwards: Moulson-Tavares-Okposo; Grabner-Nielsen-Parenteau; Martin-Bailey-Rakhshani; Niederreiter-Pandolfo-Wallace.

Defensemen: Streit-Staios; Reese-MacDonald; Ness-Eaton.

Nabokov in goal for NYI. Stopped 40 of 41 shots last game vs. Flyers.

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The Philadelphia Flyers welcomed the Islanders to the Wells Fargo Center tonight in their 3rd meeting of 6 for the season.  The Isles, 6-2-2 in their last 10 are 21-22-8 on the season with 50 pts, placing them 12th in Eastern conference.  A win tonight would put them at an NHL .500.

The Flyers come out fast, playing the Islanders hard.  K.O. rings a shot off the post and the Isles are returning fire and looking better defensively in this game early on.  There is a good pace to the period for New York.  The Isles manage a few odd-man rushes, but get out shot 10-7 in a scoreless first period.

In the second, Evgeni Nabokov continues to look good between the pipes for the Islanders on his 25 saves thus far in the game, 15 in the second period alone.  He makes some incredible saves throughout the period.  There is more back and forth between both teams.  Dylan Reese looks like he hyper extends his knee trying to block a shot.  Bad news if he and Hamonic are down with Jurcina, day to day.

Dylan Reese is not on bench to start the third period.  Flyers pressing, vastly out shooting Isles 33-14 with 16:00 minutes to go in third.  Aaron Ness making his presence felt on the offensive side of things. The physicality is amping up in the third.  Arthur Staple mentions, “Rhett Rakhshani doubled over on bench. Took a Matt Carle shoulder to the head. Rakhshani already had a concussion in training camp.“  With little time left in the game, Isles being out shot 41-17.  It’s all about Nabokov so far tonight. 

We have O.T.  Flyers dictating the play during extra time.

Game will go to a shoot out.

The Islanders owe Nabokov for this 45-18 save effort.  Hopefully he gets rewarded.


Nielsen up first for the Islanders.  Score!

Briere.  No Goal

J.T. Score!

Simmonds.  No Goal!

Islanders Win 1-0 !  Isles now have a 2 game winning streak vs the Flyers.

The team improves to 22-22-8, 11th place with 52 points in 11-5-2 run.  Playoffs, a real possibility.

Josh Bailey and Matt Martin continue to impress me with their improved play.  Bailey seems reborn and Martin keeps getting more fundamentally sound.  Rhett Rakhshani also looks good with each game he plays, seems to be feeding off his line mates.  With Travis Hamonic out with a severely broken nose, it was good to see defensemen, Aaron Ness looked strong in his first NHL appearance.  It’s always important when a call up, especially one on an emergency basis, doesn’t look out of place during the game.  Nabokov had another fantastic effort and needs to continue this play with Hamonic injured.

In other BIG news:

Bob McKenzie of TSN reports that the New York Islanders sign “The Great Dane,” Frans Nielsen to 4 year, $11M extension.  Nielsen's extension has an annual cap hit of $2.75M, with year-by-year salary of $2M, $2.5M, $3M and $3.5M.  Nielsen is one of the most under rated defensive forwards in the game today and excels at shootout goals with a 19 of 33 ratio, 57.6%, best in the NHL among active players.  Nielsen was to become a free agent this summer.  The Nielsen extension is another great core building move by GM, Garth Snow.  Christian Arnold of @Isleshockeyblog says the deal will be made official tomorrow.

P.A. Parenteau will no doubt be next, regarding an extension announcement.

Isles Notes:

Eric Hornick reports the isles have been shorthanded 2x or less in each of last 5 gms -- in prior 24 years Isles had no stretch of 4 gms, let alone 5, short twice or less.

The Hockey News online’s poll:

If you could have only one of these four, who would it be?

John Tavares 39 %
Taylor Hall 9 %
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 24 %
Tyler Seguin 28 %

Isles Notes for 2/6

New York Islanders recall D Aaron Ness on emergency basis from Bridgeport, where he has is 2-15-17 and +6 in 46 games. Hamonic (broken nose) and Jurcina (lacerated elbow) out.  This will be the NHL debut for Ness.

