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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82684330823144674432014-10-28T23:43:13.055-04:00NYI FYIThe Official Blog of NYI FYI Since 2007Chris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-46163537150216626042014-10-26T20:46:00.001-04:002014-10-26T21:03:43.057-04:00Isles Defeat Stars 7-5 Behind Nielsen's Hat TrickThe Islanders really like those track meets, don't they?

On Saturday night it was another high scoring affair, and for the second consecutive season an evenly matched Dallas Stars team came into the building and gave up a hat trick to an Islanders center.

Last year it was John Tavares getting the hat trick in a 7-3 win; this year, it was Frans Nielsen who scored an empty netter with 0.1 seconds on the clock to give himself the hat trick and seal his teams 7-5 win in a game that left many clutching their heads and both goaltenders staring up at the rafters more often than not.

Nielsen celebrates 2nd of game. Photo by C. Hessel

After looking very good in Boston, the Islanders chose to continue riding Chad Johnson and his hot hand. He had made many initial saves on those chances the Bruins had in the slot, and certainly with a Dallas team that has some good size up front it seemed that would be necessary again. For the Stars, Kari Lehtonen had already played in the shootout win over the Devils the night before so giving Anders Lindback another look seemed like a good idea.

But what we learned rather quickly was that these two teams are close replicas of one another.

Both teams have explosive offenses and slightly undersized defenses that will give you some room to maneuver more often than not. And for goaltenders, this is a recipe for a messy time.

Neither of them will be all too happy with their goals against averages or save percentages, but Johnson is obviously a happier man than Lindback.

Thomas Hickey I felt had a rough game, despite being out there for more good than bad. In the past he has compensated for his lack of size well, but he looked to me like he really struggled with this on Saturday night. But he is still shaking off the effects from having all those stitches on his face as he tries to play through the pain while wearing and trying to adjust to a shield.

Aside from Hickey, the defensemen definitely had an active game as far as getting involved with the play. It led to plenty of odd-man rushes from both sides and for Lindback, some very unfortunate goals. Brian Strait on the Isles side definitely looked a bit shaky and gave up some pucks in pretty vulnerable areas.

This is a game that's really hard to evaluate the good and the bad on, but we can talk about some of the good. The Islanders new look 2nd line was all sorts of good. Nielsen centered Nikolay Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski, with the latter returning after missing just a few games with concussion like symptoms. After telling the media earlier in the day that he was good to go to try and dispel any feelings of being rushed like the ones I had, Grabovski looked very good and brought his usual speed while mixing in some nice passes.

Kulemin finally got himself into the goal column, a welcome sight after what had been a series of very solid games for him. I liked him playing some shifts with Tavares and Kyle Okposo in Boston and am curious to see some more. But he had good chemistry with Nielsen and Grabovski and got some shifts late in the game with the top line when the Isles were trying to hold onto and extend the lead.

Speaking of Tavares and Okposo, neither were factors in the scoring of this win, which is astounding. Okposo did make the pass to Lubomir Visnovsky for his goal but aside from that the top line had a quiet game, which is a tip of the cap to the depth the Isles have assembled for themselves this year.

The officiating was interesting to say the least, and pretty inconsistent. But the Isles had two powerplays that they didn't do much with, including one with extended time in the offensive zone but they didn't get much besides a couple of nice shots and some fancy passes.

The penalty kill even looked good, considering that the Stars had five chances and only scored once. That is a step up for the Islanders as they faced a pretty good couple of powerplay units. The unfortunate thing about this is that it means the Isles gave up four goals at even strength.

But that in turn brings out another positive for the club, because the 0-for on the man advantage means that the Isles scored all seven of their goals at even strength. It's encouraging to see this team able to perform well at 5-on-5 play after their powerplay heavily dominated games in the early going, but they still have to get better on the defensive side before things begin to hit an uneasy point. Ideally, this team and it's goaltending begins to fire on all cylinders before they go for that long road trip out West. Those teams will hurt you if you give them the chance to and the Isles can't afford to have things spiral out of control into yet another November and ruin all the good they've built up so far in their 6-2-0 start.

So we take this game for what it was worth. An exciting, action packed contest between two teams that quite frankly don't put much thought to each other despite being eerily similar, where the Isles gave the home crowd of 15,208 something to jump up and down about well into the night.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-8913218677249510202014-10-19T17:10:00.000-04:002014-10-19T17:10:11.071-04:00Isles Lose First Game, Fall 3-1 to PensThe Islanders started off playing well, keeping things simple and steady while getting save after save from Jaroslav Halak against a Penguins team that seemed a bit apprehensive.

The Penguins gave the Isles some excellent chances to take a strangle hold of the game after Thomas Hickey's first period goal, but the Isles never capitalized. In fact, it was a huge missed opportunity on an extended 5-on-3 man advantage that turned the game around for the Penguins.

After the huge kill, some of which was Islander aided, the Penguins had a bounce in their step, and marched on their way to victory thanks in part to doing the complete opposite of the Isles - cashing in on a 5-on-3 powerplay.

Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist both scored on that entire powerplay sequence, putting the Isles in a situation where they had to battle from behind. What's worse, they were already battling some inconsistency of their own as they really couldn't generate much emotion or extended offensive zone play up to that point.

The uphill battle for the Islanders just got that much harder, and it was almost like you could tell that they would come up short, especially after those two powerplay goals. They just didn't have the life or the same forechecking prowess that got them victories in the first four games, and perhaps it came with the hesitance that both sides showed early on.

A lot of the shots the Isles took in the later part of the game were not of very high risk to the Penguins, as they did a good job of keeping the Isles to the outside. Aside from a save on Kyle Okposo, Marc-Andre Fleury didn't have to make any outstanding save in order for his team to stay in the game. But he made all of the saves he had to, as Halak did for the Isles.

Despite starting off as well as they did, you knew that the powerplay was due for a correction and that's likely what we saw in this game. However the Isles seemed to be set up a differently and tried to run plays more down low rather than from the point since they had trouble getting some of those shots in. It was the right idea but was not very effective against a Pens team that typically does well in keeping opposing forwards away from the net. It was smart for the Isles to try and show something different, expecting Johnny Boychuk to have eyes watching him after what he's done in the early goings. But it was not smart that they kept trying to go to the same well rather than changing on the fly or altering a thing or two.

Travis Hamonic showed the most life when he jumped in after Steve Downie laid a big hit on Frans Nielsen. And the Islanders did play a little better after that point, but ultimately didn't get enough of a jolt they needed to get a puck past Fleury despite coming close a couple of times as the 3rd period drew on.

For the Isles, I think that this game was just decided by special teams play. We saw how missing in a key point can really turn the game around and that's pretty much what happened here. They didn't play with a lot of jump but their goaltender played extremely well and they couldn't pick him up when up two men. They need to get past it and look towards Toronto.

I just consider this one of those games a team will have, where they get several chances with not much doing and they loose an aggressive, tight scoring contest. Now that the Isles got it out of their system, they'll have to go back to playing the forecheck and having that killer instinct on the man advantage. With a vulnerable Leafs team coming in Tuesday, the Isles need to be ready to play once the puck drops - and not a moment later.

Grabovski out with Concussion: Art Staple reported in Newsday that Mikhail Grabovski actually did suffer a concussion, despite the Isles not announcing it right away as one. It certainly is a blow for those of us hoping that is was just an injury that would keep him out a few weeks.

Grabovski certainly had his bell rung, and with the way he looked the Islanders are in danger of being without one of their best skaters for a very, very long time. Not good when you consider the play he's brought to that 2nd line.

Although Nikolay Kulemin didn't look out of place there on Saturday night, it's still going to be tough to replace that offense. In the organization, it's probably something that Anders Lee can come close to providing and we'll see if the Isles deem that he gets a call-up sooner rather than later.

I'm not sure if I'd do it right away. But it'd be something I would consider after a few games of seeing what this current group can do to fill in the gaps.

Lets hope that it's a speedy recovery on a relatively minor concussion.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-77637165107827095662014-10-18T10:41:00.003-04:002014-10-18T10:53:57.373-04:00Grabovski Out IndefinitelyInfamously, we do not know why one of our star players is out, but all we know for sure is that he is hurt.

 Photo Credit: Getty Images

Going back to the days of Scott Gordon, the Islanders have been very hush-hush in regards to injuries. They never really tell us what is going on, leaving us to wonder what the injury is, the severity of said injury, and the timetable for a players return. To anyone who watched the game against San Jose on Thursday night, the early indication would have been that Mikhail Grabovski had suffered a concussion. He took a hit high, fell to the ice and in the process smacked his head again, and then lied there motionless for what felt like an eternity. I was sitting in section 208, roughly 20 rows up from the injury, and to say it was gruesome would be an understatement. To be honest, it was frightening.

Thankfully, he was able to skate off the ice, and we soon found out that he had not suffered a concussion, but was suffering from an "upper body injury". No kidding. Yesterday, it was Newsday's Art Staple who broke the news about Grabovski not making the trip to Pittsburgh for tonight's matchup against the rival Penguins:

Grabovski won't travel to Pittsburgh with #Isles. Out indefinitely is all I've heard.
— Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) October 17, 2014

I'm going to go out on a limb here and make my own prediction for what is ailing Mikhail Grabovski, who had three points in his first three full games with the Islanders: Bruised Sternum, out 2-4 weeks. This will prove to be a tough loss for the Islanders, who have been to their best start in 12 years. Missing Michael Grabner has proven to be a blow to our penalty kill. Losing Mikhail Grabovski, who has produced early on and has provided depth as scoring, will only make things more difficult for a team who is trying to silence their critics, and who also calls upon Colin McDonald and Eric Boulton off the bench, as it seems that Anders Lee will not be called up just yet. Let's just hope that Josh Bailey's production so far can sustain, at least for as long as Grabno is out of the lineup.

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-Sean Sean "The Golden Boy" Crofthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-22853906829619881912014-10-15T19:34:00.002-04:002014-10-15T19:35:09.872-04:00Isles Defeat Rangers 6-3 in First Meeting of RivalsThe Islanders were nowhere near the best team on the ice on Tuesday night when they played the New York Rangers at MSG, but they were the better team in the only period where that mattered. It helped of course that the Islanders got great goaltending out of Jaroslav Halak that kept them in the game, allowing them to tie late in the second and score four in the 3rd to give the Isles the 6-3 victory.

Halak's outing wasn't without a few blemishes, like the first goal of the game that opened the scoring for Rick Nash. But if you are willing to let the good outweigh the bad - as one should in this game, given the outcome - you can just chalk that up as one of those goals that just "happens."

It was a rather unsurprising goal given what the Rangers were doing early in the game, where they controlled a considerable amount of the play which didn't allow the Isles many chances of their own or give them the opportunity to change lines in the manner they wanted to.

Johnny Boychuk would get the Isles back on track with - what else, a powerplay goal. It may even get to the point where we can start calling those "patented." He continued to show off a low, hard and accurate point shot that gets through every time he winds up, and this shot just flew past the inside of the post. And it wasn't even a full-on slap shot.

A defining moment in the game for Halak was the excellent PK in the middle of the 2nd period. Griffin Reinhart took a bad penalty after a second mistake. His first mistake cost the Islanders a goal when his failed clearing attempt ended up back in control of the Rangers and (2nd time in the period he made mistake).

The hot play from the goalie didn't immediately give the Isles the kick they needed, as they struggled on a powerplay opportunity and spent most of the two minutes chasing the puck in their end. A bad pass by Casey Cizikas to Reinahrt went the other way and if Kevin Hayes hit the net the game would have been wide open for the Rangers.

So the Isles bent but didn't break, and a great shift by Nikolay Kulemin created a tying goal for John Tavares. Kulemin was relentless on the forecheck, demonstrating what he's always been capable of in forcing Mike Kostka to make a bad play.

From that point on the Islanders took over and had the Rangers on their heels, bringing back bad memories from Sunday night for them when they had a similar meltdown against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Another bad play by Kostka gift wrapped Kyle Okposo's 100th career goal. The line of Mikhail Grabovski, Ryan Strome and Brock Nelson generated the next two goals thanks to solid forechecks and getting pucks in deep to go to battle on the boards.

To cap off the scoring, the Isles continued their great board work despite the three goal lead and kept their legs moving, creating the scoring chance that let Nick Leddy get his first goal as a member of the team.

This was a game where the Isles showed a lot of character, and battled through some of their struggles. They likely couldn't have done this without the help of Halak, and he gave them all they needed in order to eventually return the favor.

Improving to 3-0 on the season is huge as the Isles prepare to play some other difficult teams over the next couple of days. Next up are the San Jose Sharks, who are also undefeated on the young season and look like they are fired up after the disappointment of last year. A win would go a long way in ensuring that this isn't just another typical Isles fast start as we've gotten used to the last few seasons.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-87246253522768209222014-10-12T16:49:00.000-04:002014-10-12T16:49:05.996-04:00Isles hold off Tlusty, Canes to Win Final Coliseum OpenerThe Islanders opened the home schedule of their final season at the Nassau Coliseum in the only possible way you could have scripted it, with a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in an atmosphere that certainly had a playoff vibe.

