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CLUTTERBUCK UPDATE: Isles preseason underway

September 18, 2013, 10:22 AM ET [122 Comments]
Dan Petriw
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
UPDATE 3:38: Islanders coach Jack Capuano says that winger Cal Clutterbuck has suffered a skate laceration and will miss an extended period of time.

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Early in the third period of the Islanders 5-3 loss to the Flames in Calgary; winger Cal Clutterbuck left the game injuring himself on a check. This is more important than anything I will write about yesterday’s games. Thankfully the injury does not appear serious and when the Isles release info on him I will surely update you all.

Now to last night games, In Regina the Flames beat the Isles 4-2 and in Calgary the Flames bested the Islanders 5-3. The only game available to watch was the Calgary feed and it looked exactly like a preseason game. When you have a roster made up of NHL players and a combo of AHL and junior kids this is normally the end result. There were two periods of slop featuring a four goal outburst by the Flames as they completely won this game in the second period.

I’m not going to get into the x and o’s of last night game but since we are all dying to evaluate players here are my observations. Kevin Poulin played exactly like Kevin Poulin; some good saves and some hectic moments of despair in the net. I swear that Poulin plays goalie like he is waiting for the last helicopter out of Saigon. He let in two goals, only one could you deem stoppable and he was bailed out by the post three times. Overall he was ok.

Anders Nilsson replaced him and gave up two power play goals, one on a 5 on 3. He didn’t really have a chance on either, and was fine for the rest of the game.

The defense as a whole was porous at best. The lone bright spot was Matt Donovan. Donovan’s aggressive play led to the Isles third goal scored by Riley Wetmore. As a whole he was smart, calm and poised in both ends of the rink and looked like a NHL veteran. Griffin Reinhart scored a gorgeous goal on a rush at the end of the second firing a wrist shot past Flames goalie Joey MacDonald. Neither Ryan Pulock nor Calvin de Haan did anything that wowed you but once again its preseason. The one player who stood out for all the wrong reason was Matt Carkner. It was only a preseason game but I’m being kind when I say he struggled throughout the game.

Up front Michael Grabner started the scoring off firing a wrister past Joey Macdonald on a breakaway early in the first. Other than that the NHL forwards were ok. Both lines of NHL regulars did some good things and Kyle Okposo had a couple of good chances. The two lines of AHL players were quiet for the most part with the exception of Riley Wetmore and Chris Bruton.

Overall I didn’t see anything that would make me go crazy either way. With the exception of a bad second period the team was ok. There are definitely some rust and kinks to be worked out especially with their special teams which struggled. Now it will be on the coaching staff to evaluate both games and get ready for their next preseason game against the Devils.
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