The New York Islanders continued their trip through Western Canada with a game at the Scotiabank Saddledome to take on the Calgary Flames. Another homecoming of sorts for Thomas "Fish Oils" Hickey as he got to play in front of the hometown fans for only the second time as an Islander. It was also the first time for the Islanders to face Johnny Gaudreau, the reigning Hobey Baker Award winner. It seems that the Calgary faithful have already dubbed him "Johnny Hockey." He is a good young player and has approximately 30 points on the year, but it is a bit premature to give him a label. He is just a kid. Furthermore, there was a better "Johnny" on the ice and his name was Tavares.
There were no other changes at all in the line-up. You know what they say, "if it ain't broke don't try to make a roster move." Michael Grabner was heathy, but there was no one that Snow and Capuano wanted to take off the roster right now. I have a suggestion....Mikhail Grabovski. But that is just me talking. Looks like the Islanders are waiting for some sort of injury to open a roster spot. As far as Matt Donovan, Brian Strait and Eric Boulton continue to be healthy scratches. It must be hard on them.
It was a great start to the game for the Islanders as they had a number of good scoring chances out of the gate. They moved through the neutral zone with ease and spent most of the first period in the Calgary zone. At one point Boychuk got a short breakaway and was tripped in front of the Calgary goaltender, Jonas Hiller. He went hard into the wall and upon watching the replay it looked like his ankle had buckled. Johnny Boy was in a lot of pain and somehow was able to get up and get to the bench. Once the puck was dropped on the ensuing face-off to start the power play, Calgary made a big mistake and covered the puck while it was still in the dot. The result was a full two minute five on three power play. Boychuk made it back out onto the ice in time to join in on the two man advantage.
For the first minute of the power play, the Islanders passed it around like they did in Winnipeg and were searching for the perfect shot. They eventually got it. Ryan Strome took a pass from Kyle Okposo and threaded another needle that crossed in front of Hiller from one side of the zone to the other and found John Tavares who put it into the short side of the net for his 16th goal of the year. For the second game in a row, Strome made a fantastic pass that immediately led to a goal. His ice presence is off the charts. He can see the entire ice and is very decisive on his passes. The Islanders had a big edge in face-offs during the period and out shot the Flames 9-7. However, the shot total did not tell the whole story as the Islanders dominated the period and did not give up any scoring chances.
I wish I had some nice things to say about the second period, but it was pretty boring with mainly a lot of back and forth in the neutral zone. The Islanders held on to their 1-0 lead and Calgary had a slight edge in shots. New York killed off one power play. Pretty uneventful. Towards the end of the period I had fallen asleep but was fortunate enough to wake up on my own at the start of the third period. As well as the Islanders had played defensively, there was a fear that a bad bounce would tie the game. However, Johnny Tavares made sure that was not the case with his second goal of the game and his 17th goal of the season. He put a nifty move in front of the net through a couple of Flames and gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead. Okposo got his second assist of the game and deHaan got the second helper.
The Islanders did their best to let Calgary back into the game. They took back-to-back penalties during the third period but did a good job killing off both. Then with about four minutes left the Flames pulled their goalie and within about 30 seconds they were able to convert with the man advantage to make it 2-1. It was Johnny Gaudreau. The Islanders then buckled down, Jaroslav Halak was solid and the New York Islanders got away with the 2-1 win.
This evening was all about the Johnnies. They got three goals between the two teams and accounted for all the scoring. However, in order to be called "Johnny Hockey" one must earn it. Tavares did just that with two goals to win it for New York. It reminded me of one of my favorite movies. There was a bar scene in *Good Fellas* where Henry Hill was going around the room introduce his mafia friends and he stumbled upon one with a good nickname - "There was Johnny Two Times...we call him that cause he says everything two times" Two Times-"I'm gonna get the papers, get that papers." Well Johnny did strike two times and it will be interesting to see if he gets the cup, gets the cup in June.
It was not a very exciting game, but a solid win nonetheless. The win moved the Islanders to 26-11-1 which is good for 53 points and a tie with Pittsburgh who also won. Now the Islanders move on to Edmonton to take on a very bad Oilers squad. It will be interesting to see if Capuano stays with Halak or dusts off Chad Johnson to take on the wannabe Islanders. A win on Sunday would set up a potential Western Canada sweep against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. Every opposing coach is touting the New York Islanders as one of the best teams in the league. Will I ever wake up from this dream?
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