As usual, I was a part of the sellout crowd and to say the fanbase tore the roof off the building would be a fair statement. The amount of energy that came out after John Tavares opening the scoring just over three minutes into the game was truly something special.

The ceremony at the beginning set the tone, with the players coming out as a team in lieu of a normal player-by-player introduction to start the season. This was a cool touch, fitting into the "team" aspect the Isles are trying to instill while going forward with their "We Play for You" slogan. I think it was something that caught everyone off guard but made the moments before the final home opener in the building just that much more special.

The Isles definitely fed off of this momentum, despite not playing as good as they did Friday night in the season opener.

We saw the Islanders continue their PK struggle, as they allowed the Canes to set-up their powerplay from the half-wall. Passes came towards the slot area which allowed Jiri Tlusty to set up two of his three goals on the evening.

Johnny Boychuk provided more of what we came to love of him in the first game, and he connected with Brock Nelson for another tip-in to break the 2-2 tie after the first period.

Photo by Chris Hessel

In his first game for the club, Chad Johnson looked good and made some key saves. However, his one blunder did come in the third period when he gift wrapped Tlusty's hat trick after misplaying a puck into the slot area with Brian Strait to his left and expecting the puck to get through. Griffin Reinhart lost his battle in the corner which allowed the puck to get towards the net in the first place. Reinhart has had a solid NHL debut no doubt but had a few moments in this game where he got caught flat footed. He'll learn that as he plays more games but fortunately it didn't do anything to harm the Islanders too much.

As mentioned Tavares had another fine outing with the powerplay goal to kick things off, however his pass to Cory Conacher was a thing of beauty. It was a great play by Kyle Okposo to get the puck on net to a shaky Anton Khudobin, and a real heads-up move by Tavares to streak up the middle of the slot area to crash the net. Everything on that line seems to be working well because they definitely generated plenty of chances on Saturday night.

Josh Bailey even got into the party, scoring off of a very nice play by Frans Nielsen. Bailey's goal provided the insurance the Isles would eventually need but it really gave us an idea for how fortunate we are to have three strong centers on this team right now between Tavares, Nielsen and Nelson.

Although the Islanders did not trail for any part of the game, there were some scary moments in the third period, particularly in the dying minutes. There was an awful lot of standing around and not enough movement, and this team will tell you that they aren't at their best when their legs aren't churning. It served as a reminder of what we saw last year when the Isles had their fair share of issues in closing out games but when push came to shove they were finally able to get the puck out of the zone and keep it from harms way.

It was an enjoyable experience, a perfect outcome for what will hopefully be a very good season of hockey for the team. Starting the season 2-0 is a huge step in the right direction, but now the Isles will have to turn around and go to battle against teams that are a step better than the Hurricanes. This week will see some tough opponents, the next of which will be the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. The Rangers will play their home opener on Sunday night against the Maple Leafs, although many will look to this game to get more of that "homecoming" feeling for them. As they figure things out without Brad Richards and Dan Boyle (broken hand) this would be a perfect time for the Isles to pounce and really pick up steam heading to the rest of the month.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-47014231674151088892014-10-11T13:41:00.003-04:002014-10-11T13:42:12.816-04:00Nelson and Boychuk Shine in Season OpenerAfter making two huge trades last weekend, the level of anticipation for the 2014-15 season reached heights that no one can remember in recent years to the point where every passing day seemed like it was taking more than 24 hours. On Friday, we finally had our first look at the new look Islanders and they made a nice statement in their 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

We were all unsure of what to expect from new defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy after they were acquired in two excellent deals from Boston and Chicago respectively for a grand total of nothing from the current roster. We knew that these guys would be in the line-up come Friday night, but all they would have had was a few days of practice and no game action with their new teammates.

They paired together, a smart thing for the Islanders to do off the bat and immediately made an impact. Late in the first period, Boychuk would open the scoring on the season for the Isles with a powerplay rocket from the point - one that has earned him the nickname Johnny Rocket from all those years in Boston. The powerplay will be something new for him this season with the increased role and he delivered on the first night of the season.

But the good vibes from Boychuk don't stop there. He also was solid defensively and did an excellent job of protecting pucks along the boards. When he had a forward bearing down on him in races for loose pucks, he always had the answer and kept pucks away from the opposing team, often chipping them out to the right areas. This is something the Islanders have had trouble with for a long time, but on Friday night things seemed much calmer with Boychuk on the ice.

Not to be outdone, Leddy was also solid despite not putting up any points to show for it. He and Boychuk did an excellent job of keeping shots to the outside and Leddy used his speed to control plays and didn't look panicked knowing that he had a step on his man. For these two to be so in sync despite never playing in a game situation together, it shows you how smart they are and how happy we should be to have them in the top four.

Brock Nelson carried his play over from the preseason, where he was the best player on the ice most nights and the one who showed the most improvements. Centering Ryan Strome and Mikhail Grabovski, Nelson had two goals and two assists on way to a fist star selection. The favorite to take that 1st line wing spot going into camp, it will be interesting to see if he lasts for a long stretch as the 2nd line center or if he ends up moving to the top line in a few weeks if he keeps showing the league how much he improved his game in the offseason. However, his line looked good as both Strome and Grabovski contributed in their own ways. Grabovski looked a little better than he did at points during the preseason and had a goal to show for his efforts, despite missing a couple of chances earlier in the game because his mind was working too fast for his hands. On his goal, Nelson made a very subtle yet very key dump in to give Strome the ability to win a board battle and find Grabovski who literally took nothing to shoot at and made it into a goal.

There were points where the Isles actually looked like a team, with everyone working hard and moving their legs. They definitely have a pep in their step, but it's really the first time since the playoffs two years ago where we saw everyone energized and consistently moving. Jack Capuano seems to be instilling a more up-tempo style than in years past, and he has the horses to do it now regardless of how much time Michael Grabner may miss.

Jaroslav Halak faced more of the shots earlier on but went for a long stretch where he wasn't tested with anything tough until the Isles took their 2nd penalty of the game. But he made some nice saves at key moments to keep the Canes off the scoreboard and allowed the Isles to build up a three goal lead. The first goal he gave up was an unfortunate bounce off of a nice shot on the powerplay. The second goal was due in large part to him expecting the pressure John Tavares was putting on Andrej Sekera to be enough and letting his guard down, getting too far into the net and very slow to move back across the ice.

This was a solid building block for the Islanders, although some perspective does have to be put in place. The Hurricanes are a team that many don't have high expectations for this season, and given the improvements made it's a team the Islanders should be beating. No matter of the make-up of these teams, Carolina over the past several seasons have always seemed to have the Isles number - especially when the Isles are the visiting team. So for me, I like the fact they beat a team they should have they they historically have not. I like the fact that they actually maintained and built on a lead in the third rather than chasing for long stretches of the 3rd as we've seen in the past (it still happened but not at crucial points of the period). Winning the first game of the year is always the first hurdle, and a way to get comfortable immediately. The thing that will really tell us something about how much improved this team is would be sustainability. If the Isles can win the home opener, that would be a huge step. If the Isles can rattle off a five or six game winning streak at a couple of points in the season - as many good teams will do - then we will have experienced the full impact. But steps need to be taken and this is a big one.

So now we see how the Isles perform Saturday at home, a place that hasn't been as kind to them in recent years. And if they can take some momentum from there, it will be key as they would head into match-ups with teams much better than the Hurricanes next week.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-89371871273930949482014-09-27T17:42:00.002-04:002014-09-27T17:42:25.637-04:00Isles Second go Against Devils at Barclays Results in a WinThe second game for the Isles at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn went much better than the first one. However, this was not hard to accomplish given that last preseason the Isles lost 3-0 to the New Jersey Devils and didn't give their fans much to get excited about. Friday night was a little different as the Isles came out flying and put the first two goals on the board on the way to their 3-2 shootout win over their rivals from New Jersey.

Off the bat, you could see John Tavares already looked miles better than what we saw in the previous game against the Carolina Hurricanes. I mentioned in my recap from there you could figure he was going to play most of these preseason games to get his legs back in order after the injury and he didn't seem as sluggish. He had some excellent chances around the net and made things difficult for Devils defenders. On the Isles first power play he created something out of nothing, backhanding a loose puck out of traffic to a wide open Ryan Pulock for the Isles first goal of the game.

Johnson stops Havlat to give Isles the win. Photo by C. Hessel

Aside from the goal, Pulock really did have a strong game. He almost fell in the 3rd period allowing the Devils to get a scoring chance but he recovered nicely and got back towards the front of the net. He's gained some bulk over the past year and knows how to use it while not allowing himself to lose his skating skills which he had to use a few times in order to let his team maintain possession.

Colin McDonald is clearly fighting for his spot this year, given that he played with Eric Boulton and Kael Mouillierat. This line did get some solid playing time and showed good energy, and McDonald was able to take advantage of a miscue by Keith Kinkaid to put a puck into an empty net to give the Isles their 2-0 lead.

The Isles penalty kill still had their issues however, and it was what ultimately let the Devils back into the game. The Devils went 2-for-4 on the man advantage.

Despite the Isles play lacking in the second period and the Devils beginning to turn it around, Chad Johnson stood tall and made some very nice saves including one where he stopped Stefan Matteau on a breakaway. Things began to turn against the Isles in the third period, something that we saw a lot of in the past few seasons, but Johnson made some great saves and really kept the score tied at 2-2 while the Devils kept pressing. He finished with 26 saves.

TJ Brennan got a lot of time for the Isles and I thought looked pretty good. He's definitely got a great mind offensively and I felt he picked his spots well when pinching. The other thing that struck me was how accurate his shot was. He never needed to wind up and fire a slapshot. He was able to take strong snap or wrist shots from the point and get them in on net. He's a quick skater too, which came in handy with some of the pucks he was unable to keep in at the blueline, which is something very typical for an offensive defenseman.

Grabovski battles with Brandon Burlon. Photo by C. Hessel

The Isles best line was Brock Nelson centering Nikolay Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski, with Nelson playing the best of the three. They created most of the good offensive chances the Isles had, particularly in the first two periods. Kulemin is big, and he used this size at times. There were times where he could have done more, but of course this is only preseason and there's no need risking injury. Grabovski had a lot of the same traits I pointed out last game, where it seemed like he would make one too many passes. But he skated well and helped generate some chances. It'll be interesting to see him once he gains some chemistry with his teammates, and also once it's determined if his home will be on the wing or at center.

We got our first new looks at the revised shootout rules as well. After falling down 0-1, the Isles scored two unanswered from Nelson and Kyle Okposo and got a nice save by Johnson on Martin Havlat to seal the victory for the Islanders.

It is expected that after the weekend the Isles training camp roster will be pared down considerably and we'll see who has stuck out in their quest to get a spot with the NHL club. The competition has actually been pretty good this exhibition season and will make for an interesting next couple of games for the Isles.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-52248022993212113112014-09-24T23:02:00.005-04:002014-09-24T23:03:22.147-04:00Isles Fall to Canes in Coliseum Preseason GameThe Islanders dropped their only preseason game at Nassau Coliseum on Wednesday night, losing 4-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes thanks to some strong special teams play by their division rivals.

Carolina scored three of their four goals on the man advantage, with one coming on an extended 5-on-3 in the 3rd period. Clearly, the Isles penalty kill still has some kinks to work out although they did have some better moments as the game wore on. At the very least, this game gave them the chance to really get some work in this area. One caveat: the absence of some key members of penalty kills past like Michael Grabner, Josh Bailey and Travis Hamonic.

It's tough to make judgements when these guys are missing, particularly on defense. However, the Isles used Lubomir Visnovsky on the penalty kill for much of the game and I didn't really like the fit there. It seemed like he was easily knocked off the puck. However he did make a few nice breakout passes. Perhaps he's just trying to get his game legs back.

This is definitely the case for John Tavares, who still looked a step slow in what was just his 2nd game since getting injured at the Olympics in February. He had a few nice chances, including a great opportunity in the first but hesitated just a bit too long which allowed Drew MacIntyre to play the puck perfectly, one of his 26 saves on the night. I'd expect Tavares to get a decent workload in the remaining games - likely at his own request - and to be his old self once the real games start up.

MacIntyre actually had a strong game for Carolina, although when the Isles got some better quality chances as the game progressed into the late 2nd and the 3rd period there were some uneasy moments for him.

Brock Nelson added some strength. The changes aren't as noticeable, but when you see him play you can tell. He was stronger on his skates and was able to burst through multiple defenders for a few nice chances. He played on a line with Ryan Strome and Anders Lee, and they started off the game strong but after that I felt they had issues throughout. In particular, Strome and Lee seemed to end up in the same spots of the ice more often than not and got caught a few times because of that, allowing the Canes to go on odd man rushes the other way. It seemed to me like they were trying to do too much, seeing as these two are fighting for a spot on the team to start the season given the glut of forwards.

You can tell Casey Cizikas improved his game on both ends of the ice. Last season wasn't a very high point for him, but the biggest change in him I noticed is his skating. It's clear he worked on that during the offseason, likely at the Isles request as they have added some really good skaters to the organization over the last several months. For Cizikas, it was either improve his game or risk losing his job. He had a good showing, beating defenders to the outside and cutting in on net. One of these rushes resulted in a goal.

