The New York Islanders traveled to the wintry city of Nashville, Tennessee to take on the Predators at Bridgestone Arena in Music City USA. I had thought about driving from Atlanta to Nashville to go see the game, however, an early morning flight from Atlanta to Chicago and then to Hong Kong made me think twice about it.
Believe it or not, the the Predators actually had to remind their patrons that the game was still on due to the weather conditions in Nashville. It is amazing how much snow the east coast is getting with that global warming thingy going on. Apparently, in the south all it takes for all hell to break lose is a little bit of cold air and a little bit of precipitation.
This one was going to be a difficult game for the Islanders to win for two reasons. First, the Predators came into the game on a four game losing streak. Second, it had been 13 years since the last time that the New York Islanders won in Nashville. New York handily defeated the Nashville 5–2 back in February at the Nassau Coliseum.
The Predators came into the game second in the entire league with 89 points. At this point in the season all of the upper echelon teams are bunched up within a couple of points of each other. An Islanders win and they could climb within two points of the Predators. An Islanders loss and they would fall out of a first place tie with the idle Rags.
The Islanders had some injury issues to deal with. Kyle Okposo (who is starting to skate and could be back next week) and Mikhail Grabovski (most likely a concussion) were still out with upper body injuries. Added to the injury mix was newly acquired forward Tyler Kennedy who came up with a mysterious upper body injury of his own on his first day as an Islander. Apparently when the Islanders traded for him he was slightly damaged goods.
To make matters worse, Matt Martin was suspended for the game for his knee on knee hit in the Dallas Stars game on Tuesday night. Luckily, Casey Czikas was able to be activated off injured reserve. In addition, Eric Bouton came off injured reserve as well and was pressed into action. Boulton had played only two games this year, and if I am not mistaken, both of them were Islander wins.
At the start of the game the Islanders looked a little sluggish. The Predators had a couple of point blank opportunities early on, however, Halak was able to deny them with a little help from his friend, the right goal post. The Islanders got their own point blank chance when Nick Leddy trailed the play in the offensive zone and received a great pass in the slot, but with too much time to think about it, he ended up pulling the trigger too late.
Then the scoring started. Lubomir Visnovsky threw the puck behind the net to a waiting John Tavares who made a quick move to get to the front. The Captain then banked the puck in off of Pekka Rinne for a 1-0 lead. It was Tavares' 31st goal of the year with Bailey getting the secondary helper. A short time later, the Islanders got a power play opportunity as a result of a Predator crosscheck. It only took 27 seconds for #27 Anders Lee to tip in a Nick Leddy slap shot to extend to a 2-0 lead. The ever consistent Lee got his 22nd goal of the year. Tavares got the second assist which left him tied for the NHL point lead at 67.
As the seconds ticked off at the end of the period, there was a scrum in the front of the Islanders net. Halak tried to hold on but could not keep Colin Wilson from knocking it in with one second left. That seemed vaguely familiar to what happened at the end of the Dallas Stars game. I guess turnabout is fair play. The Islanders still took a 2-1 lead into the intermission despite being out shot 15-5 for the first period.
The second period was a lot better. The Islanders really started to spend more time in the Nashville zone. Tavares felt his oats a bit and commenced a stick handling exhibition. Brock Nelson had a wrap-around opportunity, but saw the puck go off his stick. Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy had some big slap shots, however Rinne kept Nashville in the game. Islanders had the better of Nashville on the shot clock 12-5 for the period which drew them even through two periods.
Starting the final twenty minutes the Islanders took control of the game. They got their two goal lead back when Frans Nielsen drew a couple of defensemen towards him in the Nashville zone and then went across ice to a wide open Nick Leddy for a 3-1 lead. It was a beautiful play by Fransy enabling Leddy to get his 9th goal of the year.
The Islanders then did their best to make the game interesting. The Predators turned up the heat after a slap shot from the blue line took a crazy bounce off the head of Mike Ribeiro to make it 3-2. That energized the crowd and the Islanders were on their heels.
Just 31 seconds later Filip Forsberg came in on the wing and found Craig Smith across the ice to the left of Halak and he buried it to tie the game at three apiece. The Toronto war room took a look at the play to see if a high stick was involved but there was not enough evidence to overturn the goal.
Panic could have set in at that point, but the Islanders remained calm. With six minutes left, Michael Grabner came in on the wing and took a very hard slap shot the rebounded into the slot for a waiting Brock Nelson who shot it past Rinne to reclaim the lead 4-3. Johnny Boychuk got his second assist of the game.
What was real impressive is how the Islanders protected the lead down the stretch. The Predators pulled Rinne with 2 1/2 minutes left and never had a shot on Halak the rest of the way. New York did a great job at dumping the puck out to the neutral zone. They were calm and composed which was a good sign. The third period had Nashville with a slight edge in shots 11-9.
With the win the Islanders go back into sole possession of first place, however the rags have three games in hand. A week to ten days from now it will be interesting to see where these two teams stand. Points are getting more valuable as each day passes. Now it is on to Florida to play a Panther team that is searching for a healthy goaltender and then to Toronto on Monday to play a struggling Maple Leaf squad.
Watching the Nashville feed of game on television, I was glad that after all these years the Predators kept their original goal song. Hearing "I like it, I love it, I want some more of it" brought back great memories. However, what I realized is that the Tim McGraw song sounds even better just as long as the Islanders end up with the win. Just hope it doesn't take another 13 years before the Islanders win in Nashville again.
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