And the Islanders decided that it wasn’t quite their turn to roll over and let the season pass them by. You see, the lucky bounces were back - or was it more of an effort that allowed the Islanders to defeat the Rangers 4-3 in dramatic shootout fashion last night at Madison Square Garden? To make things even more exciting, the Islanders would do it without their franchise goaltender Rick DiPietro!

For what seemed like the first ten minutes of the first period last night, the Islanders looked like they were going to get steamrolled by the Blueshirts. They could not clear their zone, gain any momentum through the neutral zone and would constantly go offsides. What happened next simply amazed me; the second half of the period the Isles looked like a completely different team, gaining the zone and supporting the puck. Comeau would capitalize on a weak defensive play by Marek Malik in the corner to Lundqvist’s left and attempt to center a pass to Mike Comrie in front - the puck would hit Michal Rozsival’s stick and into the net for a 1-0 lead with 1:17 remaining. Comeau wasn’t the only “kid” who looked great, Jeremy Colliton, Jeff Tambellini and Sean Bergenheim all looked spectacular. Wade Dubielewicz also looked great during the first period - and would continue to make save after save throughout the night.

The lead would last until a Rangers power play goal by Nigel Dawes tied the game at 1, but the Islanders wouldn’t quit there. Sean Bergenheim would unleash a sizzler of a wrist shot that beat Lundqvist through a screen 41 seconds later to make it 2-1. Exactly two minutes later the Islanders had great presence in front of the Rangers crease and Fedotenko would throw the puck at the net through traffic, it would hit Hunter’s pads and trickle through Lundqvist’s pads for a 3-1 lead. The Rangers at this point seemed to catch whatever was ailing the Islanders during the first period and were just outright sloppy - however, in a game of up and downs (that many fans of each team know follows their respective clubs) you could almost guess that neither team could keep the momentum on their side for long. Two minutes and two seconds later, Chris Drury would score his 22nd of the season to bring the Rangers back to within one - where the score would remain for the rest of the 2nd period and 14 minutes and 13 seconds of the third. With Jaromir Jagr off for tripping the Islanders abysmal power play would once again fail to control the puck at the blueline and give up a shorthanded 2-1 rush where the Rangers would tie the game at 3. It was the 14th time the Islanders would give up a shorthanded goal this season and the 4th time in the last 5 games.

Going into overtime neither team would have much of an advantage and the 5 minutes went by in uneventful fashion. Moving into the shootout - Nigel Dawes would start things off and beat Dubielewicz through his five-hole for a 1-0 shootout lead. The Captain, Bill Guerin would go first for the Isles and beat Lundqvist through his five-hole. Richard Park, Mike Comrie, and Miroslav Satan would fail their attempts for the Islanders, as would Brendan Shanahan, Scott Gomez, Brandon Dubinsky, Michal Rozsival and Martin Straka for the Rangers. Jeff Tambellini would unleash all the fury he could muster, perhaps from the frustration of his up and down season for an absolute laser of a wrist shot over Lundqvist’s glove to win the game for the Islanders in the shootout.

It was certainly do or die time for the Islanders, a loss last night would have made things very tough down the stretch with so many important divisional games remaining. What makes things even more interesting is the Islanders will again face the Rangers on Thursday at the Coliseum - another must win contest. What will be an interesting story to watch is that the starting goaltender for the Islanders is still up in the air. DiPietro had before this morning, been without practice for several games - so the decision to ride Dubielewicz in similar fashion to last season will need to be made shortly.

Notables

Aside from the Islanders power play giving them absolute fits, the defensemen continue to play solid without injured mainstays Chris Campoli (season ending shoulder surgery), Bruno Gervais (concussion - day to day) and Andy Sutton (hamstring). Brendan Witt did an absolute amazing job keeping the Rangers Sean Avery at bay - continually jawing at him whenever he would open his mouth, Bryan Berard would shutdown Jaromir Jagr all game and would literally cause Jagr to take him down in frustration. Freddy Meyer continues to shine by out skating, hitting and making smart plays in his own end and even the occasional offensive rush to get the puck deep. Equally as impressive (as always) was Radek Martinek, who was also used as a shut down man for the Jagr line. Rob Davison would get his first taste of the Islanders-Rangers rivalry and was amazed that so many Isles fans were in attendance - just wait until tomorrow night Rob!

Power Play Woes

While I was watching the power play, I noticed the Islanders try (and fail) at executing the same set play at least 5 times before trying something else. It is this lack of creativity and perhaps reluctance to change the system, that continue to produce more shorthanded goals that goals on the actual power play.

