What a mess! As Isles fall to Sharks 3-2

One of the phrases heard around Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, from both the employees and the fans, was ‘What a mess!’ As not only the weather, but the officiating cost the New York Islanders (3-5-1) in the 3-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks (6-3-0).
It was not only the weather, but the officiating as the guys in stripes cost the Islanders a shot at two points against a very good Western Conference Sharks team.  The main piece of good news from the arena for Islanders fans is that they skated well for three periods against a team that has been in the playoffs.

That was something head coach Jack Capuano emphasized afterward saying, “It was a good hockey team that we played tonight, one of the better teams in the league, and I thought for three periods, we skated with them. We did a lot of good things, and that is one thing that we have to take out of this game.”

New York had fought hard throughout responding to a 1-0 deficit after Joe Pavelski gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at the 0:17 mark of the first period of play. The Islanders responded back in the second period, when John Tavares (7) tallied a power play goal at the 3:15 mark.

“This one is a tough one to swallow, especially what happened at the end, “Tavares said. Of trying to snap the current losing streak, “We just need to try and understand that we’ve done a lot of good things tonight.  Our game has come a long way. If we keep playing the way we did tonight, we are going to win a lot more hockey games.”

For Tavares six of the seven points scored thus far this season have been on home ice, the forward was strong throughout the night, earning the second star of the game thanks to his efforts. Michael Graber (3) recorded his first power play goal of the season at the 11:28 mark to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead.
That lead evaporated though on a beautiful shot by San Jose star Logan Couture, who tied things up at the 13:19 mark. After being stalemated in the third period of play, things went into overtime-where the zebra’s made a call they’d probably like to have back.

Twenty-nine seconds into the frame, the referees blew their whistles thinking a puck flew into the crowd calling a crucial penalty against the Islanders. Before the puck went into the crowd though, it first deflected into the glass-which should have led to a face-off in the defensive zone.

In the end the Sharks cashed in on their 4-on-3 opportunity, as Brent Burns (3) scored the game-winning goal at the 1:07 mark.  Making his first appearance on home ice in the cage was Rick DiPietro, who showed flashes of his old form. ‘DP’ made 27 saves in what was a steady, calming game for the Islanders.

“I felt pretty good,” DiPietro said of his first start in the cage. On rebounding after the first goal of the game, “That was nuts, not the way you want to start your first game after a month off. Maybe it was good to get the nerves out and not have to worry about the shutout, get that out of the way.”

The guys will get four days off, before hosting the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, The game is scheduled to air on the MSG Plus 2 network, and face-off is slated for 7:00 p.m.

Stacy Podelski

http://www.smacksportvideos.com/

Notes: Prior to the game the Islanders celebrated the ’92-’93 team, which won the Patrick Division Championships. The team also capped off a month long Islanders Fight Cancer Campaign with a Halloween Basket Auction.

Isles earn point in shootout loss in Steel City

The New York Islanders (3-5-0) had the lead, along with the momentum against the Pittsburgh Penguins (8-2-2), but a costly mistake in the third period of play cost the Isles their first victory in Steel City.

Looking to rebound on this current losing streak, the team jumped ahead to an early lead getting the puck and bodies to the cage. It was a flurry of Islanders white jerseys in front of the Pittsburgh cage, which resulted in a goal by Frans Nielsen (2) for the early lead.

That goal for Nielsen snapped a scoreless streak for New York which spanned 167:44 minutes. New York continued to throw everything they could at the Penguins Marc-Andre Fleury was up to the task of holding the Isles to one run.

Not to be outdone by his counterpart was Isles keeper Evgeni Nabokov, who made some impressive saves to keep his teams’ one goal lead at the end of the first period of play.

Matt Martin added to the positive momentum, along with the score at the 0:45 mark of the third period, grabbing a Steve Staios attempt and ringing it home for the 2-0 lead.  The Islanders had a ton of 3-on-2 opportunities throughout the course of the game, but they could not cash in.

