As we were sailing from Miltenberg to Frankfurt the Islanders were skating in Minnesota against the Wild (I almost said Northstars). This was going to be the first of two tough road games. Casey Cizikas did not make the trip due to an upper body injury. He was replaced by Josh Bailey who was returning from his own upper body injury.
Lubomir Visnovsky was also finally returning from an upper body injury and was in for Matt Donovan who was going to be a healthy scratch. Squatch is getting pretty good at sitting in the press box these days. All kidding aside, Donovan had done at admirable job at filling in. Johnny Boychuk and Travis Hamonic were both still out with their upper body injuries. The good news is at least there were no lower body injuries to speak about.
What is it with all this upper body/lower body unsinn zueg! Why is the NHL so secretive about their injuries? The other professional sports leagues are out in the open, why not the NHL? I get it. You do not want your opposition to know what is ailing your players because your opponents might take advantage. Is that more likely in the NHL than the NFL, NBA or MLB? It is just verrückt!
Halak was supposed to be in net again, but because of a minor injury in warm-ups he had to be replaced by Chad Johnson. I think that Capuano wanted to get Halak back on track after breaking his 11 game winning streak the other day against Ottawa. It was not to be.
This game was also interesting because the Isles were facing Thomas Vanek and Nino Niederreiter for the first time this year. The Islanders decided to not sign Vanek in the off-season (to do so would have been a gamble...pun intended) and Niederreiter was traded for Cal Clutterbuck after Nino complained to the media on how he was being used. The Isles always have had a tough time against old teammates and tonight was no exception.
I was not able to follow the game live because of the six hour time difference. The game kicked off around 2:00AM somewhere while I was on the Rhine river. I woke up around 5:00AM and did a Twitter recap. As I scrolled through the commentary my emotions ranged from glücklich to angepisst. New York got off to a lead in the first period on a goal by Michael Grabner. It was Grabs40's 2nd goal in his third game back. Because he is so streaky it was good to see that he was getting in the right spots to score. Grabner's goal was helped by Lee and Reinhart, the later getting his first NHL point of his career.
Later in the first period, Brock Nelson tipped home a one-timer from Leddy after a Tavares pass for a 2-0 lead. It was Nelson's team-leading 13th goal of the year. Newsflash...the kid is sehr gut. The Islanders would get one more before heading to the locker room when Matt Martin tipped in a puck behind Backstrom after a shot by"Fish Oils" Hickey. Visnovsky got the second assist in his first game back.
At that point Martin had his 3rd goal of the year which was one more than Vanek. The operative term being "at that point." Either way, good move by Snow to not sign Vanek during the off season. New York out shot Minnesota 11-3 in a very good first frame. The Isles had the all too familiar three goal lead, which they had last game against the St.Louis Blues. We all know how that turned out...Schrecklich!
In the second period the teams traded goals. The North Stars...I mean Wild dominated New York and out shot them 12-1 during the period. During the period Matt Martin put a crushing check on Keith Ballard who had to be helped off the ice. It was a clean hit as Ballard turned away at the last instant. Afterwards, Minnesota finally woke up. That was schlechte nachrichten.
Kyle Okposo took a high stick penalty and the North Wild (I keep forgetting their proper name) scored on a goal from Pominville. Martin then got the expected obligatory dance with Kyle Brodziak and the Wild Stars seemed to get some schwung back. However, before the period was over Josh Bailey back-handed one in to give the Isles their three goal lead back. It was Bales' 4th goal of the year from Grabovski and deHaan.
Even though the Islanders were dominated by the Golden Gophers they still had a three goal lead going into the last period. In the third, Mikko Koivu went short side on Johnson for the score to make it 4-2. Then Erik Haula sent one off Hickey's skate and past Johnson to make it 4-3 with about nine minutes to play. Then the nightmare started.
The two ex-Isles gave all the Islander fans some sodbrennen. Within one minute of Haula's goal, Vanek put one in to tie the game. Then after killing off a Vikings power play Niederreiter swept in the go-ahead goal on his back to make it 5-4 Minnesota with four plus minutes left. New York had a late power play but came up short. The North Wild Stars pulled off the come from behind win with four goals in the third period. After out shooting Minnesota by 8 shots in the first, the Islanders ended up being out shot by 11 for the entire game. The power play was only 1-5 and they won only 20 of 64 face offs. Clearly nicht akzeptabel.
That makes two games in a row that the Islanders have had three goal leads in the first period and both have ended with losses. Without seeing the game it is clear that Johnson is not up to the task. He played well for Boston last year as a back-up, however, this year is completely different. He consistently giving up 4-5 goals per game and that is simply not good enough. It cannot be blamed solely on the defense. He knows his role and he needs to be ready. As good as Halak has been, the Islanders cannot play him every game for the rest of the season. Johnson must be better or be ersetzt.
The Islanders have gotten off to a very good start at 19-9. Everyone has been excited and those that have not followed the team in years have jumped back on the musikwagen. The start has been primarily due to balanced scoring across four lines and great goaltending by Halak. However, it is safe to assume that the balanced scoring will not be there every night and the goaltending will come back to earth at some point. If the Islanders do not get better production from their top line, get a more consistent power play, significantly improve their penalty kill and face-off percentage they will be in schwierigkeiten.
It is only two games, but the Islanders have another tough one at St. Louis on Thursday. There is no need to panic, but there needs to be some sense of urgency to fix the problems that they have right now. If they don't address their issues you know that the rest of the league will start to doubt them and start saying: "Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer Islanders? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!" Oh how true that is!
P.S. Any improper use of the German vernacular is a direct responsibility of Google Translate. This blogger takes no responsibility for any inaccuracies or improper use of the words including in this hockey recap. That is my story and I am sticking to it. Auf Wiedersehen!
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