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No Streak Lasts Forever, Radek on IR 11:25 am

February 4, 2013, 7:30 AM ET [112 Comments]
Dee Karl
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
11:25 am: Some things never change though. Somehow, Radek Martinek will be going for an MRI today for an abdominal injury. He hasn't played. But by putting him on IR, that will make room for Josh Bailey to return perhaps Saturday. He did skate with the team today.

Jack Capuano is shaking up the lines in order to generate some spark. Look for Grabner, Okposo and Nielsen tomorrow.

7 am: The Devils ended their losing streak at the Nassau Coliseum with a Hedberg shutout. It had to happen sooner or later, it just would have been nice if it didn't happen yesterday in front of a crowd of around 11,500.

Afternoon games are difficult for the Isles, I don't know why. Sure, they win some of them, but they lose more than they win. I'll have to go back into the archives and find my stats on those. I know I did it a few years ago along with my "Full Moon Thursday Equals Loss" investigation.

So, let's look at some of yesterday's numbers.

Travis Hamonic has a whopping 27:43 TOI. What do you say to that Peter? While Eric Boulton had 3:18. I suppose Mr. Boulton is the new Trevor Gillies.

With Colin McDonald serving the last of his two game suspension, it was Matt Martin who delivered the most hits for the Isles yesterday with a total of six. In the surprise department, it lists David Ullstrom with five along with fiesty Casey Cizikas.

The Isles only managed 22 shots on goal against those "stingy" Devils and not suprisingly, John Tavares had four of them. Matt Moulson, Brad Boyes and Matt Martin all had three.

Keith Aucoin didn't do too well yesterday in the face-off circle winning five out of nine and he is credited with only one shot on goal. It was one that should have gone in.

Kyle Okposo missed the net on his two best attempts. Time to have his eyes checked.

Michael Grabner had another exciting short handed breakaway attempt and another disappointing short handed failure. I love the way he skates, I'd like to see him learn how to fake out the goalie at close range and put the puck in the net. I'm pretty certain he'd like that too. Work on that Jack.

I wonder how difficult it was for Jack Capuano yesterday having to look over his glasses so often to see what was going on. He probably wanted to close his eyes for the final three minutes of the game.

Did they give Bernier a hero's welcome in the visiting dressing room when he got off the ice?

Okay, no time to moan about the loss. There is another chance at winning on Tuesday, snow or no snow.

Back to the drawing board Jack and back to the ice this morning.

Lubomire Visnovsky will arrive on Wednesday according to his agent who seemed to take offense to Art Staples innocent Tweet about him being at the arena. Maybe Visnovsky has certain 'needs' or 'demands' or maybe the agent just wanted to smooth the waters for his client. After all, Vis is actually suspended.

Speaking of suspensions, I didn't even know that ex-NYI Sean Bergenheim has been suspended by the Panthers for not showing up either. What gives with Sean? A few years ago, I was told "He always has an issue." I guess they weren't kidding. Sean is said to have an injury, but not from playing in Europe during the lock-out. Sure. Right. That makes sense.

Sideboards: My daughter was completely beside herself with the final call that changed the game yesterday. Clearly the charging call on Brian Strait was incorrect. What sold it was Gionta's failure to get up and waiting for the refs call. She'd like to know when Brendan Shannahan told the refs to take clean hits out of the game?

We know that head shots and dangerous plays need to go, but when the Strait hit was reviewed, it had all th ear-markings of a CLEAN hit. If they are going to regulate clean hits because an opponent looks like he may be injured, this is going to turn into a decidedly different game.

Your thoughts?








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