Back In The Saddle

Sometimes when you fall off of your high horse the best thing to do is to get right back on. That was the good news for the New York Islanders on Tuesday evening. Fresh off of a disappointing loss at home against their hated rival, the New York Rangers, the Islanders traveled to Raleigh to take on the Hurricanes.

While the Islanders were giving up three two goal leads in their loss on Monday night, the Hurricanes were overcoming three one goal deficits in their win over Ottawa at the very same time. Carolina has struggled this year as they came into this contest 20-28-7. The Islanders swept a home and home against the Hurricanes at the start of the season and have not looked back since.

Head Coach Jack Capuano made a number of changes for this game. Michael Grabner came off of the injured reserve list to spell Casey Czikas, Calvin deHaan returned and replaced Lubomir Visnovsky and Chad Johnson got the start in place of Jaroslav Halak who gave up a six spot against the Rangers. The lines were mixed up as well. Grabner-Nielsen-Strome got 2nd line honors, Grabovski centered Kulemin and Clutterbuck, and Nelson was demoted to play with McDonald and Martin.

There is always the fear of an emotional letdown after an Islanders-Rangers game. At least for the first period that was not the case. The Islanders had good energy coming out of the gates and had numerous scoring opportunities, but Anton Khudobin was able to bail out the Hurricanes. Michael Grabner looked good coming back from injury, even getting his normal allotment of breakaways. Perhaps he is coming into form for the stretch run,

With about four minutes left in the first period the Islanders went on the power play after a Hurricane hooking call. After winning the face-off, Frans Nielsen walked the puck to the blue line and went down to the right face-off dot. There he met John Tavares and the two of them started a mini cycle. The Hurricanes defenseman seemed more concerned with Tavares than Nielsen. That gave Frans some daylight to take a quick shot. Anders Lee tipped it in front and then got his own rebound which he slid through Khudobin's five hole for a 1-0 lead. It was Lee's 19th goal of the year. The Islanders doubled up the Hurricanes in shots on goal 14-7 in the period. A late delay of game penalty against Hamonic gave Carolina a power play that carried over to the second period.

The Islanders were able to kill off the power play to start the second period, thanks to Michael Grabner. He is definitely starting to look like his old self. He chipped the puck out of the zone a couple of times and even had a breakaway but shot it wide of the net. Chad Johnson also played well and you could tell he was gaining confidence as the game wore on.

The Islanders eventually took a 2–0 lead on a goal from Brock Nelson. The Islanders put on some pressure and Colin McDonald distracted the goalie and may have gotten away from spending a bit too much time in the crease. It was Nelson's 16th goal of the year and his first in over a month. Martin got the second assist. The Hurricanes turned the tables on the Islanders and out shot them in the second period 18-8.

In the third period the Islanders just did not let up. The only concern was if a bad bounce would cut the lead in half. The Islanders desperately needed to get that backbreaking goal to put the game out of reach. That goal would come from the stick of Michael Grabner. It was justice well served as Grabs40 was clearly the best player on the ice. Grabner was able to get a short breakaway off of feeds from Hamonic and Nielsen for his 6th goal of the year to make it 3-0 with eight minutes to play.

The Hurricanes got one back on a goal from Jiri Tlusty to make it 3-1 and nearly got a second goal from Nathan Gerbe but it was waived off because the midget played the puck with a high stick (of course he had to use his stick…after all he is height challenged). Chad Johnson came up big with a number of saves. Then for some inexplicable reason, Carolina pulled their goalie with over four minutes left in the game. All that did was give John Tavares the opportunity to get his 28th goal of the year to make it 4-1. That is where it ended.

It was interesting that the Hurricanes out shot the Islanders 38-30 for the game even though the Islanders pretty much dictated the play. Overall, Chad Johnson was solid (which was nice to see) and Michael Grabner was all over the ice. If Grabner can get hot it will mitigate the loss of Kyle Okposo who is still a couple of weeks away from returning to the lineup. Travis Hamonic had a great defensive game. You could clearly tell when he was and when he wasn't on the ice.

The Islanders moved their record to 38-19-1 which was good for 77 points and first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Rangers and Penguins remained two points behind with a couple of games in hand. Next up is a tough home game against the Nashville Predators which could be a preview of a great Stanley Cup Final. Then the Islanders travel to Washington on Saturday afternoon to take on the Capitals.

Solid win by the Islanders after falling off of the horse just 24 hours earlier. There must have been a lot of disappointment as the team flew to Carolina. However, It showed a lot of character to get right back on the very same horse. Hopefully they will stay in the saddle for a couple more weeks and solidify their position at the top of the conference.