In the sequences I noticed, Bryan Berard would go down low and support Martinek (or whomever else was on the ice at the time) and skate up to the Islanders blue line and receive a pass. He would then gain the red line and dump the puck in where the Rangers would out hustle the Islanders to the puck and easily clear it. Now, I don’t know the exact play - but someone is obviously not completing their assignment properly. Berard shoots the puck in, the forwards should be rushing the corner opposite of where the puck was shot from and pressure the Rangers defense and back checkers. The puck has either been shot in with too much speed (beating the forwards rush) or the forwards have been way too slow on the attack. I have never been a fan of dumping the puck in on the power play, but I can see where the reluctance to gain the zone and make a passing play comes in for this coaching staff (holy lack of confidence on the blue line Batman!).

For a change of pace, I would like to have our newly acquired defenseman Rob Davison out on the power play - but I don’t want him at the point, as much as Satan prefers being on the half wall I want to see him at the point. Davison needs to maintain position in the oppositions crease and screen the goalie. It has been way too long since anyone has been willing to take the punishment of being in front, so let’s do what Boston has done with Chara in the past. Our power play can’t any worse - so to me keeping a defenseman down low is worth the gamble.

Power Play Unit #1
Hunter, Comrie, Davison
Berard, Satan

Power Play Unit #2
Fedotenko, Vasicek, Guerin
Martinek, Meyer

Between those two units you have just about everything you need - size, speed, grit and most importantly two completely different styles. There may be those who disagree with me and think the idea is crazy, but I really do not like the look of our current power play units.

If the Islanders are going to be successful down here on the stretch run, they need to score at even strength, on the power play and keep their opposition from scoring shorthanded. The also need to trust the “kid line”, 10 minutes of ice time is a start - but they are proving more and more every game that they deserve more time out there in order to shine to their full potential. Lastly, the Islanders need to continue to get bodies in front and manufacture those goals - two times last night bodies in front of the net and just throwing the puck on goal turned into goals. Keep up the same pressure as they did last night and they will be fine.

Well, yesterday’s game couldn’t get much more important than it was. Games against divisional rivals when the race for the playoffs are so tight are always must win game, especially when the opponent was only two points up on you. In what was labeled as “Fan Appreciation Day”, there was a bevy of things that proved so; give aways, prizes and even a feature in the Islanders Illustrated on Bill Hayes. Hayes, for those who are unfamiliar just recently attended his 1500th home game - he has only missed 4 games - EVER! That is an unbelievable statistic. Hayes also found himself being acknowledged on the scoreboard during the third period. I am lucky, because he sits in my section (309) and actually in my row to my left, so I got to see his reaction to the appreciation from the fans, which was priceless.

Bill Hayes made our entire section lucky yesterday - 309 was selected as the NY Lotto lucky section (we received a cooler that I forgot under my seat), the guy to my right was picked to match the Conn Smythe winners to their respected years (he won a State Farm prize pack for correctly doing so) and the best part - I won the 50/50 raffle much to the bewilderment of myself and everyone around me.

The unlucky part of the day however, the Islanders completely tanked. I felt they played an outstanding first period and played good hockey for 16 minutes - until the Flyers made some magic happen in front of DiPietro. The Islanders would tie the game on a rare power play tally from Guerin in the second - but wouldn’t do much more the rest of the game. They surrendered a power play goal, another shorthanded goal and then an empty netter allowing the Flyers to walk away with 2 points and a 3 goal victory.

Bill Guerin’s goal was his 20th of the season and marked only the second time in NHL history a player has scored 20 or more goals on six separate teams. He would tell us in the locker room he wasn’t so sure it was good or bad, but acknowledged it as an achievement none-the-less. What his goal did represent was how to correct the Islanders power play, he shot the puck while players were parked in front of Biron which is something they don’t do often enough - traffic in front of the net. It was also Guerin’s first goal in 9 games, second in 19 - ending a god awful drought.

Not much else really to report on, as it was a completely horrible game otherwise.

You know, these late game recaps have been becoming somewhat of a trend for me - this time I have a really good excuse though. Last night, blogger extraordinaire BD Gallof invited myself, my fiancée and the rest of the Blog Box and their significant others to his place for a get together. It was a chance to get to know everyone and talk about some of the things we wouldn’t really get to talk about while at the game. In reality, we talked more about hockey than anything else - as one of the other guests there was none other than Newsday’s Greg Logan and his wife.