Mikhail Grabovski was all over the place in both good and bad ways. The guy just has a knack for the offensive game, and things come second nature to him. All you had to see was his no-look pass on the wonderful chance Tavares had in the first to understand just how special he can be. He also got some penalty kill time and made a really good defensive play on one Carolina attempt at a headman pass. However, it seemed at times he was trying to do too much with the puck which lead to giveaways or a puck in the corner. He's a guy with a reputation for being his own worst enemy at times and certainly in this game when there was a moment where the Isles made one too many passes chances were he was around for it. His skating will be quite an asset for this team though, and there stands a great chance to be more good than bad when you consider he'll likely spend more time playing with a defensively responsible Nikolay Kulemin.

Griffin Reinhart made a nice quick shot near the end of the game to get a puck towards the net, which Strome deflected in. Reinhart showed why he's a favorite to make this club and make an impact on the blueline immediately as he was showcased in several areas. I liked his work along the boards as he used his body to try and protect the puck. The goal that he created was an example of what he did almost on a nightly basis in the WHL for the Oil Kings last season, and it's a part of his game that's developed slowly. I won't go as far as to say his offensive ceiling is high, but it definitely can be slightly better than many are projecting it to be. The defensive game is on par and he was really good at picking his spots as far as when to throw the weight around or when to play the puck.

These few guys will be key to the Isles success this season and it was nice to get a look at them. There's still plenty of games to go for tune-ups, and obviously there are several the Isles will have to make even with the proper situational personnel out there.

It doesn't look like some of these roster battles will be easy. The guys who were in question all offseason have been bringing some good stuff to the table.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-82146528246494895282014-09-22T22:34:00.000-04:002014-09-22T22:36:00.440-04:00Isles kick-off Exhibition Schedule with Sweep of SensThe Isles kicked off their preseason schedule with a sweep of the Ottawa Senators, defeating them 3-2 in a split squad double header on Monday.

In the first game, the Isles went with several of the rookies which gave them a look to see who could possibly have an extended stay with the team as training camp continues to progress.

This of course consists of guys like Ryan Strome, Michael Dal Colle and Griffin Reinhart. Some of the vets who are battling for jobs made their way into this group too (Jack Skille, Colin McDonald).

This game featured only a few regulars, in particular Brock Nelson, Casey Cizikas, Travis Hamonic and Calvin deHaan. New back-up Chad Johnson got the start in net.

Nelson played center between Anders Lee and Sebastian Collberg, who the Islanders got in the infamous Thomas Vanek trade. Collberg seems like a darkhorse candidate to make the team out of camp, but he scored the Isles second goal of the game to try and make his case. During the game, Art Staple tweeted that Collberg is committed to North America, so even if he doesn't make the Isles, he'll be in Bridgeport where it seems like he'll have a good shot and being a top scorer given his style.

The other goals were scored by Nelson and Skille. We had the latter on the show this summer, and after speaking with him he's definitely a guy you can root for. He's in for a tough battle however with all the forwards the Isles brought in this offseason, but seems up to the task and has had a good start to camp even before scoring in this game.

Chad Johnson stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced, although from the radio feed it sounded as though newcomer David Leggio faced the tougher shots. But both goalies did well and it's nice to see Johnson get some repetition and see some rubber early on.

The Isles had more of the regulars in the 2nd game, and won in the shootout thanks to Josh Bailey, Mikhail Grabovski and Cal Clutterbuck.

Clutterbuck won the game in the shootout, while Bailey scored his goal to tie the game at two. Grabovski finished the game with a goal and an assist, giving Isles fans something to be intrigued over despite not being able to see the game.

Of course, everyone has been intrigued since the off-season when Grabovski and Nikolay Kulemin came over in a package deal, giving the Islanders a glut of forwards battling for spots when you took into account Skille and Cory Conacher signed the day before those two. Conacher was the other forward playing with Grabovski and Kulemin against the Sens.

One of the biggest questions we'll see answered in the coming weeks is where Strome fits into the picture. It's already been assumed that Nelson will be given every opportunity and first crack at the first line role along side John Tavares and Kyle Okposo. Conacher played with the line that many felt was most ideal for Strome all summer, while Michael Grabner, Frans Nielsen and Clutterbuck made up a familiar line once again. I'm not sure if Strome really needs anymore time down in Bridgeport, but what happens this preseason will be very telling.

At this rate, even Lee looks like a guy on the bubble. It's still early but time will tell what the Isles end up doing with these guys. Moving someone out at the end of camp, perhaps for a defenseman, would solve multiple issues but the Isles will let things play out and see exactly what they have. Bailey helped himself a little bit in the second game and maybe he'll earn himself more ice time than some of the other regulars as the Isles try and see where he best fits into this team going forward - if at all.

I'd expect many regulars to play in the next preseason game Wednesday against the Carolina Hurricanes - the only game at the Nassau Coliseum in the exhibition season. For all of us, it'll be our first chance to get a good look and properly analyze what we see, especially on defense and in goal.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-62013545701325188112014-07-03T13:32:00.004-04:002014-07-03T13:32:45.998-04:00Isles Busy on First Two Days of UFA: Add Grabovski, Kulemin, JohnsonAlthough the first day of free agency didn't go the way as many had planned, by the end of day two the Islanders entire body of work looked much better and made many who were gloomy at least smile a bit as the Isles showed some life.

The Isles filled one of their bigger holes on the first day when they signed goaltender Chad Johnson to be Jaroslav Halak's back-up for the next two seasons. Johnson will make $2.6 million over the life of the deal.

Johnson was second best of the options on the market in my opinion, coming just behind Thomas Greiss who took a one-year deal with the Penguins. In Johnson the Islanders get a goaltender who put up awesome numbers (17-4-3, 2.10 GAA, .925 SV) playing 27 games in a very good Boston Bruins system. It'd be unrealistic to expect Johnson to put up similar numbers with the Islanders, but he's still a good get as a 28 year old and can have a very good year for the Isles depending on what the defense looks like and how many games he gets.

On defense the Isles added a wildcard in TJ Brennan. He looks like he could translate as a good powerplay option for the team, but it's hard to judge based on the limited NHL time he has seen. The Isles are giving him a one-way contract after putting up a 25-47-72 lines with 115 penalty minutes for the Toronto Marlies and winning the award for the AHL's top blueliner. The Isles are only spending $600K on Brennan and will try and see what he can provide. The fear at first was that the Isles were looking at giving Brennan a shot to be the top-4 guy they were looking for, but that appears to have changed slightly after day two.

The Isles continued adding depth on the first day with Cory Conacher inking a one-way deal, and Jack Skille and Harry Zolnierczyk getting two-way deals.

Conacher is small forward who has shown an ability to put up points playing with top players in the past (Jason Spezza and Steven Stamkos to name a few). Tampa had traded him a few years back in order to land Ben Bishop from the Senators. Conacher played for both the Sens and Sabres last season putting up a 7-19-26 line before not receiving a qualifying offer from Buffalo. Originally it was though that Conacher would be given a more prominent role, but given the other signings it seems like he's slotted in more of a bottom line role. The Isles like the depth he helps provide though and the fact that he's shown an ability to put up points in the past means that he can slot in anywhere in a pinch if need be.

Skille and Zolnierczyk provide some great depth that the team sorely lacked be it down in Bridgeport or up with the big club. Skille is no stranger to this role, and was pretty effective in it for the upstart Blue Jackets this past season. He can provide grit from a lower line and even chip in with some offense and can be a good option along with Casey Cizikas and Matt Martin - should they both be on the team once the summer is over. Isles fans remember Zolnierczyk from his stints with the Flyers and Penguins, where he provided some sandpaper and was a pain to play against. He has good wheels and will definitely be an asset to the organization. Should both players find themselves in Bridgeport, they will be looked at for leadership. The team is very young down there and this is an area they sorely lacked in. Bridgeport could be primed to make some noise next season with the combination of good young players and these solid vets.

Day two is what brought all of the excitement as far as the Isles are concerned. After missing out on all of their top targets, they decided to go in a different route.

Realizing that he needed to add some scoring punch to his line-up, Garth Snow got a package deal of players that helps the case of making a trade for defensive help.

Snow inked center Mikhail Grabovski and winger Nikolai Kulemin to 4-year contracts. Grabovski will earn $20 million for the duration of the contract, while Kulemin will get $16.75 million.

Right off the bat we'll get this out of the way - the contracts are over payments. But that's all that needs to be said here in regards to this. As far as the Isles, and their fans should be concerned? Who cares.

Teams in the Isles position need to overpay for NHL players, and these are two guys worth overpaying for.

Grabovski is the name that everyone knows, after starring with the Toronto Maple Leafs a few years back. After trying to put him in a role that didn't fit his style, Randy Carlyle convinced Leafs management to buy him out (which was met with lots of criticism) and he took a one-year deal with Washington to show that he's still an effective 2nd line center, and it worked out. In just 58 games, Grabovski put up 13-22-35 and demonstrated some good puck possession advanced stats. He'll fit right in with the Isles and provide a more balanced top 6.

Kulemin is the wild card, and many fans are unfamiliar with him. Aside from putting up 30 goals a few seasons back playing with his friend Grabovski, Kulemin has not done much offensively. But what he's lacked in offense he's made up for in defensive play and 'sandpaper.'

Kulemin is a solid 2-way player, and for fans who wanted to see the Isles make a run at Benoit Pouliot this is a good second option. He plays a similar style to Pouliot, although a bit less offensively talented. With Pouliot getting $4 million a season from the Oilers, Kulemin seems to be just about in line with that.

For me personally I'm more excited about the Kulemin signing. I've long liked this player, just as Snow has. He's been in rumors for the last few years and Snow surely showed interest there in discussions with the Leafs. In a different role, Kulemin should be able to produce at a higher offensive clip than he has the past three seasons.

Pairing Grabovski and Kulemin up together really helps expand options for Jack Capuano. In theory Ryan Strome can slide in beside them while Brock Nelson can fill the hole on the top line. Grabovski and Kulemin should get more offensive zone starts that they weren't getting in their finals years in Toronto and be put in positions that better justify their skill levels. This allows the Isles to have Frans Nielsen slide in as the 3rd line center, giving the Isles a very deep crop up the middle.

With the Islanders having many forwards on one-way deals now, it's pretty clear where this is all heading. Conacher was signed for a reason, one would think - and not just to ride the pine more often than now.

It seems pretty clear that it's hard to see long term spots for guys like Josh Bailey and Michael Grabner, as well as Cizikas and Martin as mentioned before. The Islanders began to scratch Martin at points last season when it became clear that the hit king was not helping them as much to win games as in the prior lockout shortened year. In my opinion his game had regressed to the point where it was starting to become a redundancy and the Isles may deem that as something they can part with while another team would place value on it.

Grabner looks to be the most likely to be dealt however, and would have some value to plenty of teams - especially those with a log jam at defense. The Islanders aren't likely getting as much offense out of Kulemin, but he helps replace some of the defense up front they would lose in a potential Grabner deal. Kulemin is also not afraid to throw hits of his own (153 last season) should the Islanders part with a physical player from the bottom six.

Matt Donovan seems to be a prime trade candidate, as well as someone from the list of prospects of Adam Pelech, Ville Pokka, Andrey Pedan and Scott Mayfield. It seems like with the addition of Brennan it kind of muddies the future for Brian Strait and Matt Carkner as well.

All in all it was a good day for the Isles and they took a step forward into molding this into a playoff team. Depending on the potential defensive acquisition, this team could really stand a chance to make some noise. But we'll see what they come up with and how it unfolds. It doesn't seem like Snow is too keen on some of the options that are out there for him, and he'll wait it out until he sees something he likes - or until a team becomes more willing to trade someone, perhaps a more surprising target he could be after who's name we are not hearing in rumors.

Either way, stay tuned - and be proud of the work the Isles have done here. It didn't look like there would be much to be content with, but Snow showed some patience and improved his roster. For that, I'll tip my cap to him as I was one of those ready to pounce on him for more of the same. Now I'll wait patiently to see what his defense looks like.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-54146875592027262292014-07-01T09:00:00.002-04:002014-07-01T09:01:40.329-04:00Free Agent Frenzy - Potential Isles TargetsIt's that time of year again, where hockey fans all across the country pray that their teams are the ones landing the top names out on the open marking to better position themselves to make the playoffs - or in some rare cases, maybe even become a contender for The Cup.

The Islanders got off to their start rather early, trading for the rights to free agent goalie Jaroslav Halak in early May and signing him a few weeks later to a 4-year, $18 million deal.

If there is one thing you should take away from the playoffs this year, it's that you'll go nowhere without strong goaltending. Halak may not be the absolute best option the Islanders had over the past two offseasons, but he is a pretty good one. Sean and I talked about him not only in this space, but on the show numerous times. What I liked about the signing was that he's still just 28 and given where the Isles are is a better option for them over Ryan Miller or Jonas Hiller, the other two big names on the market.

