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The Big Cubano Faces the Leafs in 2 - 1 Loss

February 22, 2011, 11:48 AM ET [ Comments]
Dee Karl
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
10:27 pm: Post game:
T
he Pillsbury doughboy of hockey scored the game winner on Al Montoya after dancing around what was left of the Islanders defense.

As @Dfriedman_isles reminded me, a team that played three games in four nights were pretty solid. Montoya gave them the chance to win, but Reimer was a thief at the other end of the ice. Then again, the Islanders had a hard time getting shots on him at times. But they ended with 29 shots on Net.

Turnovers were their downfall from the get-go. Jack won’t be happy, but then neither will the boys. Then of course, the loss of Jurcina early didn’t help either.


“We had some chances early on.” Jack told Rob in the post game. “We didn’t track the puck on the last goal and gave him too much time and space. It really hurt us when we lost Jurcina early on and then Hamonic on a misconduct.” Is it that Travis doesn’t know how to control his mouth with the refs? “Can’t fault the effort on our D.”

With the lose of both Martinek and Jurcina, Jack had to go with four D when Travis had to sit in the box for a full ten minutes. With the exception of Wishart, those left played a huge amount of minutes

“They played extremely well. Our forwards could have helped them out more.” The Isles managed 29 shots on Reimer who gave up only one goal to Matt Moulson. Reimer also robbed Jack Hillen and Josh Bailey a few times.

In the second of his back-to-back starts, Montoya didn’t start out stellar, but kept them in the game “He was great. He gave us a chance to win tonight. He made big saves when he had to.”

On Thursday night, the Isles head to Philly. That place they can’t win in. Yep. There. As Jack said, they will have to make better puck decisions or pay the price.

MacArthur put the Leafs on the board due to a Hillen turn over. If that happens in Philly, the score won’t be 2 - 1, it will be far higher.

Goal scorer Matt Moulson told it like it is, “I think we didn’t work as hard as we could. Basically that’s it.”

“A lot of it was us, we were getting pucks . Our turnovers led to good chances for them.” Very depressing for a team that was riding a high and looking forward to winning.


9:21 pm: Phil Kessel, unassisted, gives the Leafs the 2 - 1 lead at 15:19 of the third. he managed to dance around just about everyone on the ice.

8:37 pm: Josh Bailey can't catch a break and the Islanders are still 1 - 1 at the end ofthe second, but will return with 1:31 of PP time left to begin the third.

8:17 pm: Because just as things look good, they get bad again. Milan Jurcina has a groin strain and will not return to the game. Jack is down a D man for the balance of the game. The biggest D man he has.

8:12 pm: Matt Moulson scores his 27th goal on a power play with Komisarek in the box for holding. It's his 100th NHL point.

Tied 1 - 1 Midway thought the second period.

8:08 pm: Al Montoya standing on his head, but the score is 1 - 0 Leafs after one an a little.

3:24 pm: anyone think if someone is going to be traded by deadline it will be Rob Schremp? Or will the Islanders only make "depth moves" at the deadline? as in restocking Bridgeport.

2:29 pm: Radek Martinek is out of the line-up tonight with a "lower body injury." Now, that could be true as his foot was bright red last night when he removed his skates, or -- the rumor mill could get really reved right now.
Either way, Bruno Gervais is back in the line-up tonight.

1:55 pm: Oh, and Travis Hamonic is a beast.

1:01 pm: Hope everyone got to hear Matt Moulson on NHL Live. If not, they'll have the replay on line later.

Expect a very upbeat game tonight as it will be old home week for the Islanders. Katie Strang just Tweeted that Chris King told her today that half the team's forwards are all from Ontario. Michael Haley (still in the line-up) will have the largest family reunion, but Josh Bailey told Rob Carlin he's playing for free after having to buy ten tickets for family and friends.

Yep, heard tickets at the ACC are pretty steep. Guess they are!


11:40 am and Newsday's Katie Strang has just announced that it will be Al Montoya in a back-to-back net performance for the NY Islanders as they hit the ice in Toronto. Also, she says the line-up tonight will be the same. That means that Rob Schremp is again a healthy scratch. (hmmmm)

That is a huge vote of confidence for the ex-Ranger who couldn't be happier for this opportunity on the Island.

Did anyone else know before last night that Jack Capuano played his first NHL game as a Leaf? I certainly didn't.

Also waiting to see if any of the Radek Martinek rumors will come to fruition prior to the game. Sure sounded to me like Martinek was giving his all in order to stay exactly where he has been since being drafted in 1999 -- AN ISLANDER.

Matt Martin was happy to be back in the line-up after serving his four game suspension, and he did what he does best -- hit. I personally don't care what other team fans say about our tough guys, they are well respected and liked by everyone in that room and that's all I need to know.

Ty Wishart took a puck to the foot last night and it took him a while to shake it off. Guess it wasn't that bad if he is back in the line-up in TO.

More as it comes over my little Amish phone. Don't forget that Saturday is "WhiteOutTheRed" night at the Coliseum, and look for the interview with Calvin deHaan today at 5:15 pm with Christian Arnold on http://wcwpsports.org/.

Later!
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