The Islanders played the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday evening at the Nassau Coliseum which meant only one thing. That the Leafs had a front row seat to watch John Tavares and his first place Islanders. Oh what could've been. Toronto had their eyes all over John Tavares the year that he was drafted. Islander fans won't soon forget all of the vicious rumors that emanated from north of the border that "Tavares did not want to go to New York" as the number one pick. It was never true. Toronto wanted Tavares to be the face of their franchise and carry on their storied tradition. However, it was the Islanders tradition that Tavares wanted to uphold. He made the right choice.
Coming into the game the Maple Leafs were 22-29-4 and had not had a win in their previous 11 road games. There was no reason in the world to worry about a harmless leaf, especially leaves that are on a losing streak. The Islanders went into the game with almost the same team from the Oiler game. The only change was that Cal Clutterbuck returned to the lineup and was penciled in on the third line so that Colin McDonald could stay on the fourth line. Halak was in net again going for a career high of 30 wins. The only thing that stood in his way was a bunch of leaves.
The Islanders came out flying and kept flying for the entire period. It was a much better team effort than the previous game against the Oilers. It was almost as if the Islanders had something to prove to Toronto. A little over a minute into the game and the Leafs gave away the puck in their own end. Anders Lee broke up a pass from Franzen and went in all alone on Jonathan Bernier. It appeared that Bernier stopped Lee with his right branch but it ended up sneaking in for the goal. It was Lee's 17th goal of the year.
Just a couple of minutes later it was the fourth line again that made a contribution. Casey Czikas bounced a puck off the sideboards to Colin McDonald who took it deep into the zone and drove towards the net. Bernier stopped the puck, but Czikas followed the play and chipped it past the goalie for a quick 2-0 lead. At that point it seemed that the Toronto was about to fall and the game was going to be an autumnatic loss for Leafs.
Before the period was over the Islanders fourth line had another opportunity when a two on on quickly developed. Czikas fed Matt Martin who tried to backhand it past Bernier, but the goalie made a great save. Both teams traded power plays during the period. The Islanders looked good on both ends. Overall, the Islanders effort during the first period was off the charts. The Leafs did all they could just to survive. Sometimes shots on goal do not reflect which team had the better of the play. This was not one of those times. The Islanders had18 shots versus the Maple Leafs 8 and the Islanders out-chanced them by a wide margin.
In the second period, Toronto came out with a much better effort. Their coach must've lit into them between periods because it seemed like spring had arrived for the Leafs. Two minutes into the period, a slapshot from the blue line bounced off the end boards behind the net and came out the other side where it found the stick of Richard Panik to make it 2-1.
Subsequently, Toronto took a high sticking penalty and had to kill off an Islanders power play which never really got any good looks on Bernier. Right after the penalty expired the Leafs got a breakout and Panick drove the net. However, Trevor Smith knocked in the rebound to tie the game at two apiece. The Leafs continued to push the play for most of the period. It was hard to believe that it was the same team that gave up two goals in the first. They threatened to take the lead on numerous occasions, but the Islanders were not about to panic even though Panick had been effective for the other team.
he Islanders would respond. They started to apply some pressure in the Toronto zone. John Tavares worked the puck while setting up shop at the back of the net. He found Travis Hamonic who took a shot from the blue line that ended up being deflected in front by Josh Bailey. It bounced right to the stick of Anders Lee who got his second goal of the game and his 18th of the year. The goal gave the lead back to the Islanders with eight minutes left in the period. That seemed to give the Islanders their mojo back as they reverted to the form that they had in the first period. Much of the last five minutes was spent in the Toronto zone. Time ran out before the Islanders could score again.
In the third period, the Islanders continued their strong play, however things got a little dicey when Halak came way out of the net to play the puck and ended up falling down outside the face-off circle. As he scrambled to get back, Islanders defensemen covered the net. It was a golden opportunity for the Leafs to even the score, but they could not even get a shot on goal. The Leafs never got another good scoring opportunity and the Islanders hung on for a 3-2 win. It was their third straight 3-2 win in a row.
Overall, the Islanders played very well with only a couple of miscues that led to the two Toronto goals. Anders Lee obviously had a strong game and has found a spot on the top line. The fourth line gave a great effort and chipped in with a goal. However the second and third lines were pretty quiet the whole game. The Islanders ended up out shooting the Leafs 41-36 for the game while both teams were 0-2 on the power play. The key statistic in the game was the fact that the Islanders doubled up the Leafs in takeaways, 14-7. Those extra takeaways led to all three Islander goals.
The Islanders improved to 36-18-1 which was good for 73 points. They remained ahead of Pittsburgh who won in overtime against Ottawa. Next up is a Saturday evening contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets. A win on the weekend will give the Islanders a lot of momentum against the New York Rangers on President's Day.
The Leafs came to play for about 20 minutes which was not good enough, because the Islanders played almost a full 60 minutes in front of a loud crowd. It was a cold evening on Long Island in the middle of winter which meant that there were no leaves to be found outside the Nassau Coliseum. It turned out that all the Leafs were inside the arena being bagged by the Islanders.
No comments:
Post a Comment