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The Same Mistakes & Isles Fall to NYR |
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First period ended with the Rangers on top 1 - 0 on a power play goal by Chris Kreider. Nabokov did make some excellent saves, but from my couch, it also looked like he left some really dangerous rebounds. There was a drought of shots on net during the first period. The Defense continues to struggle. Not a very good period for the Islanders.
Hamonic, have you received that message loud and clear “yeah, I think so. It’s kind of being kicked in the butt a little bit.”
Kyle Okposo ends up in the box for a second time as the second period begins. He was in the box for the first Rangers’ goal.
The Isles spent the full two minutes in their own zone. But the Isles manage to get out of the PK without being scores on and Cal Clutter buck scored his first goal as an Islander at 3:40 of the second period to tie the game at one.
A game of turnovers and then a fight with 9:32 to go in the second. Matt Martin went after Dorsett, they both sit. Andrew MacDonald is tripped by Stepan and the Isles went on the power play.
Vanek on the power play, parked in front of the net the same way Moulson would and then once outside the paint, shot wide.
The power play ends and there is no additional score. Josh Bailey had the best chance to score using some very pretty moves, but Talbott said no.
Regin gets a lucky break when Dan Girardi knocked the puck into his own net giving the Isles the lead.
The third period begins and the camera finds Tavares and Vanek chatting on the bench. They need to talk in order to get used to each other.
Clutterbuck, off the schnied, as someone said, seems to have a little more jump in his skates.
The Isles are called for too many men on the ice, and while Jack Capuano was livid about it, banging on the boards and grabbing Cizikas’ stick, the call was correct and did earn the Rangers a power play goal by McDonough which tied the game at two.
Once Capuano angered the officials, they were blind to calls on the Islanders that should have been made.
You could hear the “Let’s Go Rangers’ chants rising in the crowd.
Hagelin and Okposo are both called for roughing so the teams skated four on four Grabner skates in all alone into the Rangers zone waiting for help and when he got it, he shot the puck off a skate.
With 12 seconds left of the four on four, Zuccarello takes Grabner down by the boards putting the Isles on the power play. But the Rangers managed to block shots and clear the puck. The Isles managed only one shot on the power play.
The turnovers couldn’t even be counted. They happened every few seconds.
“Isles have to be a little bit better with the details of the game,” said Butch as he watched more turnovers take place.
Poor play by the Isles defense lead to the Rangers third goal as Pouliot is left alone to beat Nabokov who was far out of the paint on his knees.
Hamonic shot wide, Clutterbuck missed the net and the Rangers took the puck back into the Isles zone with less than two minutes left of the third. Nabokov leaves the net for the extra skater. Okposo makes up for some of his poor play by giving it everything he has to keep the puck in the Rangers zone.
After an icing they put .7 on the clock and wait for a face-off to end this Islanders loss.
There were four players in front of the net as Okposo took the face off and Clutterbuck and Dorsett wrestle to the ice.
It didn’t even seem as if the game ended. There was no horn as the Rangers celebrated on the Coliseum ice with their fans crowding the glass. This was a painful loss in so many ways.
With such a poor performance, Butch and Howie decided to focus on the “unselfish” play of Casey Cizikas in their post game report. They didn’t have enough in the defense department. But how often is there?
Vanek’s game was ‘just okay.” according to Butch, so they need to give him time to be comfortable. Meanwhile, Moulson’s butterflies gave him two goals for Buffalo.
Shots on goal were even at 24 and the Isles were behind in the hits department at 21 - 15.
Jack Capuano didn’t mince words in his post game report, although he started out saying something that shocked me. “I thought we played decent,” (really?) “but again, there were mistakes with our D. We turned it over too many times.” (18 to be exact according to the NHL)
But he was also hard on himself. “We fell asleep on the too many men call, but that was a lack of focus on me.” And then he was hard on those that deserved it, “Our D have to play better. We have to win more wall battles.” He seemed to take offense when someone used the term “defensive breakdowns,” “We gave up one goal five on five. The same mistakes can’t happen.” But they do.
When asked what he thought of his new player he said he thought he played hard, but it’s going to take time for the power play to get adjusted.”
John Tavares says all the right things a Captain is supposed to say. When Stan Fischler asked him “What was missing tonight?” John answered carefully, “We just had to be a little better on special teams. They were and got the results. We were a little slow at times, but with the way the rivalry is, it doesn’t matter how both teams are playing, it depends on who holds onto the lead. We didn’t hold on to ours.”
Stan asked him how they bounce back from this sort of loss and John said they have to just go back to work, but he did mention that “the last couple of days weren’t as normal as they usually are.” That was John’s way of giving Stan the answer he was looking for without going overboard.
There is a hole left by Matt Moulson who was an important part of this team. While Vanek is “an excellent player” and all sorts of other pretty hockey adjectives, he’s not Moulson. He doesn’t know the system yet, he doesn’t know what to expect from those around him. Certainly that will come in time, but do the Isles have enough of it.
Kevin Poulin will be at the team store tomorrow night for 90 minutes.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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