Thursday night the New York Islanders took on a slumping, Hossa-less Atlanta Thrashers team. It was a game in which the Islanders really needed to win, being on the outside of the playoff bubble but very close to being in the 8th seed. The first period was awfully similar to the game in which the Islanders beat the Thrashers and limited them to only 10 shots on goal. The Thrashers were sloppy in their own end; Lehtonen looked extremely uncomfortable and often misplayed the puck. The Islanders would get on the board first at the 9:15 mark of the first period. Newly acquired defenseman Rob Davison would find a streaking Mike Comrie and hit him with a perfect pass that Comrie took right to the net. Lehtonen couldn’t control the rebound and it would eventually cross over the line. Two minutes later, Trent Hunter would continue his solid work along the end boards and dug the puck out finding big Josef Vasicek coming in alone; he made a nifty forehand backhand move and put the puck in the open side for a 2-0 lead.

The second period brought more of what we saw in the first, sloppy play by the Thrashers that allowed the Islanders to keep pressure down low. Although in this period the Islanders were penalized a few times, as were the Thrashers which gave both teams very little time on the power play as the penalties often offset one another. At 1:02 of the second period, Bill Guerin would work the puck down low to Bryan Berard sneaking in down low who fed Andy Hilbert with a cross ice pass for a beauty of a finish. The thrill of a 3-0 lead wouldn’t last however, as Berard would mishandle the puck on a power play and be forced to take down Eric Perrin on a shorthanded breakaway. Naturally, Perrin was awarded a penalty shot and he made a spectacular move to make the score 3-1. This gave the Thrashers momentum unfortunately and they would keep pressure on the Islanders for the remainder of the period. In fact, they would eventually tie the game on goals by Ken Klee and Alexei Zhitnik - who in all honestly should not have scored. DiPietro should have stopped Klee’s point shot, he had full view of his windup and shot from the blue line but it beat him between his legs. The shot by Zhitnik was a little tougher, but somehow it looked harmless until it beat DiPietro under his glove - either way they moved into the third period deadlocked at 3 goals a piece.

Once the third began, the Islanders once again brought pressure and good puck movement to the Thrashers who continued sloppy play in their own end. At 3:17, Berard would find Comrie who would beat his man and then Lehtonen for his second goal of the game to make it 4-3. The Isles did a really good job of limiting shots on goal and kept the pressure on Atlanta, but with just over a minute and a half remaining, what seemed like another harmless shot by Bobby Holik beat DiPietro through his five hole and tied the game at 4. After watching the replays, it appeared DiPietro was slightly screened by Davison who also caused a deflection off his skate. The game was heading to overtime.

While I was watching the start of overtime, I had nervous fears that a game the Islanders had to win would end up the same way it did against Dallas earlier in the season - a loss in overtime as soon as the extra frame began. What I wasn’t expecting, was more solid play by the Islanders and less than stellar play by Atlanta’s defense. Just over one minute into overtime, Vasicek would lose an important offensive zone face off, but beat the defender into the corner with his super stretch reach to get the puck. Hunter bolted to the front of the net and called for the puck, Vasicek dished off the puck to Hunter who beat Lehtonen under his glove sealing the game for the Islanders.

In the post game press conference, Islanders coach Ted Nolan was livid about the teams play on the power play - calling it more of an advantage for the opposition then their own team. He was happy however that his team managed to win and secure two extremely valuable points. Greg Logan would press Nolan on DiPietro’s play, and it would seem that he was letting on to an injury to the prized goaltender. Greg would later post on his blog that DiPietro wasn’t injured, but would likely sit out a game this weekend do to a death in the family. I could see how that would affect someone’s focus and play on the ice, so I give DP a pass for the evening.

Two points are two points, but I really wanted the Islanders to keep up their strong play for the entire game for once, maybe they were saving their strength for this weekend’s pair of back to back matinee games that feature Fan Appreciation night and the Core of the Four celebration?

Pardon the pun, but boy did the Islanders really Capital-ize last night! Another win and more importantly another comeback marked the Islanders fifth consecutive win and 6th consecutive game in which the Islanders gained points. Granted, the game didn’t start out as anyone would have hoped, but the team was really holding their own from the first face off. The cycle was good, puck support was good - defense, OUTSTANDING! I don’t think there was a single Islanders fan who wasn’t praising the play of Radek Martinek and Freddy Meyer last night. The pair kept Alexandre the Great off the board, even though he had several great chances. Speaking of great play, how about Rick DiPietro? Ricky was flat out standing on his head at times last night. Blistering shot by Kozlov, no problem. Dangling Semin - piece of cake! Ovechkin doing his best Jordan impression - not a chance! Whatever the Capitals threw at the net after their two goals, it didn’t matter - DiPietro or the goal posts and crossbar kept out of the net.

