Last night was one of those typical Islander games. What do I mean by that? Many of us were in agreement last night, that aside from the Rangers two power play goals the Isles were pretty much in the game otherwise. They weren’t drastically outplayed, the Rangers just capitalized when good teams should – on the man advantage.
I had expected a great deal of rough stuff, there were plenty of hits but no real fights. Avery was his typical self and Davison, Fata and even Meyer tried to goad him into doing something stupid but all that happened was a roughing penalty. The game otherwise wasn’t anything special honestly. I felt the team could have supported Okposo a bit more, the Rangers were taking liberties all game and you really need to protect your star (even budding star) players.
Jack Hillen looked pretty good in his first NHL game, nothing that made me gasp with amazement or anything – but he looked good regardless. Ted Nolan said that he was impressed as he could be, given he jumped right from college into the NHL and admitted he needed some polishing to become an effective NHL d-man.
Because it was the final home game, the Blog Box crew mingled for a bit after the game last night. Dee Karl (aka 7thwoman) took some pics and we sat and watched the Islanders staff have an open skate on the ice. We spotted what appeared to be Blog Father Chris Botta, so Dee made sure to take some blackmail fun photos of him sans tie, shirt un-tucked in “relax” mode. Here is one of Dee’s pictures of who was left from the Blog Box:
Generally I am behind the camera lens, so this is one of the few times this season I am actually in a picture (I am in green).
So the team is playing a fairly good first period as I type this – I am going to get into the game (pizza will be here shortly) and will update a bit later tonight.
Okposo just scored his second goal of the season, off a great feed by Park!
Okposo Watch – Game 8
Here are Kyle’s stats from last night:
Total Shifts: 17
Time on Ice: 14:45
Power Play Time: 1:36
Penalty Kill Time: :00
Average Shift: :52
Shots: 1
Blocked Shots: 2
Missed Shots: 0
Assists: 0
Points: 0
Takeaways: 0
Giveaways: 0
Hits: 1
+/-: 0
Oddly Mike… Just like a Vampire, he didn’t appear on the film… But I did manage to get CJ Papa have a grand time out on the ice as he took the night off from his 11pm News gig.