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The Full 60

January 26, 2011, 7:34 AM ET [ Comments]
Dee Karl
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
NOTE: Garth Snow spoke yesterday to MSG regarding the situation with Nabokov and will do so again today prior to the game. While he had no choice but to suspend him for not reporting, he also said that he doesn't know what will happen in the days, weeks or months, to come. Check in on Howie Rose's pre-game interview with teh GM during the MSG pre-game show.


It had been the complaint to a man for weeks: Failure to play a full 60 minutes. Whether it was slow starts or lapses in the second or simply taking a shift off. The Islanders can't afford it. They know it. Especially when they are playing teams at the top of the standings.

John Tavares said they did it again last night, but it was briefly. To the average fan, like me, sitting on the butt on the couch, it looked pretty close to the full 60. In all estimations, the Islanders did enough to at least leave Pittsburgh with one point. Sadly, it didn't turn out that way.

Shall we blame it on questionable calls that eliminated certain chances for the Islanders? You know, like the interference call on PA Parenteau after he was pushed into Marc Andre Fluery while he was rushing the net. I like the way Butch explained the situation. He vehemently disagreed with the call. So did PA.

There was also the marginal call on Matt Martin against the boards. On the other side of the coin Jeremey Coliton has the stick taken out of his hands and nothing is called. No, the Islanders weren't catching any breaks last night.

Kyle Okposo couldn't catch a break either. Still looking for his first goal of the season, he ripped off a shot that could have left Fluery deaf in one ear, it rang so loud off the post. Grabner once again used his speed to generate scoring chances, but they remained just that: chances.

The story for the night, of course, was the play of young Kevin Poulin. As the game wore on, the fans on Twitter sang his praises. My favorite came from fellow Blog Boxer, Johhny Z from Yes!Islanders who Tweeted "Poulin: Naba-Who?"

Making a case for himself that he is ready for prime time, Poulin gave up only one goal on the Penguins barage of shots. His nemises was an uncontrolled rebound that the Isles defenders failed to sweep away while he was out of position. All in all, Poulin felt this was his best game to date, but like Jack, he knows he is still learning. "I think I need consistency. That's what I'm working on right now. Every game I want to be the best I can be."

Capuano always tempers his praise or condemnations of his team. "For the most part, I thought the guys worked really hard. They had some extended zone play in the 3rd period. Overall, I thought we played a pretty solid game. We started off slow again, but we battled back. "

Slow? They started slow? They started with Travis Hamonic and Tyler Kennedy going after each other like they had made an appointment in the school yard. That got the energy level going for everyone, even if I was watching the fight through my fingers.

A minute and a half later, Zenon Konopka showed Travis how it's done as he squared off with (beloved) ex-Islander Aaron Asham. They landed some serious punches on each other before they were separated and sent to the box.

With all the adrenalin rush those two bouts caused, you still can't win games if you can't score goals, and last night everyone was kept off the score sheet by Marc Andre Fluery.

And that's what did the Islanders in last night.

The question is, will the Hurricane's do the same tonight.
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