The goals for the Islanders were timely - after allowing Washington to score twice in the first period, the team came out fired up in the second. As Bill Guerin was exiting the penalty box at just over 10 minutes remaining - he was fed cutting through the neutral zone and found himself in a one on one battle with a Caps defender. He broke in on Kolzig and got a shot off, got his own rebound (gloving it down mind you) and found Satan streaking to the net. Kolzig was playing a second Guerin shot (as was the defense) and Satan deposited the puck backhand, top shelf. The strong play would benefit the Islanders the remainder of the second and continue into the third. More strong play would keep the Isles in the offensive zone throughout the third and eventually big Josef Vasicek would fire a sharp angle shot off Kolzig and into the net to tie the game at two! Sometimes, I always say you never know what will happen when you just throw it at the net - and this is exactly why. Luck and skill go hand in hand sometimes!

The Islanders would keep the game tied and get through overtime despite several chances by Washington to get the extra point. Into the shootout - Kozlov, Ovechkin and Semin would be denied by DiPietro as would Park, Satan by Kolzig. Mike Comrie would beat Kolzig between the pads on a nifty move to secure the victory for the Islanders. It was the perfect ending for what was a great game all around by the Islanders.

The win moved the Islanders into sole posession of 10th place in the eastern conference and would move them ONE POINT behind three teams tied with 66 points:

6. Rangers 68 pts
7. Boston 66 pts
8. Philadelphia 66 pts
9. Buffalo 66 pts
10. Islanders 65 pts

It would also bring them within one point of 4th place in the Atlantic division - so a win tonight against the basement dwelling (albeit talented and still dangerous) Tampa Bay Lightning would be HUGE!

Simon in for Tambellini

Tonight’s game also marks the end of Chris Simon’s record breaking 30-game suspension and he will be substituted into the lineup for Jeff Tambellini. Greg Logan had a great blog entry today with some interesting quotes.

Ted Nolan on why he chose to dress Simon tonight and if he feels it will alter the team chemistry:

“I’m not one of those superstitious guys that says, ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep the same lineup,’” Nolan said. “We want to make sure we have the best lineup on the ice on a given night.” Explaining his decision-making process, Nolan said, “. There would be a factor of someone not playing as well as we think and putting Chris back into that position to upgrade it.”

Hopefully for Nolan, Simon returning keeps players who keep taking liberties with players like Comeau from continuing the practice and doesn’t distract the team too much. If Simon plays well - he deserves to be in the lineup, I know there are a mess load of opinions on this matter and will touch on them later in the week.

As far as the rest of the team, they need to continue doing exactly what they have been doing in order to keep this winning trend alive. So far, it has been working and working well. All recent signs point to Garth Snow being more of a buyer than a seller as was originally projected due to this streak, so it should make the time between now and Tuesday’s trade deadline even more interesting. In my opinion, that’s fine - as I will be at the Coliseum ALL DAY Tuesday keeping you guys abreast to all the latest trade news and rumblings as it happens.

Lastly, I am on my way out the door - I can’t attend the game tonight because I had a forgotten we had tickets to Linkin Park at the Garden tonight. Should be a great show as always, I wont even be the only blogger there - Dan who runs the New York Rangers blog Pucks on Broadway will also be there (our significant others work together) so at least there will be SOME hockey talk!

Also, thanks to The View from Section 317 for the hilarious picture of Simon - if I remember correctly, it was from the Sports Illustrated article he was featured in right before his second major suspension in two seasons. Really bad timing by S.I. and Si.

Hockey players are creatures of habit, especially goaltenders (which I am not) - so why not keep the witty post titles going? Yes, I know this post game recap is very, very post game. Truth be told, I felt horrible when I got home (flu anyone….) and was toying with this new laptop I bought myself today. It seems Windows Vista doesn’t really like wireless connections - took me a few hours of Windows updates in order to get a stable connection, but here I am. Regardless, that doesn’t concern you, eh? Onto the nitty gritty!

What a game last night! I sat through two periods of absolute garbage hockey, my assessment wasn’t really, the sole opinion, on those two periods either. I saw sloppy hockey for the first time in three games, there were lazy plays, poor passes and general - blech! I felt the Islanders were REALLY lucky to escape the first period in a scoreless tie, there were entirely too many penalties and the Isles didn’t capitalize on any of their chances because they simply didn’t generate enough. The Sharks were keeping the play in the Isles zone for a better part of those two periods as well. At one point of the first, Bergenheim appeared to have scored, but it was later waved off after determining that the Sharks had gained possession on a delayed penalty. Bergy was then cross checked and the Islanders were handed a 5-on-3 powerplay for a full two minutes - I referenced not seizing opportunity earlier, count that two man advantage as a wasted opportunity.