And certainly he's a better option than Evgeni Nabokov, who at this point appears like he may not return at all - not even in a back-up role. But I digress. We'll get to that later.

Garth Snow has certainly tried to carry himself in a different manner this offseason but with mixed results. After getting Halak in the fold, he took a swing at bringing in Dan Boyle, who did not sign with the team and will head out on the open market. This was quite a different gamble than Halak, who didn't have much leverage when you consider the small amount of goaltending jobs available and the amount of goaltenders that were looking for, or potentially looking for, new work.

With the Boyle move Snow made it clear that he needs to add a body on defense, and preferably someone in a top-4 role who is very capable of moving the puck. After Halak, a top-4 defenseman is the Islanders most glaring hole. It was not addressed at the draft, so Snow will have his work cut out for him to add one from free agency otherwise he'll have to hope that a good option becomes available via trade.

We'll start with defense since it is the biggest hole and potentially has some more options available to the Islanders, based on need and who they've contacted.

Keep in mind, it would be easy to simply list the top names at each position and say "this is what they should do." But the fact of the matter is we are dealing with a team that doesn't have the management or the pedigree like other teams which already puts them behind the eight ball in regards to free agents. Guys like Matt Niskanen, Mike Cammalleri and Christian Ehrhoff will only likely just listen to the Isles rather than seriously negotiate and consider playing for the team.

Just because the top names are virtually unavailable to the Isles doesn't mean they can't get creative on a few lesser names to fill out a playoff contending team. Whether they do that or not is even up for debate unfortunately, but you'd like to think that given the lack of a first round pick next season there is some urgency on Snow's end to potentially land some of the better options be it through extra money or incentive. If you read between the lines in Art Staples latest piece, this sounds like a long shot at best. But as always we'll just have to see what the day brings.

So, having said that, here are names that you should try and keep in mind as we head into the silly season for the Isles.

DEFENSE

Andre Benoit: It's OK, you can admit it - you have no idea who he is. Neither did many others despite having played in the NHL prior to signing with the Avalanche last season. The Avs liked what they saw in Ottawa and gave Benoit a shot. He along with Nick Holden were 1/3 of a defense that seemingly came out of no where to help lead the Avalanche back to the playoffs. He notched seven goals and added 21 assists while logging around 21 minutes per night and sprinkling in some powerplay time but the Avs seem to be willing to walk away from Benoit in the interest of going in other directions to improve one of their weakest positions. The real question here is whether or not he was the real deal. On the surface he seems like a good get, but the advanced stats may suggest otherwise. General Managers seem unsure of what exactly he is, especially coming out of a breakout year as a 29 year old. In a way this situation is similar to Mark Streit's, when Snow signed him back in 2008. Either way, a team will sign him to a multi-year deal at an affordable rate and that could be right up Snow's alley.

Tom Gilbert: Gilbert makes an appearance for a second year in a row on my list, although this time around his story is a bit different. After attending camp as a try out, the Panthers saw enough in Gilbert that they felt comfortable offering him a contract and he delivered for them. He paid them back with solid play for 21 minutes a night, scoring three goals (two on the powerplay) and adding 25 assists. As a youngster he was considered a very mobile two-way defenseman and this past season got back to basics and showed signs of play that made him successful in years prior. Gilbert is likely looking at a 3-year deal in the range of $3 million per season and could be a good two-way guy for Snow to sign.

Dan Boyle: Snow has repeatedly made his push to the soon-to-be-38 year old puck mover and seems poised to do that until Boyle signs on the dotted line somewhere. Although Katie Strang reports that Boyle is considering the Isles as one of the five teams he'd go to, it remains to be seen if he'd really pass up the opportunity to play for a contender, or for a team close to his home in Canada (Maple Leafs). Despite the age and what many see as a decline in play, Boyle can still move the puck with the best of them, put up numbers (12 goals last season) and the fact that he's a right handed shot has many GMs paying attention. He's looking for a two year deal that many teams likely wouldn't offer, but the Isles seem willing to go there. He'll get around $5 - $5.5 million a year but it's a stretch he'll choose to play for a team like the Isles.

Andrej Meszaros: The Isles have expressed interest in this enigmatic player before, and he's definitely taken a step back from where he was in prior years. His time in Philly was very up and down, which falls in line with his time spent in Ottawa and Tampa Bay as well. He had a solid showing last year after being acquired by the Bruins going 2-3-5 in 14 games and registering 13 hits, but many teams will be weary given the history. His situation is tricky. While I'd consider him on a one-year deal, it's entirely possible a team that needs some bodies on D will offer up a 2 or 3-year deal worth $2.2 - $2.7 million for him.

Kyle Quincey: Here's a guy who is a bit of a mystery this summer. He's shown good puck moving skills in the past, however his game has regressed in the years following that strong performance and here he sits on the open market. The Isles may see this as a good situation for him to get back to being more of a two-way guy (30ish points) and figure they could put him in a spot to succeed. He has age on his side (28), but it should give everyone pause that he's regressed during his prime years. Several teams will likely have ideas in their head regarding Quincey, who still played just under 21 minutes a night for Detroit, meaning he can easily land a 2 or 3-year deal for a comparable salary to what he's coming off of ($3.5 - $4 million).

Jamie McBain: Once a player that fanbases all over licked their chops at for the chance to acquire, McBain has fallen off. As his value decreased, Carolina shipped him up to Buffalo for Andrej Sekera and the bottom dropped out. At 26, he's young and is trying to figure out his place in the NHL. If the Isles inability to land top options shows through once again, look for them to turn to a guy like McBain - despite the lack of a solid two-way game - on a one-year, low cost offer to rebound right into the rest of his prime.

Honorable Mentions: Michael Del Zotto, Tim Gleason, Stephane Robidas

The Islanders hole at forward is a well documented story, starting with shipping Matt Moulson out of town for Thomas Vanek, and then being unable to resign the latter and shipping him to Montreal. The Islanders are comfortable having Ryan Strome and Brock Nelson play more prominent roles next season, but have been in the market for one or two forwards - a top 6, and a bottom line guy.

For the sake of keeping this readable, I expanded a search to include a wide range of guys that the Isles could consider in a top-9 role, similar to what they attempted last season.

FORWARDS

Ales Hemsky: Of all of the 'top' names that are being thrown about, Hemsky probably is the only one with a realistic shot of ending up with the Isles. His career marred by inconsistency mostly thank to injuries, Hemsky finished the year on fire after a trade deadline deal saw him end up in Ottawa. He scored 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in 20 games and showed that skating can still be a strength. If the Isles are comfortable going long term with a player, they may decide to go in this route but Hemsky seems like he can get a 4 year deal worth between $4 and $4.5 million. It's a long shot at best for a team like the Isles as I'm not convinced they would feel Hemsky fits their plans up front given the guys they already have.

Martin Havlat: Similar to Pierre-Marc Bouchard last season, Havlat is a guy who used to be a star but always seems to be climbing an uphill battle with injuries. The latest bout saw him skate in only 48 games with the Sharks, putting up 22 points. However when he's healthy and on his game, he easily is a 60 point player. He can play either wing and has done that consistently throughout his career. He has not played a full year since the 2010-11 season, but did play 40 of 48 games in the lockout shortened one and performance was rather pedestrian thanks to a lower than normal shooting percentage and not playing overseas. If the Isles decide to go more in the direction as they have in the past (low risk, high reward), there is probably no better fit for team and player. I'll stop short of saying a one year deal would be all it took as it seems Havlat may garner a lot of interest from teams looking for some scoring punch.

Lee Stempniak: It pains me to put him on this list, but the Isles seem confident enough in some of the young forwards they have to the extent where they are rather open to who they bring in for certain roles. Stempniak might fill a leadership void that's left in the top-9 and can chip in offensively. One would hope bringing him in would not mean he'd have a top-6 role, but stranger things have happened here. He's still very capable of putting up around 35-40 points and could be real good in a checking role. He'll be able to land a multi-year deal in UFA for low money per season.

Mathieu Perrault: Many are surprised to see Perrault hitting UFA, although the odds are in the favor of him eventually re-signing with Anaheim. But it appears he'll test the market, and at 26 will have plenty of suitors. There's a catch with Perrault, however - between Anaheim and Washington, although he's put up points neither team put him in a prominent role. He only averaged 14 minutes a night for the Ducks and still managed an 18-26-43 line with just nine of those points on the man advantage. This is a player the Islanders may see potential in, and would be more inclined to give him a shot with more ice time. And given that Perrault finds himself on the market he may be more willing to sign with a team that would just guarantee him the most ice time rather than a bonafide contender. If he goes that far, this would be an interesting name to watch. However, he typically plays center and we know the Isles story there.

Brad Richards: Come on, you knew this one was coming. The moment Staple mentioned Richards name, you knew this was possible. Snow has liked Richards for a long time, going back to when he was available on the trade market in 2007-2008. Snow kicked tires back then, and although there was nothing doing he's always had respect for the player. Now a UFA thanks to the buyout by the Rangers, Richards is looking for a home and may not want to stray too far from where he thought he'd be spending a significant part of the next decade of his life. Lots of people are alarmed, and there is reason to be. However if the Isles are looking to bring him in I'm not convinced it's to play a role up the middle. After landing in Dallas, Richards played wing and looked pretty comfortable there. Of course this was several years ago by this point and Richards has lost a step. But I think he can still be effective from the wing with less responsibilities than he would have at center. An ideal contract would be one or two years, around $4 million a season but given what the market yields for 50 point getters and the need of many teams up the middle despite his deficiencies, a three or four year deal is not out of the question for him - and hopefully that would not come from the Isles.

Mason Raymond: Similar to Gilbert's story above Raymond was a guy who went to camp with the Maple Leafs and got a contract out of it to prove that he can still contribute as a speedster at a 50 point clip. Raymond is definitely going to get a multi-year contract, especially at the age of 28 and if the Isles decide to go for more years in someone this could be a good option for them. He'd fit the system and work well with some of the other forwards they have and could show even more skill similar to what he had earlier in his career in Vancouver. I'd expect Raymond to get around $3 to $3.5 million per year though and for what he provides the Isles may deem that to be a bit rich for their blood.

Honorable Mentions: Milan Michalek, Nikolai Kulemin, Mike Santorelli, David Booth

We know who the Isles will have as their starter next year, but back-up is another story. Actually, aside from Halak there really is nothing immediate in the pipeline. Anders Nilsson has bolted for the KHL, while Kevin Poulin could either be here or not. The Isles have offered him his qualifying offer until they can decide better what to do with him, but right now it seems like their preference is to have him as the #3 guy and down in Bridgeport. So if the Isles wanted to add a true back-up, here are some of the options - as unsurprising as they are given all the chatter that's taken place up until this point.

Justin Peters: I'll start off with him since his name has been mentioned in connection with the Isles, and the interest appears to be mutual. Peters stepped in and performed admirably for the Hurricanes, particularly when Cam Ward went down with injury. He had a nice .919 save % in 21 games last season, in which he faced an average of 30 shots per game. At 27 years old the Isles could theoretically bring him in for a couple of seasons if they felt so inclined.

Thomas Greiss: A favorite of many, Greiss seems to be one of the top names as far as back-ups go because of the total package. He's young, and he's put up solid numbers playing behind some good starters in his career with stints in San Jose and Arizona. Many teams needing goaltending will line up, and his performance for a stretch last season will make a team that needs some competition in goal look longingly in his direction. In 25 games with the Coyotes, he had a 2.29 GAA and .920 save %.

Chad Johnson: Another favorite, Johnson stepped in and relieved one of the NHL's best last season as he appeared in 27 games for the Bruins. A 2.10 GAA and .925 save % have GMs all over salivating. This might mean he'll get over the $1 million mark, and a team like the Isles may be scared away by that.

Anders Lindback: Lindback has been the definition of disappointment since landing in Tampa Bay after some promising performances in Nashville behind Pekka Rinne. After refusing to tender him an offer, the tall Swede finds himself on the open market. Snow has shown a liking to bigger goalies in the past and may want someone with size backing up Halak this season, that is if Lindback is to remain in North America. There may not be many options for him here though, with several quality back-ups available and only so many spots.

Honorable Mention: Evgeni Nabokov, Ilya Bryzgalov, Al Montoya, Ray Emery

So there's some of who I'll be focusing in on today, to see what teams are thinking in regards to some of these players. In general we have an idea of what teams are in on certain players, thanks to the tire kicking period that began on June 25.

Once again we heard how active the Isles were, but we'll see if any of the work they've done comes to fruition. When you look at the body of work and the history, it dictates otherwise. The Islanders are hard pressed to pitch a good future to UFAs given the lack of success over the last several years and some of the off ice items definitely muddy up waters for them.

But either way we'll see if the Isles pitch strikes a chord with anyone out on the open market.

Happy Free Agency Day, and Canada Day to all those celebrating! Happy Hunting!

- Chris Chris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-46105631366344385512014-03-05T10:29:00.004-05:002014-03-05T10:29:28.639-05:00Isles beat Jets after Sending MacDonald to FlyersThe Isles had one more game to play before the trade deadline, but they were already in the mindset of it being life after March 5th, with Andrew MacDonald (traded) and Thomas Vanek (waiting to be traded) both out of the line-up.

