Lack's Revenge

After a “lackluster” game against an over-matched Edmonton Oilers team a couple of nights ago, the New York Islanders waltzed into Vancouver to take on the Canucks at Rogers Arena. Last year the Canucks got off to a three goal lead and in a wild third period the Islanders scored seven goals all from different players to win 7-4. I remember waking up the next day and boy was I surprised when I saw the final score. Eddie Lack was in net that night and in a surprising move he got the start in this game over Ryan Miller. That could have been a big break for the Islanders as they tried to go 3-1 on their Western Canada trip. Would the Islanders take advantage? Would Lack get revenge on the Islanders? It remained to be seen.

The Islanders finally activated Michael Grabner. He practiced today with John Tavares and Kyle Okposo and started the game on the top line. This was probably a good game for Grabner to return because of the fact that Vancouver was the team that put him on waivers during his rookie season. They essentially gave up on him until the Islanders were lucky and smart enough to pick him up. Josh Bailey was out with an upper-body injury so it will be interesting to see what happens with Grabner and the roster after this game. The only other change was that Lubomir Visnovsky was out with an upper body injury and was replaced by the ever patient Matt Donovan. Capuano started Jaroslav Halak in net, probably because he wanted to get him back on track after the Edmonton debacle and also because he wants to get his team back on track as well. No doubt that Chad Johnson will get a chance on Friday against the Devils or Saturday against the Blue Jackets.

The opening period was not very impressive. The Islanders looked like they were still stuck in Edmonton. They gave up a number of turnovers and were a little sloppy. They got an early power play but it went absolutely nowhere. They never had a chance to set up their offense in the Vancouver zone. Even the Islanders first goal was not pretty. Travis Hamonic was in the corner and threw it towards the net. Matt Martin charged hard and got caught up with the defender. The puck hit Martin's stick and it slid past Lack for a 1-0 lead. It was Matty Marts' 5th goal of the year.

Not too long after that the Canucks got even when Brock Nelson tried a blind backhand behind his own net which led to a steal. The Canucks tried to push it by Halak who made the save. However, the rebound bounced straight to Ryan Stanton who had a wide open net to tie the game. The Islanders did well in the face-off circle but only out shot the Canucks 8-6. Not a very good period on many accounts.

The second period was not much better. The Islanders looked a bit tired and never really were able to generate anything that resembled an offense. For the second game in a row they failed to challenge the goalie. The Canucks did not look all that much better, but just like last game if you wait around long enough for something to happen most often than not the outcome will not be good.

Vancouver finally took advantage with two goals in the period. The first by Nick Bonino and the second one by Linden Vey. On Bonino's goal Halak made the stop but the defense failed to clear it from the crease and on Vey's goal it was a break-a-away after a very bad turnover. Both goals came after bad passes by Thomas Hickey. Not a good game for Fish Oils. The Canucks out shot the Islanders 11-7 and the Islanders failed on two more power plays in the period.

The Islanders had no jump in the third period and started to look like a team that wanted to get home after a long trip. The Islanders committed their second penalty in the game for “ too many men on the ice” which was simply a result of some sloppy play and a “lack” of focus. The Islanders killed off the power play and then finally got a break when Kyle Okposo stole the puck in the Vancouver zone and was able to find Mikhail Grabovski who put one in the net after what seemed like two months for his 6th goal of the year to make it 3-2 with about five minutes left in the game. For some reason New York woke up and started to play for the first time in the game. They actually looked like they wanted to tie it. However, it was way too little way to late. The Islanders only game up 20 shots the whole game, but they only got 23 which was far below their average.

The Islanders fell to 26-13-1 and remained at 53 points. Still in the hunt for the division lead, but the bad news is the teams behind them are starting to catch up. Need to nip this two game losing streak in the bud. This was the first game this year that the Islanders deserved to lose. Not because the Canucks played well, but because the Islanders were terrible. As Capuano likes to say “there were a lot of passengers out there tonight.”

Just like in Edmonton another lackluster performance. It turned out that Eddie did get his revenge. He certainly was not lacking, but the Islanders sure were.