Isles Star Is Rising

Tonight, your New York Islanders will face the Dallas Stars, who they swept in the season series last season. The Isles are 8-3-3 in their last 14 games against the Stars and will look to keep that kind of success going into tonight.  Some interesting facts about these Islanders were pointed out by Eric Hornick today.  "Isles look to get to 12 pts in 8 games w win tonight. Would be 2nd best start in post-Cup era (6-0-0-1-1 in 2001-02). Had 11 pts in 87-88," and "Isles win tonite would also match best home start (done many times) since 84-85 thru 4 home games."  The Isles hold their, "Hockey Fights Cancer Night," tonight where they will auction off special purple jerseys worn by the players during warm ups.  A great cause to stand up for.  I Love you Mom. R.I.P.

Forwards:  Conacher-Tavares-Okposo, Grabovski-Nielsen-Kulemin, Lee-Nelson-Strome, Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck.

Defensive Pairings:  Leddy-Boychuk Hickey-Visnovsky de Haan-Straight.

Chad Johnson will get the start tonight in net with Jaro Halak on the bench.

In the first period, the Stars come out flying, but the Isles good, especially in their own end.  Chad Johnson with some huge saves early.  Anders Lee (Hickey & Nelson) deflects a puck put on net by Thomas Hickey, 1-0 Islanders.  Anders Lee could be the larger, modern day Pierre Turgeon.  Let that sink in.  Cory Conacher takes a Jon Tavares feed and almost gave the Isles 2.  Anders Lee and Calvin de Haan come close as well.  Islanders are buzzing, skating well and attacking the Stars in their own zone.  Johnson thinks he has the puck; it deflects to an open spot, Dallas ties game at 1-1.  Nikolay Kulemin with a great grab off the boards puts in a blast for his first of the year, 2-1 Isles.  It’s a SHG.  The period ends with a 10-8 shots advantage for Dallas, but Isles leading in face offs 10-8.  Isles had 2 strong PK performances in the period.  I am liking the chemistry of the second and third lines tonight.  The Maven bashing the Officials for pro Dallas calls. Love it.

 

 

 

Brock Nelson (Strome & de Haan) scores to make it 3-1 Islanders.  Johnson comes up big on Visnovsky shorthanded giveaway.  And just like that, Dallas scores to make it 3-2.  The Islanders looking a bit rattled in the period.  Stars tie game on PP, 3-3.  Anders Lee with some good looks on the man advantage, but Isles fail to score again.  Islanders fail on several clearing attempts and making mistakes the Stars are waiting for.  Dallas takes the lead, 4-3.  Just :30 seconds later, Resilient Isles score to tie the game at 4-4.  Lubo Visnovsky (Okposo & Conacher) rips a slap shot past Lindback.  Isles escape the second tied, but are giving Dallas too many PP chances, including one to start the 3^rd period.  Isles pulled ahead in shots in the period (31-9) and are still leading in face offs (21-17.)  Per Dan Savarino, Brock Nelson: "Just relax, get back to our game."  It must at least be noted, that the officials are calling a very inconsistent game tonight. 

In the third period, the Isles are forced to kill the remaining 1:54 of a Stars PP opportunity.  Dallas had no shots on net.  Another good kill for the Isles PK.  Nikolay Kulemin and Frans Nielsen get an odd man rush off a crossbar, and a Mikhail Grabovski pass, Nielsen makes it 5-4 Islanders.  That’s the 200^th pt. Of Kulemin’s career.  The line connects again for another odd man rush and Frans Nielsen (Grabovski and Visnovski) makes it a 6-4 Isles lead.  A few seconds later, Dallas capitalizes on a bad bounce, making it a 6-5 Isles lead.  The Isles can be explosive at times.  Get that dialed in and look out.  Empty net for Dallas with 1:03 remaining.  Dallas calls a time out with 45.4 remaining.  Officials somehow put 3 extra seconds on the clock.  Frans Nielsen gets an ENG with 1/10 of a second left in the game!  First career hat trick for Frans Nielsen and he does it all in the third period.  Isles win 7-5!  Nikolay Kulemin gets the 2^nd star and Frans Nielsen gets the 1^st star of the game.

 

 

The Islanders brass needs to find a top line winger for the first line.  Cory Conacher has done some good things, but isn’t enough to be a consistent contributor.  Nikolay Kulemin can be the guy, but he needs some real consistent time with JT and KO.  Not to mention, I like the Grabovski, Nielsen, Kulemin line.  If Kulemin isn’t the guy for the coaching staff, an acquisition should be made to optimize their effectiveness. 

John Tavares had a bad game.  He was guilty of several turnovers tonight.  Matt Martin as well.  Poor decisions, some that resulted in PP’s for the opposition.  Chad Johnson was hot and cold.  The negatives in his game were a few goals he would love to have back, poor positioning and letting up high visibility goals.  The team iced too many pucks and needed to check better in this game.  It resulted in 5 goals against and that won’t win you too many games.  They finished behind on shots 31-28 and the PP went 0 for 2.  The goaltending needs to better.  As good as Halak and Johnson (26/31 with a .839 Sv% tonight) have been, their Sv% & GAA needs to improve, but its way too early to panic.

Some of the good things were the play of Lubomir Visnovsky, Calvin de Haan, the Grabovski, Nielsen, Kulemin & Lee-Nelson-Strome lines.  Lee, Kulemin and Visnovski got their first goals of the season tonight.  Frans Nielsen gets his first career hat trick and 1^st star honors.  Nielsen is a relentless player on both sides of the puck.  He played an unbelievable game tonight.  The Isles responded again and preserved the win in the third period.  They had the edge in face offs 32-26 & went 4 of 5 on the PK.  They improve to 6-2-0 with 12 pts., good enough to retain 1^st in the Metro and sit at 2^nd in the eastern conference.  They are riding the second best start in franchise history since the Stanley Cup era.  The team has scored throughout the lineup and that’s why they have hung in and won games.

Jeff Capellini had the quote of the night.  “I'm saying this now: I know who was on board before the bandwagon started. You will be denied admission. I promise you.”  Even with some unresolved issues, you gotta love most of what this team brings.  Don’t let any Coaches, Players or NHL Officials ruin that.  Just be proud that you love this team as much as I do and these guys are a great bunch to invest yourself in.  Being a fan is about enduring the tough times and we have all done that.  Now, let’s beLIeve that the Isles have a chance to shock the NHL world this season. 

 

 

Its been a great start so far.

 

 

 

Isles Notes:


The Isles are home to face the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, 10/28 @ 7pm and will be in Colorado to face the Avalanche on Thursday, 10/30 @ 9pm.

The attendance was announced at 15,208 tonight.

Mikhail Grabovski has been taken off the team's IR list. Josh Bailey has been placed on IR retroactive to Oct. 23rd.

Per Arthur Staple, Michael Grabner (hernia surgery) could begin skating next week.  Josh Bailey (hand) saw a specialist today.

 

 

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My Mother died of cancer on April 13th, 2013.  I Love you Mom. R.I.P.