N.Y. Islanders: Sweep Pair From Penguins; Grab Share Of First Place

From the desk of:  BROOKLYN's FOSTER HOCKEY CLUB

Metropolitan Division

Penguins   13-4-2  28 points

Islanders   14-6-0  28 points

New York Islanders: Saturday Night Fever In Uniondale!

Last Saturday in Tampa, the Islanders suffered a 5-2 defeat in the front end of a home-and-home series against the Lightning.  On Tuesday, the Long Islanders exacted their revenge upon the Bolts with a 5-2 victory on home ice.

On Friday, the Islanders opened a home-and-home against the Metropolitan Division leading Penguins in Pittsburgh.  The last time the Isles visited Pittsburgh on October 18th, they lost by a 3-1 margin.  This time they outlasted the Pens in a 5-4 shootout.

The Islanders reengaged the Penguins Saturday evening in Uniondale.  After Ivgeni Malkin opened the scoring with a 1st period goal, Matt Martin tied the game in the 2nd period.  The Isles then dominated the Pens during a 3-goal 3rd period to gain a 4-1 final, and a series sweep.

The Islanders essentially arrested Sidney Crosby, who managed just one SOG, and lost 60% of his face-offs.

The Isles out-shot Pittsburgh by a 71-58 margin over the two games.

Brock Nelson continues to reward Garth Snow, this time with his 10th goal of the season.  Matt Martin's only 2 goals this season came during this series.  John Tavares closed-out Saturday's scoring with his 8th of the season.

With 1 goal in 2 opportunities, the Islanders power play is now operating at 20.2% efficiency, and has scored in 11 of their 20 games this season.

The Long Islanders won playing physical hockey as well.  Travis Hamonic mixed it up early with Steve Downie, whom continued to goon it up throughout the game, specifically with a dirty hit on Hickey.  And as the 3rd period wound down, Hamonic let Pitt's Zack Sill know he wasn't putting up with any last minute crap either.

In his last two starts, goalie Jaroslav Halak has posted victories over the Penguins and Lightning.  In gaining his 9th win of the season Saturday night, he made a short-handed save, two saves on the PK, and stopped 24/25 even strength shots.  He has now won 6 straight, and started 7 of the Islanders 10 games this month.

In Friday's game, back-up Chad Johnson made his 7th start of the season and earned the shoot-out victory in Pittsburgh.

This latest victory gives the Islanders 8 in their last 9 games, and more importantly, earned them a share of 1st place in the Metropolitan Division along with these same Pittsburgh Penguins (whom have a game in hand).

Lastly, the TV guys said this is the New York Islanders best start to a season since the 1987-1988 campaign.

In 20 games this season, they only have losses against Toronto and Winnipeg to atone for.   Otherwise, the Islanders have racked up impressive victories over the Rangers, Sharks, Bruins, Ducks, Kings, Lightning, and now a pair against the Penguins.

The Islanders have also seemingly straightened out their penalty kill.  In October they killed-off 22 of 33 power plays, for a poor 66.6% rate of effectiveness.  In November, they have so far killed-off 23 of 28 power plays, for a vastly improved 82.1% rate.

That said, the Islanders are starting to get things done in all aspects of the game.



Mike

N.Y. Rangers ~ Blueshirts and Henrik Face A Familiar Dilemma

New York Rangers ~ Fall To Ottawa In Shoot-Out.
Salvage One Point.

They played a rather unflattering first period.  Ottawa spent way too much time in the Rangers' zone.  The Blueshirts did not play like a team desperate for points.  The second period would only serve to further infuriate their Coach, as the Senators took a 1-0 lead into the 2nd intermission.  In the third period, a tie game was born on a Brandon Prust goal.  In over-time, Henrik saved the Rangers' skins with a brilliant right pad save off an Ottowa breakaway coming as a Rangers' power play had just expired.  That's all there is worth speaking of.  Why chronicle the Rangers' seeming futility which plagued them most of this game?

They went to a Shoot Out at The Garden ~  Coach Torts elected to shoot first;

OTTAWA - Anderson; 30 shots - 29 saves.
NEW YORK - Lundqvist; 29 shots - 28 saves.

NYR ~ Christensen ~ Shot wide.
OTT ~ Spezza ~ Save; left pad.

NYR ~ Zuccarello ~ Save; right pad.
OTT ~ Shannon ~ Save; pushed left.

NYR ~ Wolski ~ Save; glove high.
OTT ~ Svatos ~ Save; right pad wide.

NYR ~ Dubinsky ~ Shot wide.
OTT ~ Foligno ~ Stick Save!

NYR ~ Callahan ~ Save; Broken stick shot.
OTT ~ Karlsson ~ GOAL!

The New York Rangers lose in a Shoot-Out. 
Game final ~ N.Y. Rangers 1; OTT Senators 2 - SO

That's all there needs to be said of the game other than I'm disgusted that we played down to Florida and Ottawa.


TODAY:  FACE-OFF AGAINST #3 BOSTON BRUINS

The New York Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist
find themselves in a similar situation as last season.


But first....I thought I was ready to put the Sean Avery issue to bed after his consecutive string of being a healthy scratch.  The Rangers' play during their recent streak (before running into a slow-down versus FLA and OTT) justified Coach's move.  But when Coach Torts doesn't let Fedotenko, Zuccarello, nor Erik Christensen touch ice during the third period against Ottawa (which also isn't the first time these guys have been benched during the third periods of games), we have to rethink the Sean Avery situation.  Me personally, I'd rather have Avery getting shifts over Christensen and Fedotenko.  But that's just me.  Chris Drury just might be back to muddle the forward line mess a little more; which I hope is unlikely.

Henrik:
Last year, Henrik Lundqvist started 73 games.  Our back-up goalie situation was in disarray.  Steve Valiquette, Alex Auld, and Chad Johnson were all called on to help Henrik but were all generally ineffective.
Henrik wound up starting the final 17 games of the season leading up to that fateful Shoot-Out against Philly on the final game of the season.  And if we all remember correctly, last season's final playoff push wore Henrik down and his knees needed treatment in the off-season.  Marty Biron was supposed to rectify that situation and be the one to spell Henrik for about 20 games this season.  But we know what happened to him and we're right back to having Chad Johnson waiting in the wings.  If Henrik starts this afternoon against Boston, it will be his 20th consecutive start since Biron went down.  But it will only be his 61st start of the season with seven games left to play.  I'd like for someone to ask Henrik how his knees are feeling right about now.  He will fall short of 73 starts like last season, but he's going to wind up close.

Make of it what you will.  I'm just saying...

TODAY

NEW YORK RANGERS

40-30-5

vs.

Boston Bruins

41-22-10

From Not the Boston Garden

BOSTON, Mass.

LET'S GO RANGERS!

Mike.BTB