Gila River Shutout

Tonight was the last game of a very important five game, twelve day western road trip. It started with a 5–0 drubbing at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche. Since that game the Islanders found their defensive identity. They would not give up more than two goals in a game for the rest of the trip. It's a good thing because the Islanders cannot continue to rely on scoring five goals every game.

On Saturday the Isles played the Arizona Coyotes in something called the Gila River Arena. What a strange name for a hockey arena. I decided to google it because I was curious and it turns out that there really is an Gila River in Arizona. But there is no way a river by itself can pay millions of dollars for naming rights. On further review it looks like the arena is named after the Gila River Indian Community which is the first federally recognized Native American tribe to hold a naming rights deal with a venue for one of the big four major North American professional sports leagues. Up until today The only Gila I knew of was the Gila Monster. Well I guess that means that the day was not wasted, because I can say I learned something today. Back to hockey.

The strong defensive play continued. In the first period each team had one power play and one kill. However, the Islanders had much more jump than the Coyotes. They should have had more jump because they were definitely the more rested team. Arizona played Anaheim last night while the Islanders were resting in their hotel room after a day off.
 
After the ten minute mark of the first period it was clear that the Islanders were the better team. The second period was more of the same. A couple more power plays and a couple more kills. It was scoreless after two periods. However, the Islanders were dominating as evidenced by the fact that they doubled Arizona's shot total. The Islanders were not giving up anything five on five. It was a pretty tight game. It started to look like one goal would be enough for the win…and that would turn out to be very true.
 
Most of the third period looked a lot like the first two periods. A couple of penalties, a couple of kills and plenty of blocked shots. Then with a little over two minutes left Grabovski grabbed a rebound off of a Tavares shot and fed it into the slot where Nielsen one-timed the puck behind Smith for what would turn out to be the winning goal. It was Fransy's fifth goal of the season. But before the game was over the Islanders needed to kill off a six on four power play. Mission accomplished. A very impressive win.

Halak was sharp as he stopped 32 shots to earn his 31st shutout of his career. The Coyotes had only 19 shots but that was deceiving. Most of those shots came with a man advantage. The Isles were 0-3 on the power play, but more importantly the Coyotes were 0-5. It was probably one of the best defensive games the Islanders have played in a very long time.
 
The Isles will stay in Arizona over night and then have a very enjoyable flight home tomorrow. Next week brings Colorado to the Nassau Coliseum before the Islanders travel to Florida to play the Panthers and Lightning. New York ended up 3-2 on the road trip by getting three straight wins. They started the season on a winning streak by relying on their potent offense and now they are winning games with good defense and timely scoring. The November demons are being exorcised. It's just another sign that this version of the New York Islanders is a different team playing in a different season.