The Islanders played the Ottawa Senators tonight in the first of back to back games between the two teams. Does that sound familiar? Sure it does. Coming into tonight, the Islanders had played 25 games this year with this being the fifth time they have played the same team two games in a row. On two occasions they were able to sweep both games (Carolina and Pittsburgh) and in the other two (Tampa Bay and Washington) they split. Halak was going for his 10th win in a row against Craig Anderson who was in the nets for Ottawa. The Islanders were going with the same lineup from Saturday's game against the Devils.
I had to work late tonight so I listened to the first period in the car on the way home. Really was a boring 20 minutes. I really did not miss anything. The only action ended up being a goal by Mike Hoffman to give the Senators 1-0 lead halfway through the first period. There were no penalties at all and there were only 14 shots on goal with the Islanders getting 9 of those. When I got home I had to take care of a few things and missed the first half of the second period as well. Again, I did not miss anything as there were no goals and no penalties up until that point.
After eating dinner, I settled in to watch the rest of the game. Towards the end of the second period, it looked like the Islanders were not going to generate enough offense and that the Senators would score another goal to take a commanding lead going into the last period. But that was not to be. With a little less than two minutes to go, Brock Nelson got his team-leading 11th goal of the year from Kyle Okposo. Breaking news alert…Brock Nelson is pretty damn good.
The score was even. The teams would finally trade penalties and both power plays would come up short. Then as time was winding down in the second period, Casey Czikas stole the puck and blasted a slap shot passed Anderson with no time left on the clock. It seemed that the Islanders got a lucky 2–1 lead right at the end. However the officials waived off the goal as the puck passed the goal line literally a tenth of a second too late.
Nothing to worry about. The Islanders got their 2–1 lead back early in the third when Ryan Strome banged home his 5th goal of the year after a shot by Thomas Hickey. Brian Strait got the second helper. Things started to look good as the Islanders defense settled in and was protecting a 2-1 lead for most of the period. However, Ottawa was able to tie up the game with about nine minutes left to go with a goal from Macarthur. The game ended up going to overtime. Again what else is new? The Islanders had already played seven overtime games this year coming into tonight. They were 7–0 in those games, winning either in the overtime or the shootout. After 60 minutes of play, the Islanders had out shot Ottawa 24–18. It clearly was not one of their better performances. They were lucky to get a point.
In extra time, New York played better. Then after about three minutes, Hickey got the puck on the right circle with a defender on him. Hickey did a backwards 360 and went behind the net and tried to stuff it in the goal on the short side. The puck bounced off a Senators skate and went in behind Anderson to give the Islanders a 3-2 overtime win. It was the second great game in a row by Thomas Hickey. Earlier this year the Islanders players were all interviewed as they went on a long West Coast road trip. They were questioned about what was one thing that they couldn't do without during the trip. When it got to Thomas Hickey for some reason he said “Probably my fish oils. It keeps you healthy.” If that's the case, he should pass them out to everybody else on the team.
New York stole a second point tonight. They clearly did not play a good name but still managed the win. It was Halak's 10th win in a row which tied him with Billy Smith for the franchise record for most wins in a row by a goaltender. The Islanders moved to 18–7, good for 36 points and a tie for first place in the Metropolitan division with Pittsburgh. The Nassau Coliseum had a good Tuesday night crowd of almost 14,000 against an average opponent. It was the largest Tuesday night crowd in about six years. I bet Nassau County politicians are kicking themselves right about now.
The Islanders are still banged up on the blue line. Boychuk and Visnovsky are still day-to-day and Hamonic went off late in the game after a hard hit. Cal Clutterbuck also got banged up as well. It will be interesting to see if that will enable Michael Grabner see his first action of the year. New York goes to Ottawa on Thursday for the rematch. Programming note - I will not be able to watch a live hockey game for the next week and a half. I am off to Germany to take a cruise down the Rhine River. It is a well needed and long-overdue vacation. I am not sure if I will try to watch the games on a delay. I will be following the results very closely. I have been waiting way to long for this and I will try my best not to miss a second. Whether I get to watch or listen to a game depends on how much free time I have. Either way, I will try to post my thoughts if I can.
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