With a lean roster, the Isles had a chance to see what they had in guys who haven't had extended looks with the big club as of yet. It resulted in a 3-2 overtime victory in Winnipeg.

The Isles had some solid contributions from Ryan Strome and Anders Lee. Lee scored his third goal since being called up after the Olympic break ended last week.

Anders Nilsson got the start, to the chagrin of many fans out there who were left scratching their heads as to why he's get the nod after a less that stellar effort in the 3rd period of Sunday's tilt vs. Florida. For me, it's easy to understand.

The NHL is going through a musical goalie campaign, evidenced by Tuesday's trades. The Islanders are at a crossroads in net. They know what Evgeni Nabokov can provide and it's still back-up worthy for the NHL. But what about Kevin Poulin or Nilsson? We've seen a good sample out of Poulin to realize he isn't much of an answer. So that leaves Nilsson.

The Isles won't have much room for error going forward with their goalies. With so many names of younger guys flying around, they need to understand what they have in these two sooner rather than later. If you sign a starter, do you need to sign guys for Bridgeport? The Isles could add anywhere from one to three new goaltenders to the organization this summer and now is the time for them to decide.

Having said all of that, I thought Nilsson played pretty well. Some of the angles are a bit off, but you can see that he has his moments - both good and bad.

Despite looking strong early on, the Isles allowed the Jets to slowly get back into the game as they allowed plenty of scoring chances. Lots of scrambling in front of Nilsson only yielded two goals, however, and gave the Isles the chance to win on Michael Grabner's overtime breakaway.

Grabner has been playing better of late too, at least on the offensive end. All season long he seemed to have the defensive side of his game up to snuff and now it's nice to see the confidence increasing with each goal scored - including the ones from the Olympics.

But enough about this game. We'll get to the more important stuff...

A-Mac's Isles tenure ended on Tuesday. Photo by C. Hessel

Andrew MacDonald to Flyers: Yes, as alluded to earlier the Isles already moved one of their trading chips, shipping MacDonald to the Philadelphia Flyers for a 3rd round pick this summer, a 2nd round pick in 2015, and forward Matt Mangene - who isn't much of a prospect, and never really was.

I like the fact that the 2nd round pick is in the 2015 draft, which by all accounts will be very deep and full of talented players in the first few rounds. The 2015 picks will have value and the Isles can package them to try and get more immediate help for next season, that is if they choose to do so.

It's frustrating to be going through yet another year of this however, and I'll go out on the limb and say I'll be upset if some of these assets are not used to make the team better in the more near term. With holes throughout, and now a glaring one next to John Tavares, this team seriously needs to figure out what their plan is going forward because having disappointing seasons and accumulating picks year after year isn't much of a plan.

So the Isles have one more player to move in Vanek. Everyone else will likely stay for now. I wouldn't expect the goaltending holes to be plugged on Wednesday either. That will be something the team addresses more in the offseason when they can see their options.

We'll see what Wednesday provides. I'll have some thoughts on the deadline as a whole after we hit 3 PM and see the dust settle.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-43067278878577520802014-01-28T13:24:00.004-05:002014-01-28T13:28:19.014-05:00Isles Fall Flat as Bruins Pounce on Miscues in 6-3 WinThe Isles small rut continued as they dropped their third straight game, falling in a back-and-forth game that the Bruins ended up having the last laugh in. They had lots of trouble, particularly when it came to trying to contain the line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith. Marchand lead the way with four points.

Matt Martin was clearly not happy with his, or his lines performance against Marchand's line in particular, not to mention for the entire Bruins team. Martin, Colin McDonald and Casey Cizikas combined for a -10 rating on the night.

"They're a speedy line, they had a couple of bounces. As a line we were on for three or four goals against and that obviously can't happen."

Chara, Marchand and the B's had their way. Photo by C. Hessel

Jack Capuano downplayed the fact that this line stood out, stating that it was pretty even throughout the Bruins line-up. But you can't deny that the most effective chances Boston got came from the goal line plays that this line ran every time they were out there.

Smith scored a goal when Shawn Thornton threw a puck at the far post from his half wall and caught Matt Carkner sleeping on the job for what ended up being an easy goal. Carl Soderberg scored when Thomas Hickey stumbled after failing to knock an airborne puck down and Soderberg had it relatively easy by that point.

It wasn't all bad for the Isles, who were able to answer each of the Bruins goals until Soderberg did his damage, which came in the final minute of the second period. First and foremost, Lubomir Visnovsky and Evgeni Nabokov both returned from their injuries. For Visnovsky it was a long time coming, and I'd expect it'll take some time for him to completely shake the rust out of his game which we saw at a couple of points in this one. Nabokov unexpectedly got into the game with 11 minutes left, finishing the game for Kevin Poulin who didn't have his finest night, although about half of it was because of the team play in front of him.

Frans Nielsen lifted the puck over Chad Johnson for his goal, which came off of his own rebound on a great chance thanks in part to Kyle Okposo. Okposo had a three point night, including a goal of his own after a 2-on-0 break with Michael Grabner right after his penalty had expired. Okposo's goal would answer Smith's to tie the game at three.

Grabner also had a goal, scoring in the slot area on a nice pass by Okposo. What was more impressive here however was that Hickey was brought down, and from the ground with a delayed penalty set to be called he still managed to somehow get the puck to Okposo at the side of the net. It was a great tic-tac-toe play that was essentially created from what looked to be a dead play heading into a powerplay.

Speaking of the man advantage, the Isles left a lot to be desired here. After getting grossly outshot early in the first, they had several attempts on their first powerplay in the game and created some great pressure but it ultimately didn't lead to much. The hope was that this would be an encouraging sign for the Isles on future chances but Johnson and the Bruins kept things to the outside for the most part and didn't give the Isles much to work with. At the same time the Isles didn't do themselves many favors, and had some turnovers that lead to easy Bruin clears.

It was another rough game for Josh Bailey, who had a noticeably weak effort after Grabner's goal. It really killed the momentum for the Isles at that moment as he was easily knocked off the puck, hesitating enough to let Bruin defenders swarm him. Andrew MacDonald also had another rough night and had a turnover that lead to a Bruins rush and ultimately, a goal. Certainly, the 4th line was not all it could have been either and when you're facing a team as big and strong as the Bruins you need those muscle lines to step up. We'll chalk this one up as "one of those games" for a 4th line that's been relatively strong in recent games.

With the Isles not doing themselves any favors, now they'll have a tough test as they face off with the Rangers in the next two games for a very huge four point swing. Somehow, someway the Isles will have to look past all of the hype and emerge with points.

"We have to put it behind us as a team," Martin stated to me after. "This is four huge points for us, and we're trying to catch teams like the Rangers. We have to be ready as a team, as a line and bounce back."

Peter Regin is encouraged by the Isles recently play against their rivals and was optimistic they could keep their heads straight for these next few days. "There's going to be a lot of energy, a lot of excitement. Hopefully we can look past the whole experience (outdoors) and make sure we concentrate on the tasks."

"It's two big games, we need to get four points to stay in this."

If the Isles can stick to this philosophy and get back to what makes them successful then they definitely will be able to stay in the race. But will they be able to get past the atmosphere that comes with playing the outdoor game?

We'll see.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-74713918995092910632014-01-22T18:37:00.005-05:002014-01-22T18:37:46.355-05:00Another Game, Another two goal Comeback for Isles - This Time vs. RangersIf there's one really positive thing we can say about the way this Isles team is playing right now, it's that they never panic when they get down early in games.

Once again, the Isles found themselves in a very familiar position, and once again much to the chagrin of Sean it happened early on in the first period. But after less than stellar defensive plays by Matt Donovan, Calvin de Haan and John Tavares allowed Chris Kreider get control of the puck and find a wide open Rick Nash, there was no doubt he was scoring and the Isles were going to be chasing from behind early once again.

Despite controlling the play it was Nash who scored again, this time on a breakaway thanks to Dan Girardi faking out Andrew MacDonald and finding his man. Kevin Poulin did all he could on the attempt but Nash slid it just under the toe of his pad, blocker side. We've seen Nash do this move time and time again throughout the years.

While one would think a team playing the Rangers would be freaking out right about now, that's not at all the mode the Isles were in. Despite a hot team getting off to a fast start thanks to one of their hottest players in recent days, the Islanders battled back and began the slow but steady climb back into the game.

I liked the fact that they tested Cam Talbot from all angles, and really got a sense for where his and the Rangers' weak spots were. Late in the period the Isles were able to capitalize on this when Tavares was behind the net and found Matt Martin streaking down the middle. Any time a role player scores it seems to bring emotions up, and for Martin it was his first goal in a long time. So it added something to this one.

The sweet spot for the Isles was right around the net and in the slot area, and each one of their goals came there. After Kreider got a bounce to go his way, the Isles regrouped and Kyle Okposo made a fantastic pass to Thomas Hickey, who's been pinching at all the right times lately to help the Isles score some timely goals or generate some great scoring chances. It looked exactly like the play Brock Nelson scored on against the Flyers on Monday afternoon.

The Isles didn't let the momentum go to waste, and with the Rangers on their heels the Islanders pounced just three minutes later, when Tavares took an errant pass back the other way, getting a strong shot in on Talbot causing him to leave a rebound right in the slot. Colin McDonald showed great strength in corralling the puck and turning around to fire a shot high into the net and the game was tied, letting the Isles contingent in the stands (and there seemed to be a lot of them) hoot and holler at their team creating yet another comeback effort.

Some fortunate things have happened to the Isles during this run, and they had some more luck with time ticking down in the third and some tired legs on the ice for a shift. As Tavares carried the puck up center ice, the Rangers were going for a change and Tavares threw the puck towards Kreider who played it just before his man could get on the bench. Was this JT's intention? I think it absolutely was. This was no accident. It appears to be a heads up play by a captain who noticed a lazy change by the opponent and saw an opportunity to give his team an advantage that worked. Most of the time this is a penalty that will get called and it was a no doubter.

The Isles cashed in on the man advantage, the Tavares and Thomas Vanek connection coming through once again. All it took was the Isles needing to hold off the Rangers in the final couple of minutes, and thanks to Poulin they did. As a matter of fact it was pretty much all him as the Isles had trouble maintaining possession and were unable to get the puck out of the zone to get any line changes in. Frans Nielsen finally iced the game for the Isles to seal the comeback.

This is the kind of win I was looking for. Some of you might have noticed me droning on in prior posts about needing quality wins against your own division, and now in two straight games the Isles have done that while coming back from down two goals.

Just being five points out of the playoffs right now is big, despite the fact the Isles have played more games than most of these other teams. Columbus has been on a tear lately and is the team currently in the cross hairs. If the Isles can continue to have quality outings against division opponents it'll be their best path back into the playoff mix. They'll have their next shot against a rival in Pittsburgh, although it's not as important as the Flyers and Rangers of the world since it's unrealistic to think anyone in the division can really catch the Pens by this point. But it's a team the Isles can handle well, and have held their own against this season and if they have another strong showing it could bring in another two huge points.

I'd settle for one.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-84849962004532728402014-01-21T14:12:00.002-05:002014-01-21T14:12:37.132-05:00Isles Battle Back to Split Home-and-Home with FlyersI think we've all finally figured out the Isles strategy for winning games. They cannot have a lead going into the third period.

Once again, the team found themselves trailing after two, with the Flyers holding a 3-1 advantage. While it's tough to say two goal leads are commanding even in today's NHL, this was a game where the Isles did not look too crisp. As a matter of fact, both teams looked a bit sluggish, and the Isles caught a lot of breaks just because of miscues by the Flyers in the offensive zone.

This game felt like it was one big turnover. Neither team seemed able to maintain control of the puck for any length of time and it created some frustrating moments.

The Flyers got on the board first because the Islanders defense was a little out of position, and it allowed Matt Read to skate in on what looked like was going to be a 2-on-1. But John Tavares was a bit lazy on the play and Andrew MacDonald went belly down onto the ice that all Read had to do was lift a backhander over Anders Nilsson. Nilsson also went down early, and it's not a good thing to have a 6'5" goaltender giving up goals on weak shots over his shoulders.

Tavares was able to make up for his lack of defense on this play with some phenomenal offensive efforts throughout the game, and even had a goal of his own to tie it all up after a Kyle Okposo shot failed but dribbled to a wide open Tavares.

The first big turnover that cost the Isles came later in that second period when Michael Grabner and Brock Nelson failed to get the puck out of the zone and it was kept in by the Flyers. Matt Donovan struggled and Nilsson was way out of position which allowed Wayne Simmonds to score on his own second opportunity. Grabner was a little slow in getting back and Nelson was out-muscled in covering Simmonds. The play was a mess all around with bodies flailing, something we've seen this team do plenty of at times unfortunately.

At the same time, it never felt at any point that the Flyers just took momentum and ran with it. Another weak goal by Read thanks to MacDonald and Brian Strait running into one another after a power move around Colin McDonald came late in the period but the Flyers didn't look like a team coming out in the 3rd with momentum.

