Short Term Miracle

After a disappointing home stand, the New York Islanders traveled to the Lone Star State to take on the Dallas Stars.  The game was the start of a much-needed four-game road trip to help get the Islanders back on track.  Dallas came into the game 27-26-10 with a  six game losing streak and a surprising losing record at home so far this year.

On Monday at 3:00 PM the trade deadline passed. While the Rags were very active with a number of moves, not least of which was the acquisition of defenseman Keith Yandel from Arizona, the Islanders seemed to be satisfied to stand pat.  That changed late Monday when General Manager Garth Snow acquired Michal Neuvirth from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Chad Johnson and a third round pick.  Even though Neuvirth had a losing record with the Sabres, he had much better goalie statistics than Johnson.  Let's face it, Johnson fell out of favor with management with his poor play during the first half of the year. It was only a matter of time before he was let go.

The snow did not stop there.  Garth also acquired forward Tyler Kennedy from the San Jose Sharks for a conditional draft pick.  Prior to the Sharks, Kennedy had spent six years with the Penguins.  In two other smaller moves, Snow sent Cory Conacher to the Vancouver Canucks for another long-time minor leaguer Dustin Jeffrey and then he closed up shop when he shipped backup Bridgeport goalie David Leggio to Arizona for defenseman Mark Louis.

Kennedy was supposed to make his debut in Dallas, but came up lame with an upper body injury (there is a very obvious and very tasteless joke that could be inserted at this point, but it will remain unwritten).  What was not clear what is if the injury occurred prior to or after the trade on Monday.  As a result of the last minute scratch the lines remained the same from the Carolina game on Saturday.  That meant Kael Mole Rat got another chance on the fourth line.  The only change on defense was that Lubomir Visnovsky was in for Brian Strait (it seems those two are alternating games to keep Lubo fresh).  Halak was in net.

In past years a trip to Dallas usually meant a sure fire loss. However, after the drop of the puck those ugly green uniforms that the Stars had made them look like losers from the get go.  Right out-of-the-box the Islanders made it difficult for themselves.  Matt Martin hit Trevor Daley knee on knee and got called for kneeing for a five minute major and an automatic game misconduct.  MattyMarts' evening was done before he even broke a sweat.  However, Dallas only got three shots on the extended power play.  It was probably the best stretch of penalty kill that the Islanders have had all year long.  

Most of the first period did not have too much action.  The Islanders got their chance on the power play after Grabner got tripped at around the 13 minute mark.  The Stars basically killed off the power play, but right at the end Brock Nelson passed the puck behind the net to Ryan Strome who did not waste any time to feed a hard charging Josh Bailey.  The Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen let one in for a 1-0 lead.  It was Bailey's 13th goal of the year.  Islanders out shot the Stars 18-9 for the period.

At the start of the second period, the Islanders had to kill off the rest of a bifurcated power-play that resulted from a goalie interference call against Anders Lee at the end of the first period.  Halfway through the period the game all of sudden opened up with a lot of end to end action.  Then with six minutes left in the period, Cal Clutterbuck and Thomas Hickey took back to back delay of game penalties.  However, both were successfully killed off.  

Amazingly enough, that made 11 straight minutes of penalties through the first two periods that the Islanders were able to escape without any damage on the scoreboard.  The Stars ended up out shooting the Islanders in the second period 13-9 only because of their power play time.

The Islanders penalty kill had been so good in the game going into the last period, it almost made you forget about the other problem that they had.  That would be winning face-offs. That would be exactly how the Dallas Stars tied the game.  After winning a face-off in the Islanders zone, Dallas put the puck on net which Halak initially saved, but Brett Richie was there put in the rebound. 

It was only a couple minutes later that Dallas caught a very lucky break. After a hard slap shot went off the board behind the net it took a very weird bounce off of the end boards right in front of Halak,  Vernon Fiddler then jumped off of his roof to knock it in.  Halak never had a chance.  

The Islanders tried to mount a comeback but couldn't muster any offense at all.  With a couple of minutes left Ryan Strome got called for slashing as he tried to retaliate after getting manhandled by Demers. However, before Strome's penalty expired, the Dallas Stars took their own slashing penalty to even it up.  

The Islanders ended up with a short power play in the last minute of the game and then pulled their goalie to make it six on four advantage.  It did not matter because the Stars closed out the game 2-1.  That last sentence was written with about 20 seconds left in the game and with a face-off in the Dallas zone.

Then a couple of miracles happened.  First, the Islanders won a face-off, but could not direct a shot on net.  Then second, Anders Lee flung a puck at Lehtonen with one second left and it caromed off of Jordie Benn's skate to send the game to overtime.  After some high energy back and forth action in the extra period Ryan Strome fell down at his blue line to give the Stars a two on one breakaway only to have Cody Eakin slide a thick slice of Texas Toast past Halak for the win.

New York fell to 41-21-3 and got their 85th point of the year and are still in first place in the Metropolitan Division.  However, their hold on the top spot is perilous at best.  The Rags have three games in hand as they go on a five game road trip that will see them back one last time at the Nassau Coliseum next week.  Now the Islanders go to Nashville to play an upset Predators team that has lost a couple of games in a row.  Getting any points in Music City will be very tough.

The Islanders played a decent game.  The penalty kill unit did a good job.  Halak was very solid, but there really was not anyone else who had an exceptional performance.  Shots for the game ended about even, but the Stars won the battle in the dot by winning 39 of 69 face-offs.  That may have well been the difference in the game. 

The Islanders were very lucky to get a loser point in this game. It was nice to see the miracle shot to tie it at the end, but it just gave all the players and the fans some false hope.  It was only a short-term miracle.  I guess that is better than no miracle at all.