The inability to cash in along with not clearing their offensive zone in the third ultimately cost the Islanders what could have been a huge victory in Steel City. Pittsburgh started their comeback effort at the 1:29 mark when Chris Kunitz (3) spoilt the Nabokov shutout bid.

Pittsburgh tied the game up at the 4:15 mark, on the crucial penalty kill play by the Islanders. Up until this point in time the Penguins were held by the New York defense. One mistake resulted in beautiful tic-tac-toe passing to James Neal (9) who tallied the game-tying goal.

Neither team could find the game-winner, until the shootout frame, when Evgeni Malkin made a beautiful move-allowing Pittsburgh to skate away with the victory.

In the bad news department for fans of the Orange and Blue, Nabby removed himself from the shootout opportunity-as Rick DiPietro made his return to the cage. There has been no word as of yet on a potential injury to ‘Nabby’ or if he’ll have to miss any time with the team. 

New York will return home to Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum for a nice stretch starting on Saturday. The Isles will host the San Jose Sharks with the game scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m. MSG Plus is scheduled to televise the action, as the team is going to honor the ’92-’93 team, as a part of the 40^th anniversary celebration.

Stacy Podelski

http://www.smacksportvideos.com/

Islanders just too much for Flyers... for about 36 Seconds

We won't get into how, technically, the Islanders' second goal on Sunday shouldn't have counted because of the referee's incompetence in whistling the play dead earlier than it took the team to hire Garth Snow after replacing Neil Smith as general manager four years ago (and that was pretty early on in their search for a replacement for Smith; hell, it was pretty early on in their search for a replacement for Mike Milbury). For all intents and purposes it was a goal, and even if the ref intended on blowing the whistle a few milliseconds before the puck reached Philadelphia Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (meaning the play should have been dead at that point, when he intended to blow it, down on his knees and all), it was nice to see the Islanders get a call just one time, because God knows they needed it, and a few hundred others up to this point this season.

I mean, you can kind of see how the ref would assume that Bobrovsky would make the save on Frans Nielsen. For one, it was a routine save. For another, it was just 30 seconds after the previous goal, meaning a goal being scored was doubly unlikely. Finally, it was the freakin' Islanders!

Still, however nice it was to see the Islanders get a break, the Flyers responded with two quick ones of their own against Islanders goalie Dwayne Roloson to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 victory, bringing into question the very questionable goaltending situation on the island.

By far, Roloson has the better numbers between him and Rick DiPietro. Roloson has a decent 2.50 goals-against average, compared to DiPietro's horrid 3.76. Roloson's .913 save percentage also easily trumps DiPietro's .874 (of course, no offense to Roloson, but so would my grandmother's .895 in her senior league). Roloson even has one assist to DiPietro's none, and, somehow has compiled two less penalties in minutes. Evidently, DiPietro got the extra penalty, two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct, after throwing a tantrum upon realizing that the local hospital he frequents stopped serving his favourite flavour of Jell-O at lunch. He's clearly due for a return visit after playing through a third of the season unscathed.

Oddly enough, however, Roloson can't seem to win as often as DiPietro. The loss yesterday was Roloson's 11th, to go along with two wins and one overtime loss. DiPietro meanwhile has a 3-4-4 record. As such, it begs the question: does head-coach Jack Capuano go with the goalie that gives his team the best chance at winning, or the goalie that actually wins, although "wins" is used very loosely here. It would probably be more accurate to say "loses less". It's a fair question, but one that doesn't have a relevant answer.. the Islanders are screwed no matter what. Even once the likes of legitimate talents Kyle Okposo and Mark Streit get healthy, the Islanders will find themselves way out of playoff contention, and attention must turn to next year already. Hardly the kind of mindset you want your team to have in early December, but one that is unavoidable with the team already 16 points out of the last playoff spot in the Eastern conference.