The Isles thoroughly outplayed the Flyers in the final period, on all ends of the puck. They spent a great deal of time in the offensive zone and to his credit Ray Emery did make some solid saves. But there's only so much he can do, and it seemed like only a matter of time where we'd see those limitations reached. He had a lot of close calls earlier in the game but it all came to a head in the 3rd period.

Buzzing in the middle of the 3rd thanks to a powerplay, the Isles were unable to capitalize but maintained control of the puck. Josh Bailey made a blind pass towards the crease, and Nelson was wide open on the left side for a nice slam dunk goal to bring the Isles within one and plenty of time to play. The Isles continued to bump and grind their way through the period, but time was getting close to expiration.

With just under four minutes to play, the Flyers got called for a penalty and the Isles found themselves once again in a pressure situation. The powerplay in general throughout the game had looked lethargic, so you certainly couldn't blame anyone who felt that with the game on the line there was a good chance the Isles would not perform on the man advantage. But we couldn't have been more wrong. After some great movement early on, MacDonald faked a shot and found Frans Nielsen, who then quickly fired the puck across the ice to Okposo so he could complete his Gordie Howe hat trick.

Although the Flyers controlled the overtime, the Isles never broke in that frame. It took the shootout where Okposo would end up with the game winner.

I've talked about it at length in this space in recent weeks, but in this case I'll take the shootout win in a three point game over a division rival. First and foremost the team needs to make-up ground, and now putting themselves within striking distance is huge. They'll have plenty of chances in the upcoming weeks to get back to snuff against the rest of the division.

It'll start with a trip to MSG, a building in which the Isles have had some recent success at. But let's not discount the fact that the Rangers appear to have finally adjusted to Alain Vigneault's system. It'll be a very interesting but crucial match-up for the Isles.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-29088868734454772612014-01-17T17:17:00.003-05:002014-01-17T17:18:01.763-05:00Nielsen, Isles Slide Past Lightning in ShootoutThe Islanders found themselves in a tight game with the Tampa Bay Lightning for pretty much the duration of the contest, and were able to overcome an early powerplay goal by Isles killer Martin St. Louis to defeat the improved Lightning in overtime as they continue to try and put together a long successful streak that will propel them back into playoff contention.

It was not the cleanest of efforts by the Isles, who had to battle through some very shaky play early on, particularly from the defense and from Kevin Poulin as well.

It's clear that the confidence has taken a bit of a hit with the absence of Travis Hamonic and there are times where it really shows. Andrew MacDonald was already seeing more minutes than he should be, and now he's going to be relied on even more. Fortunately he didn't really make too many mistakes and kept himself in check, making some nice defensive plays with his stick and some timely blocks to keep the puck out of harms way.

The Lightning had trouble generating many chances, although they seemed to feel confident against the Islanders defense. The way they set up their plays was from the wall, and they would lob pucks towards the slot area where they had forwards streaking. The Isles were fortunate to either be in good position to tie up a player, or have the Lightning passers just miss those cutting towards the net. It certainly seems like this is a good strategy to employ against a weaker defensive team however.

For a team like the Islanders, they can learn some lessons from the Lightning which is constructed in a similar fashion. I don't like the fact that the Isles seem to miss out on rebound opportunities frequently and wish they had more players cutting to the net, especially with the talent and skill level some guys have. But overall the Isles are putting together some good efforts and that's what's important and leading to wins, and overall they did a good job of not giving the Bolts very many plays via the slot area.

The play by Frans Nielsen and Thomas Vanek on the man advantage was a thing of beauty and tied the game at one. It was a fortunate bounce that went right to Nielsen, but he made such a subtle move on Ben Bishop that he expected the shot. But when Nielsen passed the puck to Vanek, who was still regaining his footing, it caught everyone by surprise, except for Vanek somehow, and there was no chance of keeping that one out. Nielsen has slowed down since getting off to his hot start, and some areas of his game have not been as great, but this was a brilliant play.

For Vanek, it only continued his hot stretch, and he looks like a completely different player than the one the Isles originally acquired back in October. He's skating much better than he was, and overall has shown a much better two-way game than we were all lead to believe he had. He still has some moments where he gets caught watching too much on the defensive end, but his main job is to provide offense and score and over the past month and change that's all he's done. When he's not, he's racking up the assists on some wonderful plays of his own. He does have to work on those shootout opportunities, however.

In the long run this victory could end up costing the Islanders since the league takes out of consideration the games that are won in a shootout. It's important for this team right now to rack up points, but with more games played than most teams every point will be valuable for them and as many points as possible need to come in regulation or overtime. But for now you take the two points against a good team and run.

I liked a lot of what the Isles showed in the game overall, and they did a decent job on defense given the deficiencies. However, the Bolts had a lot of nice passing plays as they skated deep into the zone, leaving Poulin to make some strong saves. There were a few times the Isles looked doomed but the Lightning would barely miss the net on a good chance too. That is something that was a bit alarming, but it didn't really hurt the Isles in this one. But you get a hotter team that's firing on all cylinders and the outcome could end up being quite different.

Now comes the real test of the road trip. With the Isles seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, they will have to dig deep one more time to find another win on the road in Philadelphia. This one would probably be the most important one as it's against a division opponent. The Isles need to find a way to kick off the home-and-home with the Flyers the right way, and a win on Saturday night would put them in a good spot as we get closer and closer to the Olympic break. If they can make up some ground between now and then, it'd be fantastic. But it'll only happen if they can beat their own division.

- Chris Chris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-78846065347624545722014-01-15T14:51:00.001-05:002014-01-15T14:53:13.370-05:00Isles Streak Ends as Turnovers Plentiful; Strome Sent to BridgeportThe Isles came back down to Earth on Tuesday night as their hot stretch came to an end in Florida, as they dropped a 4-2 decision to a team that has given them some trouble in recent years. And for the Isles, it was a collapse in a big way.

Under normal circumstances? This was just one of those games every team goes through. You're bound to have an off night here and there, and the unfortunate thing for the Isles is they don't have as much room for error as they should at this point in the season.

The Isles looked like a team nearing the end of a long road trip, and perhaps playing an Eastern Conference opponent reminded them that they were getting close to that point. It seemed as though the team had their mind in other areas, and for the first two periods did not look like a coherent unit at all. Sure they did have some nice chances on Tim Thomas, but turnovers killed them in the game and often lead to some golden scoring chances for the Panthers, a few of which Kevin Poulin was really unable to do much about.

Judging by in-game commentary, Butch Goring would probably disagree with that last statement I made. Many of you reading this might feel the same way. But what we saw Tuesday was thanks in large part to some ugly turnovers by some key players who normally aren't in our minds for mistakes very much.

Obviously the one that sticks out here is Kyle Okposo, who made an ugly turnover on a careless pass attempt that lead to a Nick Bjugstad goal. Of course this came at one of the worst possible moments, in the last minute of a period where the Isles already found themselves down 2-0.

The first period didn't even start well as the Isles found themselves down 32 seconds into the game on an Aleksander Barkov breakaway goal on a pass from old friend Brad Boyes. A few other chances like this one within minutes and you knew it wasn't going to be a very good night for the Islanders.

They were missing Travis Hamonic. However, if you're a team that wants to be considered 'good' then you have to be able to overcome absences to key players here and there. The Isles were able to dominate the Dallas Stars last week without having Okposo in the line-up and yet without Hamonic they struggled mightily on the defensive side at least until parts of the 3rd period.

What this speaks to is the depth, or lack thereof on the defensive end for the Isles. Matt Donovan and Andrew MacDonald did not look their best, and in this case the Isles paid for it a couple of times. But there's only so much a player can do, and so much we can say about a player before we can realize that a) guys are playing more minutes than they should at this point and b) this team didn't address the deficiencies on D in the offseason in the manner they should have. It goes both ways in this case.

For the Isles, some of what we saw near the end of the second period and beginning of the third was encouraging, however at this stage we don't need to see encouraging. We've seen over the last several weeks what this team is capable of, but they have to learn they can't start off every game slow and come back from behind, especially teams they find themselves ahead of in the standings.

The Panthers are a team that struggled early on this season and seem to have found some of their footing of late in a similar fashion to the Isles. The Isles fell into some familiar traps and struggled to keep up with the grind-it-out style the Panthers like to try and set the tone with.

It's frustrating given that the Islanders need to show folks that they can not only beat the Western Conference but can also handle the East, not to mention their own division. If you go back to my last blog post, I pointed out having to show these steps and the Isles haven't even taken the step to show us they can beat Conference opponents, let alone division opponents. Losses to the Panthers, Sabres and Hurricanes of the world aren't going to help this team accomplish much.

While the scoring and offensive chances that came from the top line later on in the game were also in the encouraging category their defensive play was not very good. And the looks on their faces told you as much, they knew that they were a part of the problem. I'd suspect that they fix a lot of these issues before playing a good team in Tampa Bay Thursday.

The Isles will probably feel good about their chances because of their ability to do well against the top teams in the league, and that's where Tampa finds themselves despite missing Steve Stamkos. We saw the Isles pretty much dominate this team a few weeks back at the Coliseum before giving up a two goal lead in the final few minutes of the game only to lose in a shootout.

In the interest of the team making the playoffs, the Isles will need another run similar to the one they just had, made more important when you see most of the opponents are in the Conference/Division that matters most to us. We'll see how they respond in these tough few games coming up starting with Tampa.

Strome to Bridgeport: The Islanders announced on Wednesday afternoon that they sent Ryan Strome down to Bridgeport, with an eye on developing him further.

As Art Staple pointed out, The Isles had to do this because of requirements sent out by the NHL earlier this season regarding AHL eligible players and the Olympic break.

I understand the need for the Isles to want Strome playing down in Bridgeport during the two week layoff. However, I disagree with not putting the best possible team out there. Although Strome hasn't been lighting the world on fire, you can't deny at times he's added a good element of speed and getting a shot off quickly that this team was lacking in. He seemed to be coming along as he learned how to navigate NHL defensemen and seemed poised for some kind of a breakout.

But the Isles are making a decision they think is best going forward, even though it appears to be based on something other than performance.

- Chris Chris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-56308916955879699722014-01-11T15:41:00.002-05:002014-01-11T15:41:30.467-05:00Isles Remain Hot in OT Victory over AvsWhen you're hot, things always seem to go your way. And for the New York Islanders, the past week couldn't have gone any better. It started with a huge win over the Dallas Stars on Monday, and ended with an overtime win last night against the Colorado Avalanche. In between the Isles found out they had multiple players named to Olympic teams, including John Tavares getting the nod for the Canadians in Sochi after a five point night and hat trick against the Stars (even though he didn't need all of that to be named, anyway).

But last night was probably the best win for the Isles this week, going against a quality team and needing a win to keep momentum going as they try and claw their way back into the thick of things in the Eastern Conference.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but when Michael Grabner's shot from the slot flew past Semyon Varlamov the Isles moved to within seven points of the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild card spot. And now they'll face the free falling Stars again in a rare Sunday game.

The Isles clearly were ready for the game against a tough opponent in the West, and brought their skating legs with them to the Mile High City. That stood out to me from the beginning, but I was hoping that it didn't mean the team would be completely exhausted midway through the game.

Kevin Poulin was tested early and often, making a lot of great stops and generally looking the calmest I can recall seeing him in quite some time in between the pipes. Despite Evgeni Nabokov's injury being more short term than originally thought, it seems like the Isles have finally found solid play out of the both and have done a decent enough job of working them into some kind of a rotation. This time around Nabokov's injury was more of an unfortunately event rather than something due to fatigue. Both goalies have kept their bad goal counts to a minimum over the past month.

Physically the Isles were not shy and were doing all they could to throw the body around, keeping up with the chip-and-chase method that they've found again. It created some fantastic opportunities against Dallas and Toronto, and although the Isles were a bit off with some of their chances against the Avs they got some good opportunities in on Varlamov.

What really won this game for the Isles was no quit attitude. They weren't playing as great as they could have been and were not getting enough pucks towards the net. As the game continued on scoreless, you just knew that the Isles were going to have to change that and pounce as their goaltender was doing right by them.

Matt Donovan got caught looking a tad too long at Nathan MacKinnon and learned a lesson the hard way. MacKinnon burst to the outside slightly and was able to get around Donovan for the breakaway goal that Poulin did all he could on.

In prior weeks this goal does the Isles in. But here it didn't as they kept playing on, and it's where the aforementioned attitude took place.

Brock Nelson took a tumble trying to skate a puck deep into the zone, but kept up with the play the best he could to poke the puck in deep. That was all the Isles needed for him to be able to get himself back up, streak down the hash mark area and after a Calvin de Haan fake out, pick up the pass and bury it home to tie the game 1-1. To respond in this way was huge for the Isles, who in the past would appear to be ready to lay down and concede the game. But the confidence is increasing now.

The Isles had a few chances to get ahead in the third, just as the Avs did. Their best chance came when Ryan Strome made a bad turnover, but fortunately it was to Cody McLeod so Poulin was able to make the stop and keep the game tied.

