Hail the King

The New York Islanders were in Sunrise, Florida to take on a injury-battered Panthers team on Sunday morning at 8:00 AM.  Why play a hockey game so early?  Actually, they weren't, but it was a morning game to me as I was actually in Hong Kong which is 13 hours ahead of the eastern coast of the United States. 

I am in Asia for two weeks for business purposes (yes I have a real job) that will include a side trip to Singapore.  I will still try to blog if I can, but not sure it I will be able to watch or listen to any of the games.  This morning I plan to work out while listening to Chris King call the game from Sunrise.

The Panthers are having a tough time of it.  They came into the game with 70 points (28-23-14) which left them slightly behind the Boston Bruins for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. However, both of their ex-Islander goalies were injured as Roberto Luongo and (you can call me) Al Montoya were out with upper body injuries.  If the Panthers really wanted to make headlines they should have got Tommy Salo out of retirement and between the pipes.  With all that goalie carnage it meant that some guy named Dan Ellis got the start.  He is a 34 year old journeyman goalie with a lifetime save percentage of .905.  

To make matters worse, the flu bug was running throughout Sunrise and a number of players were probably still feeling the after effects during the game.  That would include newly acquired Jaromir Jager who is 68 years old (at least he seems that old).  The Islanders caught a big break with all that was going on with the Panthers.  It remained to be seen if they could take advantage of it.

The Islanders on the other hand got some good news.  First, Matt Martin returned from a one game suspension for his accidental knee on knee hit in the Dallas Stars game.  MattyMarts was in the lineup for Eric Boulton.  In addition, Kyle Okposo made the trip with the team and started skating.  He is projected to be back perhaps next week.  Tyler Kennedy was with the team as well but is still out with an upper body injury.

The rest of the lineup was the same with the exception of the goalie.  Michal Neuvirth made his debut giving Jaroslav Halak some rest.  In fact, many think that Neuvirth will also get the start against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday so Halak can go against the Rags at the Nassau Coliseum on Tuesday.

I was able to listen to the first two periods while I worked out and ate breakfast.  The first period seemed kind of sluggish.  Not much action at all with each team having one power play a not many more shots (Florida had 7 vs. New York 5).  In fact, Neuvirth did not even touch the puck until a little past the nine minute mark. The only scoring came when Erik Gudbranson sent one in on Neuvirth from the point and it caromed in the net off of Casey Czikas's leg for a 1-0 Florida lead.

In-between periods I surprisingly became part of the radio cast.  In the morning I saw a tweet from the Eric Hornick, the New York Islanders statistician, and he asked the question "Who is watching or listening to the game outside of North America?"  I then responded to his tweet with this:

*@ehornick  In Hong Kong for business and will be listening to Chris King call the game on Sunday morning at 8AM.*

So an hour later I am listening to the Islanders game on the radio inbetween periods and Chris King (who does the play by play for Islanders games) reads my tweet on the air!!  He said "Pfigjam23 is listening to the game all the way from Hong Kong"  I wish I had it on tape.

In the second period the pace picked up a bit.  The Islanders would tie it when Anders Lee fed John Tavares for his 32nd goal of the year.  Then a pair of Nicks would then trade goals.  First for Florida was Nick Bjugstad and then for the Islanders it was Nick Leddy.  For Leddy it was his 10th goal of the year from Tavares and Nielsen.  The Islanders had the better of the Panthers as far as shots went at 11-5 for the period.

The last period would once again see the teams trade goals.  This time it was John Huberdeau (whenever I hear that name I think of cigars...kind of like a fancy humidor) to give the Panthers their third one goal lead of the game.  However, Josh Bailey was able to squeeze an orange past Dan Ellis to send the game into overtime.  It was Bailey's 14th goal of the year.  Tavares notched his third point of the game to take the NHL lead in points with 70.

The overtime from what I heard was high energy and back and forth, but in the end it went to a shoot out.  The Islanders came up empty in the skills competition and John Huberdeau got the win for Florida when he apparently stopped and barreled over Neuvirth.  After watching the replay I am not sure how they let the goal stand.  Huberdeau stopped short kind of like I do a couple of times during my commute to work everyday.

The Islanders got the loser's point and now have 4 points in 3 games on the current road trip.  With a win on Monday at Toronto, the Islanders will be able to go home with a respectable 6 points in 4 games.  No matter what happens, the Islanders will be in first place on Tuesday when they face the Rages at the Nassau Coliseum.

I learned a couple of valuable lessons today.  First, just because you got a loser's point does not necessarily mean that you are a loser.  Second, it is perfectly acceptable to stop short and barrel over a goalie in a shoot out. Third, and most important, if you want to get Chris King to read your tweet on the air you have a much better chance if you include the words "Chris King" within your 140 character message.