The Islanders are headed on the road this week and hoping to put the woes from the last two weeks behind them. Having lost three games in a row at home (which was unthinkable a month ago) the Islanders find themselves struggling to stay in second place after leading the division for the better part of 2015.
New York traveled to the Windy City on Tuesday to take on a surging Chicago Blackhawks team that is once again in the think of things in the Central Division. Coming into the game the Hawks were within five points of the Predators and Blues tied atop the division at 93 points. A win against a strong Blackhawk team would have done wonders for the Islanders confidence heading into a Saturday contest at the Rock against the New Jersey Devils. Next week starts a run of four straight home games with no back-to-backs.
Twittersphere was rocked by the news that Kevin Poulin was recalled on an emergency basis because Jaroslav Halak was day to day with a lower body injury. That meant that Michal Neuvirth got the start in Chicago. Nick Leddy was still out with an upper body injury which meant he would miss the game against his former team. Ryan Strome made it back to the lineup which resulted in a healthy scratch for Michael Grabner.
As the game got underway, it felt like a loss from the start. A couple of giveaways in the Islanders zone led to a couple of quick saves from Neuvirth. That would normally be good news, but when the giveaways don't stop it is just a matter of time before good teams convert.
That is what Jonathan Toews did early in the first period to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead. After a turnover, Toews found a rebound and knocked a bratwurst past Neuvirth. Before the period was over Toews struck again as he walked through the Islanders defense to make it 2-0. The Hawks had a 16-10 edge in shots but the rest of the advanced stats were pretty even. The Islanders just beat themselves up in the opening period.
At this point it was off to work in Hong Kong so I could not listen to the rest of the game. It turned out that I did not miss anything important. The Blackhawks jumped out to a 4-0 as Marion Hossa stuffed two more Kielbasas past Neuvirth before Nickolay Kulemin got his13th goal of the year in the third period. It was way too little way too late.
The powerless play had a five minute man advantage and could not get a single goal. The Islanders outshot the Hawks for the game 39-30 and the stats bore out an even game. Unfortunately, stats do not always tell the whole story. It seemed that every mistake ended up in the back of the net. But look on the bright side, the Islanders solved their penalty kill. It has not allowed a goal in the entire month of March.
John Tavares said after the game that the team was "not engaged." Hard to figure out why the effort is not there. It could just be a combination of a tired team and some injuries. In fact, that is probably what it is.
Only time will tell, but there is not a lot of time left.
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