Grabner showed some great speed all game and was able to take a loose puck on the boards in overtime on somewhat of a breakaway, but it was from a tough angle. After pretty much losing the puck on his stick on the chance, he went alone in the corner to pick up the puck and while the Avs were still trying to figure out what to do create the next chance for the Isles. Thomas Hickey picked up on this right away and began to skate towards the middle, expecting a pass from Grabner that would never come.

In a no quit play of his own, Grabner circled around between the faceoff circles and fired the shot to win it past Varlamov to give the Isles another two points and their 6th straight win on the road.

While some of these wins lately are coming against Western Conference opponents, they are a little more important than in years past just because of how the schedule breaks down. It's important for the Isles to build confidence, and wins like this against quality teams regardless of location only help in that.

It would be nice to see the Isles start winning some games that matter more though, against their own division. It's frustrating watching them lose to teams like the Devils or Hurricanes when clearly the Isles are probably better than each of those teams, in my opinion at least.

The Isles will stick to the West through Sunday as they head to Dallas, which is another key game before they play some East opponents again on the road, including the divisional rival Flyers. The Islanders need to pick up points in a big way, and after gaining some these past few weeks they'll need to get some from a couple of the four point swings.

But first they have to take advantage of a vulnerable team in Dallas, and then focus on taking that next step this season in their own conference.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-23768980786773677402014-01-03T16:43:00.001-05:002014-01-03T16:43:23.227-05:00Isles, Okposo Each Make Statements in OT Win Over HawksAfter another impressive come from behind win on Tuesday against the Boston Bruins, the Islanders were coming back home to face the other team from the Stanley Cup Finals, the Chicago Blackhawks. Unfortunately for the Isles, they were on an 0-4-4 run at home, so it's been anything but an advantage.

What was an advantage however, was that when the two teams have gotten together, the Isles always play the Hawks tightly. And coming off those two huge comeback victories over some solid hockey clubs, you had to give the Isles the benefit of the doubt.

From the get go the Isles were playing a solid 200 foot game. Evgeni Nabokov had a really solid showing in net and made some fantastic stops. He was equaled, and in many cases bettered by Corey Crawford, who was returning from an injury that kept him out for almost a month.

The Isles built up a 2-0 lead but in reality it would have been more if not for Crawford. To be honest, I was impressed with him and more so than I usually am. But Crawford was the reason why the Hawks were in the game and why they ended up with a point. This is a testament to how well the Isles played.

Casey Cizikas seems to have gotten back to the level we know he can play at as he's been much more effective of late. He had a beautiful defensive play to strip a puck loose and go in on a breakaway to give the Isles a 1-0 lead late in the first, which seemed to be the momentum the Isles needed in the second period.

Although there weren't a ton of shots in the first half of the game, there were some excellent chances for both sides, with the Isles seemingly getting the better of play. Thomas Vanek was able to give the Isles a 2-0 lead and keep up his hot stretch and now the question was just a matter of if the Isles could keep doing the right things and maintain a lead.

Of course, under any normal situation it would be very difficult to hold a two goal lead over a Stanley Cup contender and Thursday night was no different. A late second period goal by Brent Seabrook and an early third period tally by Ben Smith brought the Hawks right back into the game.

It was at this point where Crawford began to really stand on his head, making save after save as the Isles pressed and really did all they could to break the tie as the period worse on. A point blank save on Kyle Okposo late in the frame really stands out as perhaps the save of the game, preserving the tie and allowing the Hawks to earn at least one point.

In some cases, story lines write themselves and naturally one came to the forefront immediately in the extra frame. After being denied in the third, Okposo had a chance on a rebound off of a John Tavares shot, and boy did he ever fire it home.

Okposo's elation at scoring the OT winner was a picture perfect moment after getting snubbed by Team USA in their construction of next month's roster for the Olympics. The crowd erupted into chants of 'USA' to remind the team what they will be missing, and flattering Okposo to the point where he had no choice but to acknowledge it during his post game interview.

More importantly it gave the Isles their third straight win, and these six points are a great start to getting back into the thick of things at the back end of the playoff picture. However there is still a lot of work to be done. Winning their first home game in OT in almost two years is certainly something that can give the team some jump too, especially when you take into consideration the opponent.

In the interest of taking baby steps, the next game is huge for the Isles. They'll play the Carolina Hurricanes, who they have had all sorts of trouble with in recent years. Given that they are now a division opponent, it would really give the Isles some buzz if they can finally figure out a way to defeat the Canes.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-81743292479760418182013-12-30T16:12:00.008-05:002013-12-30T16:17:22.872-05:00Isles Rally from Three Goal Deficit to Stun Wild 5-4Given the fact that the Islanders were playing the Minnesota Wild, you just knew that Nino Niederreiter would do his best to make his presence felt. It seemed predictable, and I even indicated as much on the radio show on Sunday morning. While he didn't live up to my pregame prediction of two goals, he had a goal and an assist as he looked to pace the Wild against his former, struggling team and when he gave the Wild the 3-0 lead many - including myself - thought that was all they needed.

But something happened to the Wild on their way to staying undefeated in regulation when they go into a 3rd period with a lead.

It actually all started in the second period, when the Isles got the puck in front of Josh Harding and were scrambling for rebounds after he had trouble controlling the puck. His defensemen didn't do enough to help, and John Tavares was able to bang home a lose puck from the side of the net between two defenders sticks to give the Isles a garbage goal they needed to begin to claw at the momentum and steal it from Minnesota.

The Islanders were given a huge chance to get even closer when they had a powerplay opportunity late in the second, but they didn't manage much there aside from a lot of play with the puck and a sustained forecheck. While it didn't result in any chances, it created exactly what the Islanders needed. They were banging bodies around on the entire shift, and did an excellent job of defending against passes and clearing attempts. The tired Wild players could not get off for a change, and when Thomas Hickey faked Stephane Veilleux out on a shot attempt, he was able to reposition himself and take a harmless looking wrister. That fake out gave Cal Clutterbuck all the time he would need to pick up the stick he dropped and tip the puck in to cap off one of the Isles best shifts in weeks and the peak of the momentum shift for this game.

The Isles took the momentum, grabbed it by the horns and didn't let up as they pressed for much of the third period. Kyle Okposo stole the show in the third with his two goals as he continues to make his case for Team USA in the Olympics, but it all started off with some great shifts from key role players. Colin McDonald threw his body around a lot and it seemed to get the Wild off of their games, and he had a fight with Torrey Mitchell that helped set the tone even though he fell to the ice first. McDonald and Ryan Strome were key in the Isles tying goal, as Hickey continued his fine play of late and snuck in at just the right time for a beautiful redirect on a pass by McDonald.

When I think about the third as a whole, Okposo's second goal that turned out to be the game winner stands out in my mind not because of the actual goal but the play leading up to it. All game the Isles had been physical on the boards and winning battles, and the goal came off of a nice dump-and-chase opportunity that the Isles followed up on by crashing in deep. These are the plays that made them successful last year, and gave the Penguins a run for their money. These are the plays we've been screaming for all year, and in this game the Isles started doing it with more consistency.

That idea actually gives me some hope that this team might finally start to get it again. They lost their mojo somewhere along the way, and have become too fancy. But with some solid performances in recent games, it's no secret that it's been because their board play has greatly improved. Getting a come from behind win over a good team because of that might just be what these guys need to put together some kind of a solid streak. The last few minutes of the game were a bit uneasy, as the Isles just about collapsed in front of their own net but a few fortunate bounces wide prevented the Wild from evening the score once again and the Isles were able to leave Minnesota happy. Kevin Poulin certainly could have been a bit better in that sequence, but in general he made some nice saves throughout the game and reacted well on some chances. Some rust was definitely visible as he got his first start in a while. Rebounds were still an issue, and there were some easy ones he could have covered up or prevented but nothing bit him too much in the end. But in other games it won't go the same way.

Of course they'll need to do a lot of the same things the 2nd and 3rd period saw if they are to have a similar outcome against the Bruins. They've had some great performances against them over the last couple of years, so it could potentially turn out to be a great time for them to gain confidence and try and turn things around this season.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-33835442078008789212013-12-24T15:01:00.002-05:002013-12-24T15:01:44.792-05:00Nabokov, Isles Blank Red WingsOn Monday night the New York Islanders were on the other side of a poor effort for a change which is surprising given the team they played. The Detroit Red Wings are not known for poor efforts, but as they try and figure things out through injuries, their spiral continued with the Isles 3-0 win.

The difference between the two teams was quite noticeable from puck drop. There was a lot of standing around from the Wings, and the Isles noticed this and quickly capitalized with some nice rushes in on the defense and goaltender Petr Mrazek. Mrazek got the last minute start against the Isles over Jonas Gustavsson who's struggled in his last few games after getting off to a nice start filling in for Jimmy Howard.

Now the Isles didn't completely dominate play, as a matter of fact after the first few minutes there really wasn't much in the way of shots for the first half of the period. But the Isles were the team moving their feet, the team getting all of the offensive chances. They had a few pucks that dribbled just wide of the net but left Mrazek and his defensemen scrambling more often than not.

John Tavares took a 2-on-2 break and created a 2-on-1 by showing some amazing speed and catching Tomas Tatar and Brendan Smith napping, and after drawing Kyle Quincey close to him was able to dish the puck to a wide open Kyle Okposo for an easy one-time goal. For Quincey, this is more of the same for him as he's experienced a rough go at it this season. For the Isles it opened up the flood gates a bit.

Smith couldn't handle a bad pass by Josh Bailey, and the loose puck deflected right in front of Michael Grabner. Mrazek had all to do to get set up and prepare for the shot, but couldn't get his shoulder high enough or his glove up quick enough to stop Grabner's rising shot from finding the back of the net.

Brian Lashoff's lazy play on an icing gave the Isles all they needed for their third goal, as Colin McDonald beat him and found Matt Martin coming around the net. With Lashoff trying to get his bearings straight, he lost sight of Casey Cizikas wide open in front of the net for an easy slam dunk goal on the pass by Martin. A frustrated Wings team looked at each other in disbelief, as this is something that's been happening with more frequency to them lately.

Once the Isles got that first goal they had the Wings on their heels and on this particular night, Isles fans finally felt that the shoe was on the other foot. From what I was seeing, this was something the Isles have done all too frequently themselves so it was a good change of pace. Mrazek had his work cut out for him once the Isles started scoring, and you could see that from their play. However he shut the door the rest of the way when needed.

Speaking of goaltenders, Evgeni Nabokov got his first shutout of the season, and it was a relatively easy one. About half way through the third period the Wings began to press more and there was some scrambling in front of Nabokov but he did a good job of covering up pucks to keep the Isles out of trouble.

For some guys that have been struggling of late there were bright spots. McDonald showed some good hustle to negate a couple of icings, and one directly lead to the goal Cizikas would score. Thomas Hickey blocked a couple of shots and had an active stick, and was good in keeping up with his cover to ensure harmless shots or keeping pucks away from the net. Aaron Ness looked good in the limited time he saw, making some key plays and even laying a big hit on his own to stop an odd man rush (even though it looked more accidental than anything).

The Isles needed a game like this to head into the break with. It was a solid, 60 minute performance that could still use some work (getting more pucks to the net, for example) but it was a good starting point. What's going to be important is responding after the four days off with a similar effort and equally similar result against the Devils at home, especially on the first night of a tough back-to-back with the latter part in Minnesota. We'll see if they learned any lessons from this game, including how to hold onto a 3rd period lead.

On behalf of Sean and myself, I'd like to wish all of you reading a Merry Christmas if you celebrate! Enjoy the time off with friends and family!

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-86223570520290369172013-12-21T15:08:00.002-05:002013-12-21T15:08:50.905-05:00Grabner Paces Isles in 5-3 win over RangersMichael Grabner chose a perfect time to snap out of his scoring slump, especially considering he's been doing many things right these days. Jack Capuano even said he was doing everything right except scoring, and I tend to agree with that statement of late. The Islanders were able to defeat their rivals thanks to Grabner's two goal performance, where he scored on a couple of breakaways to pace the Isles in a back-and-forth contest.

The Isles were not doing themselves any favors by taking as many penalties as they were, although some of the calls were a bit tacky. The refs seemed to call the game pretty tightly on both sides all night. The Isles PK actually looked good in the early going, and obviously teams get bonus points for scoring a man down which the Isles were able to do twice. But even given that, the Rangers were able to get some momentum on their third powerplay of the first period and at that point you knew that this was going to be one of those high scoring affairs.

As far as 5-on-5 play goes, I thought this was a strong game for the Isles, and a good way to respond after a couple of tough losses where the team got some loser points. In the interest of breaking the schedule down into pieces as Capuano has said the team needs to do, the Isles have earned four of the last possible six points. Hey, it's a start.

Offensively the Isles had some great chances on Henrik Lundqvist, who for some reason this year has been pedestrian at best (injuries and a shaky defense to start the year are big factors). The Rangers have struggled overall this year, and loses like the one here have become too commonplace for them. Lundqvist made some great saves, but let in a couple of goals that in years past he would generally catch. But it's tough to stop every breakaway that comes your way, and on Friday night the Isles were able to cash in. The Rangers didn't do the greatest job with clearing bodies out in front of the net, which allowed Brian Strait to get his first career NHL goal too (he scored one in the playoffs last season, however).