Lines in practice: Moulson-Tavares-Okposo; Grabner-Nielsen-Rolston; Martin-Bailey-Rakhshani; Niederreiter-Pandolfo-Wallace, Reasoner.

Eric Hornick reports that Islanders prospect Kirill Kabanov suffered a concussion in a QMJHL game according to newspaper, the Guardian.

Giants Win Superbowl XLVI

Big Blue wins by the score of 21-17 over the New England Patriots. 

Eli Manning named MVP.

Islanders Feel The Saber

Last night, Your New York Islanders played Ryan Miller and the Buffalo Sabers. The Sabres’ expectations were high to start the season, but this deep and underachieving team has been a disappointment. The New York Islanders, wearing their alternate black jerseys, came out ready to play. Christian Arnold of @Isleshockeyblog mentions, “#Isles are 5-1-1 in their last seven games coming into tonight's game. 10-5-1 in last 16 games.”

The line up:

Forwards: Moulson-Tavares-Okposo, Grabner-Nielsen-Parenteau, Martin-Bailey-Rakhshani, Wallace-Pandolfo-Niederreiter.

Defensemen: MacDonald-Hamonic, Streit-Staios, Eaton-Reese. Montoya in goal, Nabokov backing up.

Montoya in goal for the Isles tonight.

Milan Jurcina, out, day to day (elbow); Dylan Reese in. Rolston scratched. Per Brian Compton, Head Coach Jack Capuano said Brian Rolston has been very professional. "We had to do something to try to change it up. He's real supportive of the guys."

###

The Islanders jumped out to a 3-1 lead after being out shot 17-9 in the 1^st period with Frans Neilsen (2 and 1) and Josh Bailey scoring for the Islanders. They were able to capitalize on some suspect play by the Sabers. Al Montoya looked pretty good to start the game and the defense jumped right into the attack while taking care of business in their backend. Could it last against a pursuant Sabers team that needs to gain ground as much as the Isles do if they expect to compete for a playoff opportunity?

The second period would be a weaker effort by the Islanders as the Sabers continue to outshoot New York, 26-18 and cut the Islanders lead to 1. While the Isles led in blocked shots by a margin of 18-2, that means Buffalo is brought more pressure and caused the Isles to scramble in their own zone.

In the final period, the Islanders continued to battle, with the Sabers keeping on the offensive. Travis Hamonic got blasted in the face by a deflection, bleeding heavily as he was ushered off the ice. He is currently riding a streak of 113 consecutive games played for New York. While I knew Hamonic would be missed in the second half of the third period, I wouldn't have thought that Buffalo would tie it so quickly at 3-3 shortly after he left the ice. With time winding down, the Islanders turned up the pressure on Miller, but time expired. They blocked 24 shots to the Sabers 8.

Back to O.T.

With Buffalo buzzing, the Islanders’ hard work created a power play opportunity. The Isles outshot the Sabers 38-37 in the game. The Sabers were able to block most of the Islanders shots of their net, forcing the game to go to a shoot out.

P.A. Parenteau and Frans Neilsen failed to score on Ryan Miller. Boyes and Pominville went lower glove side and straight 5 hole to beat a seemingly out of sorts, Al Montoya.

So New York blows a 3-1 lead and 4 on 3 chance in O.T., falling to Buffalo in the Shootout by a score of 4-3 as they remain 10pts out of 8^th spot at 21-23-7.

Head Coach, Jack Capuano: "I thought we were a step behind tonight, but it's a game we should have won....it was a game of surges tonight."

Back to back games aside, last night’s game was mix of what is good and bad about this Islanders team. At times, they were buzzing, relentless, and strong on the puck. At others, their scoring touch dried up and the defense crumbled, but overall, their recent play has me optimistic. Recently, I’ve spoken about what has worked and what hasn’t with the team. I’ve implicated players and challenged the coaching staff.

