Pulling into Strasbourg on the French-German border. I am not a big fan of either country so I am not in the best mood. The dislike is more culinary than anything else, but there are other reasons as well. Having the Islanders on a two game losing streak (which seems more like a seven game streak) and not being able to watch any of the games does not help either. To make matters worse I am suffering from an upper-body injury and will be a game time decision.
For tonight's game against the Blues, Josh Bailey was out with a lower-body injury and was replaced by Eric Bolton who was coming off injured reserve. With Casey Czikas not making the trip, Ryan Strome moved down to the fourth line to center for Matt Martin and Boulton and Cal Cluttterbuck moved up to the third line. On defense Matt Donovan was in for Griffin Reinhart. Capuano just wanted some experience in the line-up tonight. I think that was a sign that he really wanted to win this one. Halak was back in net looking for revenge against his old team facing Jake Allen for the second time in a week. The Isles were looking to erase the bad taste in their mouth from the last game at the Nassau Coliseum when they went out to a three goal lead only to lose 6-4.
I slept through the night for the first time on the trip and got up at 5:30AM to check the score, but the internet was down. It was back up an hour later as we pulled into the port. The first period saw St.Louis go out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Steen and Jackman. The shots were even for the period with the Blues having a slight edge 9-8. The Blues had three power plays to the Islanders two. The first goal came after a Brian Strait penalty. Poor guy has been based on Twitter the past two weeks. He has been on the ice for a lot of even strength goals. Strait is -8 for the year at even strength. The fans want him waived. I am sure that he will be out of the line-up once Hamonic and Boychuk return.
In the second stanza, the Islanders stayed out of the penalty box and played strong. John Tavares got his 12th goal of the year from Kyle Okposo late in the period to make it a 2-1 game. Okposo won the face-off and Tavares darted through a couple of Blues and put it between Allen's legs. Then Mikhail Grabovski got his 5th goal of the year from Frans Nielsen with less than a minute to go. Grabo went top shelf where the expensive liquor is kept to tie the game going into the intermission. The Isles out shot the Blues in the second period 14-8.
In the last period the Islanders fell apart. St. Louis got four goals from Steen (his 2nd of the game), Oshie, Stastny and Schwartz. Okposo got on the score sheet with his 6th of the year from Matt Donovan. The Blues dominated the period by out shooting the Isles 16-6 and 33-28 for the game. It was the third straight game that New York gave up at least five goals. That is a bit concerning. The only good news is that they are still only a point behind the Penguins for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
December started with two wins against Ottawa, but has been followed up with three losses against St. Louis and Minnesota (none of which were good). The Islanders go home for the next four of five games so they have a chance to right the ship. No one expected them to maintain their hectic winning pace the first two months of the season, however they need to plug their holes as soon as possible and stay close to Pittsburgh and far away from the other teams in the conference. They need to weather the storm for now. It has been a disappointing week, however it is not the end of the world. It could be worse. I could be stuck in Strasbourg and forced to eat Foie Gras and Sauerbraten for the rest of my life.
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