I spent this morning visiting The Palace of Justice where they held the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. then it was a short stop at the Rally Grounds and Zeppelinfeld, followed by a two hour trip through the Documentation Center. The Documentation Center is a museum located at the unfinished Congress Hall in Nuremberg which depicts Hilter's rise and fall from power. The afternoon ended up finally with a three hour walking tour through the Christmas Market in Altstadt or "Old a Town" which included window shopped and sausage eating.
I returned to the boat and went to dinner with Kellie and my iPhone. The Islanders were playing the St. Louis Blues at the Nassau Coliseum in an early afternoon tilt at 1:00PM. That meant 7:00PM for me here in Germany which coincided with dinner. It was also the Islanders third installment of mini-locker night with the honoree being Mr. Islander, Bobby Nystrom. New York was going for their 20th win of the season against just 7 losses.
Coming into this game the Islanders were really hurting on defense with Boychuk, Visnovsky and Hamonic all out. The Isles already called up Griffin Reinhardt from Bridgeport for the previous game against Ottawa and today did the same with Ryan Pulock. New York had all seven defensemen out on the ice in warm-ups and afterwards they sent Pulock back to the AHL club. The good news is that meant Visnovsky will probably be ready next game. As for the Blues game, it was the same cast of characters at forward with Halak in goal against Jake Allen.
At dinner I had my Islanders Twitter feed all fired up. Before I was able to get to my entree the Islanders got out to a three goal lead. After an unsuccessful power play the Blues committed yet another penalty and on the ensuing advantage Frans Nielsen knocked one home for his 6th goal of the year. It came off of a behind the back pass from Okposo after a shot by Nick Leddy. Before the period was over Ryan Strome slapped one past Allen for his 6th goal of the year and then Michael Grabner got his 1st goal of the year since coming back from sports hernia surgery. Strome's goal was unassisted and Grabner's goal was helped by Donovan and Leddy. The Islanders had their fifth sell out of the year and the Coliseum was rocking.
In the second period the Blues would make a change at goal and inserted the former Devil Martin Brodeur who had just signed a contract with the team in the past week. The fans were yelling Marty's name and they got their wish. It was a good move by St. Louis. The Blues made a comeback and scored two straight goals to make it a 3-2 game. The St. Louis goals came from Stastny and Berglund. By that time dinner was over so I went back to the cabin and tried to get an audio feed for the game. Listening to Chris King's voice was going to be great. However, Tune In was not cooperating. Seems that internet radio from the states for certain stations does not transmit over the satellite here in Germany.
I went back to the Twitter feed but the internet was down. The Cruise Director told us that there was free wifi on the boat at all times. However, he said that there are some spots along the way where the ship may lose the satellite signal. It is usually when the boat passes by "Heidi and the Goats" along the Rhine river. What's funny about that statement is that there is a precedent. It was not the first time that Heidi interrupted a New York sports team. Back in 1968 the "Heidi Game" or "Heidi Bowl" pitted the Oakland Raiders against the New York Jets. The Raiders won 43–32. The game is remembered for its exciting finish, as Oakland scored two touchdowns in the final minute to overcome a 32–29 New York lead. It came to be known as the "Heidi Game" because NBC Television controversially broke away from the game, with the Jets still winning, to air the 1968 television film Heidi at 7:00PM.
When I finally got re-connected to the internet the Blues tied the game 3-3 on a goal by Shattenkirk. However, the Blues committed another infraction as Donovan lost an edge and a phantom trip was called. John Tavares made them pay as he potted his 11th goal of the year which left him one goal behind Brock Nelson for the team lead. It was a power play goal from Okposo and Nelson. New York had regained the lead going into the last period. The fact that the Islanders got the lead back after playing so bad seemed to be a good sign at the time.
The Isles had out shot the Blues in the first period 12-10, but the Blues dominated the Isles in the second and third periods and out shot them 16-8 and 14-7, respectively. Overall, the Blues put up 40 shots to the Islanders 27 and scored three times in the last period for a 6-4 win. Oshie, Stastny (his 2nd goal of the game) and Tarasenko were the goal scorers for the Blues. Halak failed to get a win against his old team and his win streak was stopped.
You can't win them all. However, this was a disappointing loss. The Islanders had all the momentum until they started the second period. It was Bobby Nystrom day and it was a sold out game with 16,170 in attendance. Halak had won a franchise record 11 games in a row and was facing the team that gave up on him. Giving up a three goal lead was reminiscent of last year's team. The Islanders need to shrug this one off quickly. Next up are two road games against Minnesota on Tuesday and St. Louis on Thursday. It is not going to be easy.
I did a bit of research regarding Heidi". In the story it turns out that Heidi befriends her new neighbors including Peter the goat herder and his mother and blind grandmother. At one point Peter is jealous of Heidi's relationship with Klara and pushes the blind grandmother down a mountain. Fortunately she did not die and eventually was able to walk again. Maybe that is a sign that the Islanders will be pushed and start to free fall from where they are right now, but it could also mean that they will bounce back and be stronger than ever. Either way, that leaves me a bit nervous for the rest of this trip because it seems like the outcome is going to somehow involve a guy named Peter.
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