Ryan Hamilton scored midway through the first, but Colin McDonald scored his second NHL goal of the season in his fourth NHL game of the season to even the score. He also had an assist on a Casey Cizikas goal that gave the Isles the 3-2 lead over Edmonton in the third period. It would be the game winner. Josh Bailey scored his ninth goal of the season in the second, but then while he sat in the box Anton Lander evened things up. NY
You can’t get too mad at him because he only did it because Hendricks went after JT against the boards and Josh Bailey uncharacteristically went in for retaliation. Luckily, Bailey wasn’t hurt, but the PPG they gave up didn’t help much.
Defenseman Thomas Hickey was the third star of the game and he deserved it for sure. He had two assists and five hits and was calm under pressure. Hickey broke his stick while defending in his own zone and Strome tried to give him a stick, but he dropped it, so neither had a stick. But they persevered for over a minute before a line change was possible. “Part of being a good team and being professional.” He told Shannon Hogan after the game. “That was tough.”
Zeeker, who wouldn’t discuss how much pain he is in with Stan Fischler, was the second star of the night leaving Colin McDonald, the Bridgeport Yo-Yo, as the first. “We were playing desperate hockey. I didn’t think we had our best hockey all game. But we found a way to win. That is what was important. “Smiling and dripping sweat on Shannon’s microphone Colin admitted “It’s been tough back in Bridgeport watching these games. “ And wondering when he was getting back here.
He worked hard, and hard work pays off. So when Clutterbuck was injured, Colin got the call and joined that best fourth line in the NHL. When Jack Capuano was asked about the game of his fourth line, he quipped “If you want to call them a fourth line. They play the right way. They’re playing high percentage hockey.”
He is lucky they were. “As a coach and staff you always worry about the first game after a road trip, you get a day off there and they’re moving their legs -- we didn’t. Not everybody had their game tonight, but we found a way against a good team. It wasn’t us, we didn’t’ do a lot of good things. We passed up opportunities. The structure of our team at that point was good to see. Last year we might not have had that discipline.”
Might not? Just say ‘didn’t’ Jack. When asked specifically about Colin McDonald, while he wasn’t gushing, he did say some nice things. “He chipped pucks, he grinded it out. He plays the Islander way; within the team concept. When you do those things, good things happen. It’s his play away from the puck as well. He’s worked extremely hard, when he went down to Bridgeport, but he continued to work on his game and was the best player there.”
Jack gave his fourth line credit “They found a way to get it done for us tonight. In a game like that tonight, when it was sloppy and not how you wanted to play, we found a way.”
Matt Martin, still playing in a full shield, told Stan Fischler that the coaching staff addressed the fact that it “wasn’t a great game.” But “We held on. We played well defensively, battled hard and found a way to win. Colin is an effective player. As a line, we know what to expect. We have chemistry together.”
They should since Martin has already played on a line with McDonald before. But they have to get better, especially special teams. They can’t keep giving up power play goals and having to make up deficits. And every time they do, Jack sends out his fourth line to try to take away
the sting of giving up a power play goal.
But would the Isles fourth line be a fourth line on another team? Maybe not. But maybe it is the chemistry. Whatever it is – they have to keep it up since no team will be easy – even if they look it.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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