In the present, although improving, I am still waiting for Niederreiter, Grabner and Streit to meet expectations. I think a lot of positives have evolved, despite the slow start so far. While Coach Capuano is a great X’s and O’s guy per Garth Snow, I am inspired by the recent surge the squad has shown and how good the special teams have been for most of the season. They are playing like a team and I think the coaching staff is getting a lot from the current roster, but I am not sure its enough to get the them to the next level.

Bridgeport has a strong group doing great things in the AHL. They lead the Atlantic division with a record of 23-18-3, good enough for 3rd in the conference as they continue to win. In the next two seasons, I see some players to really be excited about. Poulin, Ullstrom, Rakhshani and Reese are getting a look now and look like they belong. Strome, Cizikas, DiBennedetto are all intriguing on offense. Players like Kabanov and Petrov could prove to be exciting additions.  deHaan, Donovan and Ness seem to be strong defensive prospects with Nillson in net. I still believe Gillies and Haley have something to add to the mix and players like Nelson, Lee, Theoret, Katic, Kichton and Mayfield are bright spots for the future as well.

Comebacks and the results of 1-goal games can tell the story of a season. But losing leads and just not getting it done can tell one as well. Digging down deep in order to win the close game is what an NHL team needs to do to be great. Doing this consistently makes a good team, great. A contender. A winning culture.

Dave Maloney on MSG’s Hockey Night Live said, "The Isles are not a playoff team." What do you think?

 Isles Notes:

Remember Hamonic’s injury and hope he is ok.  No updates as of yet, not a good sign.
UPDATE:  Arthur Staple reports Travis Hamonic needed surgery to repair a broken nose, plus stitches. #Isles say he will miss 2 weeks. Took puck to the face last night.

Eric Hornick reported that an Islanders win last night would have gotten them to an NHL 500. The last time they were .500 this late in season @ 32-32-7 was in Mar 2008. They came into tonight’s contest at 21-22-7.

The Islanders are currently ranked 6^th in PP at 19.8% and 8^th in PK at 84.8%.

The Islanders will face the Flyers in Philadelphia on Tuesday @7 pm and the Canadiens, Thursday @7pm and Kings 1pm on Saturday at home in New York.

I will be covering the President's day game vs. the Ottawa Senators at 1pm on Monday, 2/20 for Dee Karl and her 7th Woman Islanders blog!

Good luck to my New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI today!

Isles Notes for 2/3

With Islanders legend, Billy Smith in the house last night, your NYI defeated the Ottawa Senators at home by the score of 2-1 in O.T.  Eric Hornick points out that, “the Isles are 2-0-0 since the All-Star Break and 5-1-1 in their last seven games. The win moves the Islanders into a tie with Tampa for 11^th place in the East; they are nine points behind 8^th place Toronto and hold a game in hand over the Leafs.”

Forwards: Moulson-Tavares-Okposo; Grabner-Nielsen-Parenteau; Martin-Bailey-Rakhshani; Niederreiter-Pandolfo-Wallace.

Defensemen: Streit-Staios; Hamonic-MacDonald; Eaton-Jurcina.

Nabokov in goal.  Brian Rolston and Dylan Reese scratched.

Matt Martin (6), P. Parenteau (35)

Mark Eaton (1), M. Jurcina (4) and P. Parenteau (36)

The Isles outshot the Senators 32-24 with Evgeni Nabokov making 23 saves on 24 shots with a .958 Sv%.

Tom Mascioli @islesinfo reports that the Bridgeport Soundtigers “defeats Portland 6-2. They have won 11 of their last 12 games. 8th straight road win. 2 goals each for Romano & DiBenedetto.”

Bridgeport Sound Tigers report that Casey Cizikas and Kevin Poulin are only the third pair of teammates to win AHL monthly honors in the same month.

The New York Islanders put Anton Klementyev on unconditional ($125) waivers for mutually-agreed contract termination.

Winning Is The Only Thing

Last night in Carolina, the Islanders found a way to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 5-2.