For the record, the two goals were not the fastest in Islanders history, with the team actually scoring five in a mere 2:37 in a January 1982 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Among those were goals 16 seconds apart care of John Tonelli and Bryan Trottier. How depressing it must be to realize that even when this edition of the Islanders does something right, they're still so far away from matching the success of the team during its dynasty years. I wonder what Billy Smith is up to these days.

Go Streit to Jail, Do not Qualify for Playoffs, Do not Collect $200

The way he’s played, one would think defenseman Mark Streit’s New York Islanders teammates would treat him better. Hell, at least the pain from a swift kick to the crotch wears off eventually, but, instead, forward Matt Moulson opted to go the less-travelled route and illegally cross-check him into the boards during practice, thereby sidelining him for as much as six months.

Now, Streit will never be confused for a most-valuable-player candidate, at least not in the NHL. Of course, if we’re talking peewee, forget about it. He would school those kids as if he was a truant officer and they were playing hooky instead of hockey. But that’s true of most NHLers... except maybe former Islander Mike Comrie, but I digress.

Still, as far as Long Island is concerned, Streit’s potentially six-month-long stint on the long-term injured reserve list has quashed whatever playoff hopes his team might have had. That’s because, while he will never win the Hart Memorial Trophy, Streit is the Islanders’ heart and soul, bar none.

Sure, the team has high hopes for John Tavares and, realistically speaking, the team’s playoff aspirations largely depend on whether or not goalie Rick DiPietro is able to stay healthy long enough to be able to average out his salary per goal allowed instead of just per save, but, all things being equal, Streit is the only star the team has. Literally. He was the only Islander to play in the all-star game in 2008-2009 (there was no mid-season classic this past season).

While Streit will likely never replicate his 62-point season with the offensively gifted Montreal Canadiens from a few years ago (a team that had seven 50-point scorers), his 56 and 49-point campaigns with New York have been just as impressive due to the lack of competent talent around him (who needs friends, when you’ve got teammates like Moulson?). That being said, this could have been a year that the Islanders surprised a few people and, if Tavares’s development jumped by leaps and bounds, maybe made the playoffs.

Without Streit, barring a trade for the Vancouver Canucks’ Kevin Bieksa, who would still be about as fitting a replacement as Danny Trejo was to Chow Yun-Fat all those years ago, the playoffs are a distant dream. Considering Bieksa’s injury history, that analogy is probably as apt as any other.

"We're supposed to be replacement killERS, not killed, right?"

Even the rumoured return of Mathieu Schneider to the island is a crazy notion best left for ABC and its crack team of highly skilled (or just plain high) writers. The bottom line is that Schneider is about as equipped to man the point on the power play at his age (41) as he to drive. His last kick at the can was last season, and he spent a significant portion of it with the Manitoba Moose in the AHL for a reason. The last time I checked, the world already had a former Canadien playing for the Moose well into his golden years, and even Mike Keane realized it was high time to retire.

Even with a blue-line bolstered by the likes of Bieksa or Scheider, and the recently acquired James Wisniewski and Mark Eaton, the loss of Streit turns the Islanders’ defensive corps from a lower-tier NHL-calibre one to one more fit for the AHL. Milan Jurcina has never been able to catch on with a major-league team for a reason. Meanwhile, Bruno Gervais is one trade to a good team away from a demotion. The same goes for Jack Hillen and Andrew MacDonald, who may not be old, but still belongs on the farm. Don’t even get me started on Radek Martinek.

"I think I see the light, Doug. Do you?"

As for the team’s forwards, while characterized by youth, it’s the elderly statesman who serves as captain, Doug Weight, and the overwhelming desire to get him to change his first name to “Dead” just for kicks, that best sums up its capabilities up front. One foot in the grave is how the team’s playoff chances looked a week ago. With Streit gone, get your shovels.

Reports are conflicting as to just how long Streit will be out, but if it’s for any significant length of time, three things are almost foregone conclusions:

1)     Moulson feeling really, really, really bad all season long.

2)     DiPietro praying for an injury to get out of playing for his defenseless team.

3)     The Islanders getting another lottery pick at next year’s draft.