Today's game is one for the history books -- for all the wrong reasons. Jaromir Jagr scored his 700th goal this afternoon. The Isles gave up four power play goals, the most since 2005 and Travis Hamonic was assesed 32 penalty minutes in the third period, tying Michael Haley's PIM record.
When Butch Goring, who can find the bright side in just about anything, calls the game 'abysmal', then you know it really is. There was one bright spot, especially in the first 20 minutes: Halmo.
Mike Halmo played a little over 11 minutes and laid four hits that were very noticable. He also had a few chances on Marty Broduer who was playing as if he was 25. The thing about Halmo is, as Richard Greer from Twitter put it:
Have puck, put it on net. Don't have puck, get the guy with the puck. Simple plan that's working.
Even Goring said that the likes of Thomas Vanek was getting too fancy looking for perfect plays and missing opportunities to get into this game where the Devils began the scoring streak only five minutes into the game. The Isles managed only 19 shots on net through sixty minutes, but managed 47 hits. It didn't matter since they only managed a single goal from Kyle Okposo.
Nabokov, who had played well against Toronto, sat out the third period after giving up five goals and was relieved by today's Bridgeport call-up, Anders Nilsson. Kevin Poulin was sent packing on the Ferry in order to get a little playing time. Maybe he could have stayed.
Travis Hamonic will be severly penalized and fined for his retalitory actions in the last five minutes of the game. His frustration level was over the roof and he just couldn't take it any more. His wallet will not be happy. He may have wanted to send a message to his team mates that they shouldn't just roll over and play dead, but he didn't have to do it in a way that was so costly. Now the Isles will likely have to play without him for a game or two and all because Andrew MacDonald got drilled. Foolish.
Boulton, feeling like he wasn't doing his job, ended up getting a game misconduct as well in the final minutes.
Just a terrible game all around. Tomorrow may not be any better. The team is fragile and with the uncertainty of Wednesday's trade deadline
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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