The Islanders return to the friendly confines of Nassau Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum, tonight, to take on the Washington Capitals in a very important Metro Division matchup. The Isles do get some important news as Jaroslav Halak has been activated from Injured Reserves and will start tonight. Kevin Poulin has been reassigned to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League.

The Isles yet again blew a three goal lead on Saturday in Buffalo against the Sabres but at least they were able to secure a loser’s point, as they lost their first shootout of the year. There are many reasons as to why this team blows leads. Most of them revolve around an inability to win face offs, struggling special teams, and defensive breakdowns in their own end. For the most part on Saturday, the Isles played fine and carried the play. We all know that mistakes happen and when they do, you have to get picked up by your goaltender once in a while. This is the difference between Jaroslav Halak and the team of Chad Johnson and Kevin Poulin. Johnson and Poulin simply cannot make the big or timely saves.

I don’t want to hang Saturday all on Poulin but in the third period every mistake that the Isles made, ended up in the back of the net. I have spoken at length about Poulin and I still see the same goalie I have seen for years. While Poulin is athletic and quick, he gets way too deep in his net, cannot catch the puck and has poor rebound control.

I don’t want to harp on Poulin too much, but moving forward the Isles truly need to address the backup goalie position. On the surface, it appears that the team has zero faith in Chad Johnson right now. While that is purely my opinion, the choice to start Poulin over Jonson, on Saturday, speaks volumes. Islanders General Manager Garth Snow will seriously have to consider bringing in a veteran goalie at some point. Halak can’t play every game and what is the security plan if Jaroslav went down with an injury? The tandem of Chad Johnson and Kevin Poulin for an extended stretch would cause a lot of sleepless nights on Long Island.

Looking at tonight’s game the return of Halak is huge. The lineup itself will remain the same however, Islanders’ Head Coach Jack Capuano stated that Michael Grabner may return on this upcoming road trip. If that is the case it will be interesting to see who is moved to clear that roster space an which forward will be sitting in the press box. The Islanders will have some really tough decisions to make with their roster if everyone can get healthy at the same time. As always for more on all things hockey, please follow me on twitter at @DanDanNoodles78.

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