Early in the second period, the Sharks went up 1-0 and I felt the Isles were still in it but once Thornton made it 2-0 - all bets were off. Richard Park had a great chance at the doorstep, but would be stoned by Nabokov. Not 5 minutes later, Radek Martinek unleashed a howitzer (which he should utilize more often) that literally broke Nabokov’s mask and caused him to temporarily leave the game for repairs. The Islanders could not capitalize on this development either, having only 2 or 3 shots on an untested, cold goaltender. Nabokov would return in the third period after being stitched up, and would allow goals on the first two shots he would face. Andy Hilbert would sweep away the garbage and deposit a Bill Guerin rebound to make it 2-1 and 59 seconds later Mike Comrie would tie the game with this dazzling move:

I commented over on James Mirtle’s blog (as he posted the video with some commentary) on how Comrie may either continue to try his toe-drag move more now that he had some success, or he may even calm it down - who knows?

The hilarity wouldn’t end there - Freddy Meyer would make it 3-2 on a blast from the blueline that beat Nabokov glove side. Meyer would give the fans in attendance more than just a lead to cheer about, he secured free Wendys chili for everyone in attendance for the second home game in a row! The defense clamped down and kept the Sharks at bay (no pun intended there) and for the remainer of the period reversed their style of play to keep the lead. Blake Comeau would be boarded by Sharks d-man Murray around the 6 minute mark of the period and would draw a 5 minute major and a 10 minute game misconduct. The Islanders had a 5 minute power play, but you could tell they didn’t want to risk allowing the game to be tied. Eventually, the Sharks would pull Nabokov and the puck would nearly get past DiPietro had it not been for a lucky bounce and the post. On the very same play, Andy Sutton would take Jeremy Roenick into the boards and need to be helped off the ice - another blow to an already depleted offense.

In the end, the Islanders held onto the lead and won their fourth straight game and have now gotten points in their last 5 - a season high. However, this win hurt - literally. There are rumors running rampant tonight that the Islanders and Leafs are in discussions to bring back Islanders alumni Bryan McCabe - however details are sketchy so we will see how that turns out.

If you look back to my pre-game post last night, you may have noticed I called for the Islanders to break out offensively in this game. I don’t really have an explanation for my feeling, other than their inspired play as of late - but I completely called it. When a team is held to just 10 shots, they really don’t have much of a chance at getting in the game, especially when trailing after one period. And trail Atlanta did - in both goals (1-0 Islanders) and shots (20 for the Islanders and just 4 for Atlanta).

As the game would progress, the shot differential grew even more - 17-2 in the second period for a total of 37 to 6 and and 12-4 in the third for a total of 49 to 10. When I was heading down the runway towards room six (where the post game press conference is held), I heard the PA announcer state that the Islanders had set a new record for shots against - I will refer to Greg Logan’s story for the specifics:

The 10 shots against broke the franchise record of 11 set in Detroit on March 3, 1977; the 39-shot differential also was a franchise record, and the 49 shots represented their second season-high total in three games.

During the press conference, when head coach Ted Nolan was asked what he felt about the shot disparity and what he was most impressed in, he answered

“I think the 10 shots against. When you play an explosive team like Atlanta, to hold them to 10 shots is a great team effort. This was one of our best complete efforts since we’ve been here.”

The defense last night did an outstanding job taking their men wide and not allowing the opposition to generate any pressure on DiPietro - who at times looked extremely bored. On several occasions DiPietro would play the puck unnecessarily - and be called for two delay of game penalties for shooting the puck out of play. Another positive - the great play of the “big guy” line is continuing, Fedotenko had another goal last night - his fifth in five games and 13th on the season. That line cycles very well and gets things done in the dirty areas in front of the net, something that was missing for a large portion of the season. We also saw Bergenheim notch another goal, he made a strong move off the right side end boards and gained the slot for a great shot that beat Lehtonen glove side. Satan had the Islanders first goal off a nifty feed from Park behind the goal line that caught Lehtonen out of position and Bergeron had a point blast on a 5-on-3 power play that was just as beautiful.

There weren’t many negatives about this game and you can’t really count the power play goal the Islanders let in in the waning minutes of the game as a negative because it was one of Atlanta’s only moments of pressure the entire game. It was a great play and not a weak shot in the slightest.

With the Islanders now in 12th place in the east and only 3 points out of a playoff spot - this has to be a time when the front office will have some difficult decisions to make with the trade deadline two weeks away.

To attempt something new, I wanted to add a poll to see what everyone feels that Snow will do now that the team has strung a few wins together. Will he add a few pieces to try to augment the scoring or will he sell off a few pending UFA’s? You be the judge!

Vote!

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