 

Forward lines: Moulson-Tavares-Okposo; Grabner-Nielsen-Parenteau; Martin-Bailey-Rakhshani; Niederreiter-Pandolfo-Wallace.

Defensive pairs: Streit-Staios; Eaton-Jurcina; Hamonic-MacDonald.

Eric Hornick points out that It marks the third time this month the Isles were able to beat Kirk Muller’s squad, a team that they have consistently had difficulty in defeating. Rhett Rakhshani looked good after being called up for the game.  He showed the hockey vision and stick work he has been known for in the AHL.  I think he has earned a serious look on the big squad, especially with how well he played with line mates Matt Martin and Josh Bailey.

Parenteau, Moulson, Okposo and Tavares (2) all scored for New York.  Three Islanders are among the top 21 in NHL scoring: Tavares is 3rd (53 pts), Moulson is 17th (46 pts), & Parenteau is 21st (45 pts).

Kevin Poulin looked solid in the contest.  He battled hard and made a few key saves, especially after the Hurricanes tied the game at 2-2, coming back with a vengeance in the third period.  The Islanders held fast and continued to battle behind John Tavares and finished off the hurricanes with consistency and discipline.  Head Coach, Jack Capuano had this to say about Kevin Poulin’s performance against the Hurricanes, “I thought he played exceptionally well and gave us a chance to win this game tonight.”  Poulin had 21 saves on 23 shots with a .913Sv%.  Brian Compton states that Kevin Poulin became the fourth different goalie to win a game for the Islanders this season, it was his first NHL win since February 5^th.

The Islanders continue to play well, stay in games and compete hard against a myriad of opponents.  They have been able to win against teams that have traditionally given them trouble.  This could be an indicator of their development as a team.  My main concerns are consistency and secondary scoring.  Individually and in groups, some Islanders are having great years. 

Examples are the Tavares line, PA Parenteau, A-Mac and Hamonic just to name a few.  When I compare the Islanders to some of the top NHL teams, they have a lot of similar components and attributes on paper.  What they don’t have is as many wins.  That is really all that matters to a top team, so what is the problem then?

The wins need to come and this falls on the coaching staff.  Coach Capuano and crew need to continue this streak and show they are capable of building confidence in the group of current players.  We know another top Defensemen and Forward would be nice, but more needs to be done with the current squad.

Isles Notes:

NHL.com reports that John Tavares has been named 1^st Star of the month for 'Three Stars' of January.  They say, “In 13 games this past month, Tavares registered 9 goals and 13 assists while displaying remarkable consistency in being held off the score sheet just once. His 4-point night against the Hurricanes marked the sixth time in January he had a multi-point game -- Tavares also had a pair of 3-point games and three 2-point efforts. He also had 4 game-winning goals and had a hand in 62.9 percent of the Islanders' goals (22 points on 35 goals).”  The Islanders went 7-5-1 during that stretch.

Eric Hornick reports that John Tavares has 5 career 4-point games; since 1994-95 only 1 Islander had more 4-pt games. Ziggy Pallfy had 8 of them.

Brian Compton reports that over the last 14 games for John Tavares: 11 goals, 15 assists. Eight multi-point games.

Bill Both of @BCISLEMAN says the win vs Carolina gave the Isles “15 pts for Jan. If they had 15 pts a month, they'd have 60 pts & be in 6th seed.  Need 47 of remaining 64 pts.”

The New York Islanders announce a preseason game in Brooklyn on Oct. 2 vs. Devils.

Kevin Poulin has been returned on loan to Bridgeport.

Tom Mascioli of @islesinfo reports that "Casey Cizikas has been named Reebok/AHL Player of the Week for period ending Jan. 29, 2012. Went 4-5-9 in 3GP, +5."  Cizikas represented the Bridgeport Sound tigers in the AHL all-star game and had a goal in the game.

The Islanders are at Ottawa on Friday, 7:30pm and at home against Buffalo on Saturday at 7:00pm.