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Crosby Did It Again: Isles lose 4-3

November 22, 2013, 9:57 PM ET [11 Comments]
Dee Karl
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The game started with a Penguins power play goal by Kunitz, but it also started with a potential injury to Michael Grabner on his first shift. Luckily, he returned to the line-up. Kyle Okposo hobbled down the tunnel to the room as well, but also returned. But the killer was Andrew McDonald sustaining an “upper body injury” that remained quite a mystery in the first period.

Between the time spent in the trainer’s room and the time spent in the box, Jack Capuano was playing line shuffle for most of the first period. Kunitz scored a second power play goal and almost had a hat trick, but there was a delayed penalty on the Isles and while many Pens fans tossed their hats on the ice, the officials waived off the goal. It was a lucky break for the Isles who had already been in a two goal hole.

The hole was a little less deep early in the second period when Thomas Vanek scored for the Isles. Yes, it was a welcome back present from the hockey Gods.

I knew Evgeni Malkin was going to score tonight to end his scoring drought of 15 games. Of course he did. He did it right in front of Matt Carkner who was so angry about it that he broke his stick over Poulin’s net. I’m surprised there was no penalty for that. There was for everything else.

While a bad change and give-away by Josh Bailey could have cost the Isles another goal, Cizikas hustles gave Colin McDonald the puck and he buried it at 11:33 of the second to put the Isles within one of the Pens. Art Staple of Newsday ponders if Bailey will be a press box resident on Saturday.

The Pens with their own bad turn-over and Vanek and Tavares worked to get the Penguins goalie out of position in a scramble in front of the paint and Vanek ties the game at 12:54. The Penguins calls their time out.

The Isles luck kept getting better as Niskanen was called for a delay of game penalty at the 5:59 mark of the second. Isles had another power play opportunity, but while Vanek was looking for his own hat-trick, the Penguins kept getting the puck out of their own zone.

With three seconds left of the Niskanen penalty, Craig Adams was called for slashing and the Isles would continue playing with the man advantage. No luck. The Pens even had a two on one chance that Poulin kept out of the net. As the penalty expired, Sydney Crosby had three shots on net that Poulin stopped. It was like target practice for Crosby and a chance for Poulin to frustrate him.


The new #26 spoke with Peter Ruttgaizer after the second period and said he liked the Islanders’ resiliency. When asked what they had to do in the third period, he told Peter “We have to tighten up and not play as wide open.” He credited “a great pass by Kyle” for his first goal of the night and the second was a “garbage goal” that he was just trying to pass to JT and the puck kept bouncing.

In a surprise move, Andrew MacDonald returned to the bench for the third period. “Put me in coach! I’ll play on one leg.” Or with one hand. Either or. He took a shift, blocked a shot and winced a little once back on the bench.

Kevin Poulin kept the Isles in the game at every turn. Any mistake the Isles made, Poulin saved their butts. Whether it was pads, toes or doing acrobatics in the paint, Poulin kept the score tied at three until there was 1:16 left of the third when Sydney Crosby just taps the puck into the net while Clutterbuck had his back turned to him. He is truly a magnet for the puck.

But the Tanner Glass slashed Hamonic and was caught for the penalty and sent to the box while Poulin was skating towards the bench for an extra attacker. The Isles had a two man advantage during the fine 70 seconds. With the cameras following the puck Frans Nielsen was cross checked in the back by Adams and rolled on the ice in horrible pain. He was helped off the ice by the Isles trainer. Once play resumed, John Tavares tried his hardest to get pucks to the net, but the horn signed the Penguins had won the game by 4 - 3. It seemed to also be Matt Martin’s signal to go after Adams for his cross check on Nielsen.

The story of this game was too many penalties, special team failure and too many minor injuries which put too much pressure on the bench which caused some painful mistakes.

The Isles took four penalties in the first period, but the Penguins took six throughout the game. We wont’ even count the ones that were missed.

When Jack was interviewed by Peter after the game, once again he felt his team had worked hard and was NOT disappointed in his defense. He said it all came down to leaving 87 alone on the ice. “It comes down to one mental mistake at the end.” As Vanek had said, the game was too wide open for Jack‘s taste. He also didn’t praise Poulin as much as I thought he should. “Poulin played well, he made the saves he had to and gave us a chance to win.” He gave them more than a chance. He gave them a chance and a half.

The coaching staff has some hard decisions facing them for tomorrow night in Philadelphia. Jack’s line-up will depend on who is healthy and who isn’t in his doghouse.








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