Believe it or not, the Isles actually made it easy for the Rangers at times as this team still has an inability to navigate passes and shot attempts that come from the blueline. Too often we're seeing guys wind up for big slappers from the point areas which allows the opposition to prepare to block the shot, and that's what usually happens. The Rangers blocked a ton of shots on the Isles to the point where it was frustrating to watch. It didn't hurt the Isles too much on Friday, but in games against upcoming teams like the Ducks, who have a suffocating system, it might not bode well for the Isles getting pucks in front.

One thing that struck me during the middle of the game or so was that this in fact was an Isles-Rangers game. But you wouldn't have guessed it from the atmosphere. Perhaps it was just masked by the TV broadcasts, but the crowd in general seemed disinterested in the game. This is likely due to the fact that Rangers fans have been subdued all year due to the teams performance, but the Isles fans made plenty of noise when the team scored. It took a lot to even get a few pro-Rangers chants from their fans, but even then it still seemed half hearted. It's very tough for fans of either of these teams to get up for these games, especially with inconsistent play all around. And to think, these two are supposed to play in an outdoor game, one that would cost a fan bucket fulls of money to go see. It's no wonder why it seems like the sales aren't what officials expected them to be.

This was a good building block game for an Isles team that needed something positive for them to hang their hats on. Especially for Grabner, who seemed to come alive even moreso after scoring his breakaway goal to give the Isles their 1-0 lead. If he's going to be a more confident player, then this could potentially be good timing for an Isles team that needs to go to work now in order to catch up to the rest of this sub par Metropolitan Division. Coming home and beating the Ducks would be a huge accomplishment and give the Isles some momentum heading into the holidays that they are going to desperately need when you view the teams they will be up against.

- ChrisChris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-65693326578248803612013-12-18T20:49:00.004-05:002013-12-18T20:49:58.927-05:00'It Sucks'There really is no other way to describe it, and with the way things are going it can refer to anything. Tuesday night's game against Tampa Bay. The last month and a half. The defense. The penalty kill. There's been a lot that's gone wrong for the Isles that you can apply this quote to, muttered by Jack Capuano after the Isles stunning loss against the Bolts.

To say this team seems to find ways to lose lately is an understatement of epic proportions. Just when you think you've seen it all, a game like Tuesday night pops up and you're left with your jaw dropped as you watch this unfold before your eyes.

For 57 minutes, the Isles played a solid all around game, only suffering lapses on a couple of shifts where the Lightning came fast and furiously. But each time the Isles held together, keeping most shots away from Evgeni Nabokov and giving him the chance to see everything. Often times he was square to the shooter and gobbled the puck up in his chest area. He had good movements all night and made a few fantastic saves when the Isles really needed him to which kept Tampa scoreless.

But then the last three minutes happened. And Frans Nielsen happened. And the equivalent of a youth soccer game happened.

Nielsen did something he rarely does and turned over a puck in a horrible area after trying a backhanded pass from the half wall in his own end, finding a wide open Valtteri Filppula in the faceoff circle who then rifled the puck over Nabokov's shoulder to cut the lead to one and left many Isles fans biting their nails and sighing and groaning as they wondered if this was going to be the same old song and dance.

Then came the final minute, where the Islanders were in their all too familiar mode of being unable to contain the puck and get out of their own way. Players were losing the puck uncovered, while being nervous that an opposing player might be on their heels. Others tried to force passes where there were none. And when Tampa pulled Ben Bishop you knew it was a recipe for disaster.

That disaster saw the Islanders, all five skaters on the ice, sprawled out in a pile-up to Nabokov's right hoping that somewhere under there was the puck, and that with just seconds left all would be well.

Of course the puck comes out from under that pile to Nabokov's left, where Martin St. Louis and Filppula were standing - because who else would be there other than the opposing teams two best available players? And with 3.8 seconds left Filppula's dribbling shot sent the Lightning into jubilation while the rest of the Coliseum and the Isles bench shouted things we won't repeat on this family show.

Martin gives Gudas a shot in retaliation. Photo by C. Hessel

Another overtime came and went, and the Isles once again couldn't settle things during normal play and would fall in the shootout on some fantastic moves. John Tavares flung the puck down ice and smashed his stick in frustration as he could not convert on his shot attempt that ended the game.

The players frustration showed in the locker room where Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Brock Nelson stared at nothing in particular, deep in thought about what they were just a part of.

"We were playing well up until then," Nelson told me as he reflected on the outcome. "We didn't make the same plays we had up until that point and it hurt us."

Nelson, like many players is trying to find answers for a struggling hockey club, and is a young player who is experiencing a lot of losing early in his career. "I think we have to finish hard, keep making simple plays, using the boards to get pucks in deep, keep it in their end and get out of our d-zone as fast and as clean as we can."

These ideas are easier said than done for this Isles club, and although they seem to know the right things to do in these situations they don't seem to be able to execute the way they have in the past, particularly at the end of last season. It's a perplexing issue, but once you saw Tampa get that first goal it seemed like everyone locked up, both mentally and physically.

But like I said earlier there were some bright spots for the Isles like Nabokov, Nielsen (turnover aside), Okposo and Tavares who had a pretty nifty move and almost scored on his own effort. The powerplay looked coherent and the one penalty the Isles had to kill off went fairly well with several clears and smart plays to get the puck out of trouble.

As far as lost players go, Josh Bailey seems to have lost a ton of confidence and you can see it in his play. He flubbed 1.5 breakaways (the first one was a tough shot to get off with borderline trip that occurred) and with no one near him for the second attempt he just missed high and wide over the net. On the boards he's not as physical and loses a lot of the battles. In the past when others would pile on, I would at least point out the defensive and physical play but not even that has been present and it's alarming.

As the down spiral continues, the Isles find themselves matching up with the Rangers in MSG on Friday night. With that team looking to try and find some consistency of their own, the Islanders will have their hands full and if they get down early could have a hard time finding anything to rally themselves around.

- Chris Chris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-54754643838787912112013-12-15T18:32:00.001-05:002013-12-15T18:33:55.451-05:00Habs drop Isles in OT in Strome's DebutThe last time the Isles won a home game that went to OT was on February 11th, 2012 against the Kings. That would not change Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Isles lost again in OT, failing to get to the skills competition which is the only way they've been able to win games that go into extra frames at the Coliseum.

The thing that makes this game unique was that the score was 0-0 in it's entirety, with the Isles showing some good jump in their overall play. All night they had several good plays that developed, but no one was able to finish them.

There were several chances the Isles had in the crease that either went just wide of Carey Price or missed the net completely. This frustrated many players and fans of course, and at the same time you could hear the collective sigh of relief from the bus load of Montreal fans that made the trip in the snow.

Ryan Strome's debut is going to be what we most remember this game for, and it was a solid one. In just under 15 minutes of ice time, Strome saw lots of time on the powerplay, and although the Isles didn't produce much of anything with the man advantage they did have some nice chances and Strome was a big part of that.

For 5-on-5 play, he brought a good element of speed that this team has needed. He had a couple of rushes up ice where he forced the opposition defense deep into the zone and the Isles were then able to create some plays from down low and behind the net. It was a welcome sight and certainly I hope we see more of in the upcoming games.

Evgeni Nabokov made his return since injuring his groin against the Detroit Red Wings and was phenomenal. He stopped virtually everything that was sent his way, and late in the third made some key saves to preserve the tie game and earn the Isles a point.

In overtime the defensive lapse was provided by some likely candidates of late in Aaron Ness and Thomas Hickey. Hickey was thrown off and started going the wrong way when trying to cover David Desharnais and ended up chasing him behind the net, while Ness had issues tying up Max Pacioretty, who had the relatively easy task of just needing to put his stick down to slide the puck past Nabokov for the win.

To say the fact the Isles couldn't come out with both was disappointing points is an understatement. The team still only has one win in their past 13 games and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight, especially when you can't seem to find the back of the net.

I think it's a good thing that the physical element seems to have come back for the Isles and it's created some good things for them. The board play is still lacking but the aggression level against the boards has picked up too and it's giving the team some good possessions. Now they just have to figure out how they can convert and get out of the "hands of stone" thoughts that seems to be in all of their minds.

The Isles are probably thrilled (not that he got hurt, however) that Steven Stamkos won't be in the line-up when they face the Lightning on Tuesday. However, Tampa still has been able to put up a solid showing and sits 3rd in the Atlantic, so they are a tough opponent. They still have plenty of weapons and have gotten some solid goaltending out of Ben Bishop.

If the Isles can walk away with two points - which would be three of four - it will go a long way in trying to reach Jack Capuano's goal of chipping away and putting together some points streaks to make up what they've missed out on. But lets hope the goals come first.

- Chris

NYI FYI was done on Saturday due to other commitments during our normal Sunday time slot. You can catch the podcast of the show out our Podbean page. Chris Hesselhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8268433082314467443.post-61086939596771174752013-12-08T17:06:00.002-05:002013-12-08T17:06:20.992-05:00Isles Shutout by Kings to run Winless Streak to NineGetting off to the right start didn't seem to do the trick for the Islanders on Saturday night in Los Angeles, but then again: it's hard for anything to go right when you have trouble getting shots off after controlling play for the better portion of a game.

The Islanders had plenty of chances to capitalize on mistakes and general lackluster play by the Kings but were never able to thanks to missing the net frequently and taking too long to make decisions in front of the net. This made it easy for Kings defenders to tie their sticks up.

Although the Isles controlled the play for the 1st period, the Kings got their legs going more in the second and really stifled the Isles making them unable to connect on many passes or get anything going in the offensive zone. For the remainder of the game Martin Jones didn't have a very difficult go at it, en route to getting his 1st career shutout in just his 2nd NHL game and making only 16 saves to do so.

While the Isles generally were strong in defending the Kings, everything unraveled for them in the second period and it's related to a problem I pointed out in my last entry: the inability to maintain control of the puck for a successful dump and chase. Or for that matter, a successful dump and change.

Michael Grabner, who has found new ways to get frustrated had an issue with clearing a puck deep behind the Kings net at the same time the Islanders went for a line change. The shanked attempt went right to the stick of Alec Martinez, who found Anze Kopitar streaking up to boards against only Travis Hamonic. Kopitar did what he does best in getting his cover to spin like a top, and after faking him out changed directions in the slot area and roofed a shot over Kevin Poulin's shoulder to give his team the 1-0 lead, which is all they would really need.

It was after this shot in the arm that the Kings started to control the play and the momentum no longer resided with the Islanders.

The Kings had the better of play and the better chances and the Isles went back to bad habits, standing around and not being able to keep up with the play. They hesitated to get shots off at times, and some of that is due to having too many lefty shots in the wrong spots at the wrong times. They certainly don't seem to be doing themselves many favors.

When the Isles are getting their chances it seems like it's guys who have all sorts or trouble finding the net this season: Grabner, Peter Regin, Josh Bailey (yet another post) and Matt Martin to name a few. So you can't say these guys aren't getting chances.

What that means though is it shows us the lack of dominant play we are seeing from the top lines. While he's been racking up the points, John Tavares has struggled in all three zones at points this year, more so than you can say for last year. And Thomas Vanek seems unable to find the twine too although he did have a few nice chances in the game.

There were some things I liked. The penalty kill stood out to me as being slightly improved. It didn't have as much of a scrambling vibe to it and the two forwards were spaced out better rather than on top of one another and shifted towards the puck carrier. So that was an improvement systems wise. The Isles were able to kill off all five opportunities against them.

The powerplay is an issue that still needs a whole lot of work. Jack Capuano said after the game that they were too cute and too fancy and I would agree. This has been the best way to sum up the man advantage this year, and just like I said the other day it's too lethargic and moves in slow motion too much to be able to accomplish much of anything. For a team that seems more than happy to try and force passes 5-on-5, they don't seem to make the best decisions when they have more players on the ice in terms of where to send the puck to get a cycle going down low. It's all from the hash marks to the blueline and is relying too much on that.

To further add to the Isles scoring problems at the NHL level, Ryan Strome continues to tear up the AHL, notching another four points last night as he continues to bide time in Bridgeport. It's definitely causing a lot of people to look at the organization in a perplexing way, wondering just what exactly they are waiting for. Now nine (!) games under NHL .500, it might be about time to make the call-up and move forward with trying to infuse offense into a club that seems to need it as bad as defense right now.

The Isles continue this road trip in Anaheim on Monday night, with an even more difficult test. If you thought the Kings were lackluster for the first half of this game, you can't expect the same of their cross town (yes I know, being generous) rivals. This Ducks team has been one of the more consistent ones all season, and is probably licking their chops for the chance to play against a team that's licking their wounds, especially after their convincing win Saturday night over the Blues.

Have those aspirins handy.

For those who missed it, Sunday morning's spirited episode is available on the NYI FYI Podbean site. Be sure to download the show through there, or get it on iTunes ones the systems sync up with each other. Enjoy!

- Chris Chris Hesselhttp://email@example.com