Merry Christmas folks!
Nothing new at warmups. Same gus on the ice – with Rollie in net this evening.
Two teams with identical points – both struggling to say the least. One of these teams will gain some momentum. Which will it be?
My player to watch: Trent Hunter. After losing the nine game pont scoring streak, he only has 4 points in his last 12. He needs to get his game going. He can be a major factor in ‘spreading out the lineup’, if his game is going. Using the body, and gettting that ‘toe drag’ going – will be a help to this team.
Special teams play will also be a factor in the success of this game. The Isles need to keep their feet moving on the PK. They have aggressive moments, but when they sit back – they are done. On the PP – they are creating chances and getting good scoring opportunities. As some of the guys have said – get some confidence – and the puck will go in. Maybe one off the butt – may be the cure that they need.
Will save entries after each period.
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Starting lineup – Roloson Sutton Hillen Sim Thompson Park
Ken Dick – Okposo.net’s guru just showed me that the Dragons banners are now gone from the Coliseum. His line:
More room for Islanders banners!
Tampa has a lot of scoring from four guys – LeCavalier, St. Louis, Stamkos and Malone.
Hunter (my player to watch) – is on a line with Schremp and Joensuu.
3 minutes in – only one shot. Guys seem to be feeling out each others. park and Sim out there against the St. Louis and Stamkos lines. Both of them like to be aggressively forechecking in front of the opposing goalie.
Stamkos on a breakaway – hit the post. Deked Rollie, but a couple of inches short of 1-0.
Bailey with a nice deflection of a Streit shot – that Smith got a piece of.
Two posts on Lightning shots – they thought they scored, and they want to check it – looked like the puck was on the line and not completely over it. NO GOAL!
Tavares on a break, and tries to pass. He seems to have Josh Bailey disease. SHOOT!
Hale gets a penalty – first chance for the special teams to make a mark. Okie on the point – that still pisses me off. He should be up front – causing havoc.
Not much doing on the PP
Atta boy Trent!
Isles are getting chances – shots are 9-4 with 5 minutes left in the game.
Tampa gets another penalty with 4:33 to go – Downie. Get some bodies at the net, and cause some ruckus. Stamkos getting PK time now – the confndence he shows on the ice is huge.
Hunter gets a rebound in front of Smith and bangs it home – 1-0 Islanders. I have to call players of the game more often.
Rollie stood on his head with a flurry of shots right after the goal. Guys look a great deal move focused and happy on their skates.
Overall – a positive first period for the boys. But a delay of game penalty with 36.5 left – puts the guys on the kill. This has been the achillies heel for the team of late. Time to keep the skates moving, and take positive actions.
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PERIOD 2
Isles kill off their penalty – and get a power play of their own – but to no avail.
Macdonald has lookedbetter with each game played. He stands tall, and is not afraid to not only bang around, but will take a nice shot from the point.
Stamkos tied it up on a nice give and go with St. Louis. 1-1.
Okposo just got drilled on the had by Matt Smaby – and O’Halloran was right there -with no cal in sight. The fogged glasses are on for sure.
At the half way point – the Isles are not playing a bad game – but the agressiveness has to stay there.
Rollie on the spot.
Sutton took out Szczechura with a nice bomb to the boards.
Looking at the stats =Isles 55-45 on the faceoff %, equal on hits – and outshooting 21-14. Tavares is 0-5.
Thompson – on a pass from Okposo – gets it by Smith - 2-1 Islanders. The last 90 seconds before that,the line of Bailey, Okposo and Nielsen were generating a lot of chances, and really had some sustained pressure.
Tavares gets a bogus tripping call, when on his knees and going after the puck get his stick on the Lightning players skate. Dan O’Halloran is playing his best role of Mr. Magoo this season.
Andy Macdonald, on a simple play impressed me even more when insted of just shooting from the point, he dekd and made a move in on the half wall and got a closer shot in on Smith.
Malone with 18.6 seconds left in the period got pass off to LeCavalier who got it over the left shoulder of Roloson to knot the game at 2.
Assessment after 2- the Isles are letting the special teams dictate the game again. For the third – they need to get the 5 on 5 play to a higher tempo.
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PERIOD 3
Hillen takes a delay of game penalty – the third such call of the evening for both clubs. The over/under on Kenny Jonsson to do that was 3
And Malone makes the Isles pay right away -less than 20 seconds into the penalty – a snap shot betwee the circles. 3-2 Tampa. Malone was as alone a Tony Gonzalez was catching the football in Giants Stadium on Sunday.
This was not the way the Isles had the tird period planned. The speed and aggressiveness that the Isles showed in the second period has now since vanished. They look sluggish, and at times, apathetic.
Most of their efforts seens to focus on clearing the puck out of their zone,as opposed to making an effort to bring the puck out of the zone.
Stat of note – Hunter and Moulson both with 5 shots a piece.
Tampa Bay – Szczchura – gets called for delay of game – the 4th such call of the night. This wuld be the time to get this game tied. Okposo blasts on that just goes wide. Hunter gets a shot from the slot that Smit deflects.
I am still not sold on Okie on the point!
Too many times they are going for the cute and sexy shot, rather than just driving to the net, and making some bodies fly.
Shots are 35-24 for the game. 57% on Faceoffs.
Sutton gets called for having St. Louis skate right into him. In basketball – that is called a pick.
Malone, St. Louis and LeCavalier – do their best Hollywood Squares impersonation, tic tac toe, with Malone finishing off the trick. 4-2 Tampa.
The crowd (for what it was worth), is starting to filter out. No surprise there.
Five straight games that the Isles have given up two power play goals. This is a serious situation that needs to be rectified immediately. This team can not survive doing this night after night.
It just seemed that after the 2 minute mark remaining in the second period – that Tampa just wanted this game more than the Isles did. I am no way saying that there is no effort out there. That is far from the truth. I just think Tampa just stepped up their game more. And as I say that, Tavares gets a lane, and decides to drop pass back to Okposo and the play goes to naught. These guys need to in some cases, be a little selfish and drive to the net and get more physical.
Wednesday – the Isles play a Blue Jackets team that is in similar straits as the Isles are.
Joensuu draws a penalty by Smaby for Cross-Checking – if they want to make a statement- now would be a good time to do it.
The crowd left is booing the team – I think that answers my question.
Well – I probably will not be blogging on this site until after the Holiday, so I wish to you and yours, a Merry Christmas, and may all your wishes come true (well – at least maybe an Islander win on Thursday would be nice).
Posted under Blog Box, Islanders 09-10
This post was written by Gary Harding on December 21, 2009
Not to steal your methodology from you, G, and I am over simplifying things here, but to me, there are 3 basic things that need to happen or 3 major categories that are at issue here in the Islanders’ game.
1. Consistency. These games that have 20 or 40 minutes played and the rest showing little to No effort Have to stop. I know one cannot expect perfection, but as close to a 60 minute effort as possible would be quite nice.
2. The power play. Stop looking for the highlight film shot. Stop passing, passing, passing and get the shot on net with bodies in front. Keep it basic and simple. Puck possession, puck recovery, and Shots on Net.
3. Penalty killing. Enough already. Something has to give. Yet 2 more goals, which, realistically, cost us the game. This Needs to be addressed.
OK, this non-playing jabroni will shut up now.
I live in Philadelphia. I was a Director of the New York Islanders at one time in my career. I have Islanders’ autographed items for sale that I acquired during my time in New York. I would like to find any interested parties who would like to purchase Islanders’ autographed memorabilia. Do you know where I could advertise the listing of items that I am selling? I would appreciate your guidance.
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