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Nabokov in the Ninth: Isles 5 - Wings 1 Final

January 10, 2012, 10:38 AM ET [ Comments]
Dee Karl
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
9:40 pm: Michael Grabner spoke with Peter after the game and didn't seem as enthused with his goal as Peter was. He knows he needs to do better, but the team played well as a whole.

Perhaps the funniest thing tonight was the look on Mike Babcock's face when Jack Capuano called a time out and left his first line out on the ice during the final seconds of the game. Personally, I'm guessing he wanted Moulson to get the hat trick.

"We tracked the puck hard and had good sticks." Okay, that's a new one Jack. "I liked our battle level tonight." "All our lines were good tonight."

This is the first time in a long time that Jack spoke highly of his team and they actually deserved it.

9:26 pm: A redirect off his ankle and Matt Moulson has his 20th goal of the season and the Red Wings were handed another loss by the Islanders.

It is amazing how this team can play the tough teams and beat them but then crumbles when they play the teams they should beat. I suppose that is the definition of inconsistency.

Once again John Tavares was named the game's number one star with Evgeni Nabokov, who stopped 17 of 18 shots was the second star. For that honor, he recieved a face wash from his team mates.

The guy who didn't want to play for this team has become a member of the Isles family.

8:46 pm: Okay, I was otherwise preoccupied this evening but I'm on the couch now and happy as hell to see that not only did Matt Moulson add to his stats in the first period, but Michael Grabner finally scored. YEAHL>>>

I suppose all that talk in the papers about sitting the boy finally sunk in. It also helped that Matt Martin is playing smart and Grabner kept his head up all the way. See what happens when you LOOK where you're shooting Michael?

John Tavares took a puck to the face and still managed to score a beautiful goal and earn an assist from a beautiful pass on a Kyle Okposo goal. So at the end of two periods fans have Wendy's Chili plus one.

Nice.

This will be exceptionally brief as I am working right now, but Art Staple has just tweeted that Jack Capuano said there will be NO line-up changes for tonight's tilt against the Wings.

Evgeni Nabokov gets his NINTH straight start for the Islanders while Kevin Poulin will sit on the bench.

I"M NOT HAPPY.

Jack's decision was due to Kevin having played "alot of hockey and it would be unfair to him for us to throw him right into tonight's game."

Anyone ask Kevin about that?

I'm pretty sure he was itching to start and not sit. But that's why Jack gets paid to be coach and I get paid to generate invoices.

Later all.

2:32 pm: Okay, for some reason Katie Strang of EsPN thought that Kevin Poulin was starting tonight. For a minute I thought perhaps Jack Capuano was now taking lessons in fibbing from Leafs coach Ron Wilson. But it seems Katie just wasn't reading Art Staple's Tweets.

Datsyuk will not play due to a lower body injury so the Winfgs will go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Ty Conklin gets the start.

The Islanders penalty kill is 19-for-20 over the last 10 games. Thank you Assistant Coach Scotty Allen!
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