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"Islanders blow -- Late Lead"

December 18, 2013, 7:04 AM ET [35 Comments]
Dee Karl
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Immediately following the Islanders 3-2 shoot out loss to Tampa Bay, that was the headline on a good chunk of the reports, including the one on NHL.com. You have to read it with a pause in there because I'm sure that is how it is intended.

Jack Capuano said his team played as good a game as they could have for 57 minutes. My Lightning friend says otherwise. He called the Bolts "sloppy" as they gave the Islanders opportunity after opportunity to score. He said it was one of the "worst games I've seen them play." I told him not to worry.

It didn't matter that Kyle Okposo had scored at 11 seconds into the second period to put the Isles on the board and was followed up by a Frans Nielsen goal 10:10 later. I told him the Bolts would still win by three and they did. Of course I thought it would be three quick goals in the third period. Instead it was two goals in the final three minutes and the shoot out winner.

Nope. No lead is safe in the NEW NHL and that is especially true for the Islanders. But hey -- they had secondary scoring for change, right? That has to count for something.

Michael Grabner had his first point in more than 20 games, so that's a start right?

Aaron Ness wasn't on the ice for either Bolts goal last night, so that's also a good thing, right?

Hardly. The Isles gave up the game tying goal because they decided to play dog pile on their goalie and the puck squeaked out onto the ice and just needed a little lilft by Filppulla to get it over the pile of blue and into the open net.

Capuano says the Isles need to find a way to win. I believe they are certainly finding new and interesting ways to lose. Last night, was just a spectacular one.

Frustration ran deep in the locker room as it is rumored John Tavares was thrashing around a bit. I am not surprised since he was doing the same thing on the ice. Especially after he was taken into the boards by Gudas and the coliseum held their breath as it looked as if he was really injured. Later he called the hit "dirty."

Nabokov described the Isles season best to in the MSG post game and was Tweeted by Newsday's Art Staple:

Nabokov on latest debacle: "We don't know how to win the games right now... All our efforts down the toilet."


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