ISLANDERS 4, TAMPA BAY 3 (OT)
The glass-is-half-full recap
10:25 pm - The recap from the Islanders’ 4-3 overtime win in Tampa Bay.
The Game: Pressure from Frans Nielsen leads to an abysmal wander behind the net by Olaf Kolzig and a virtual empty-netter by Trent Hunter for the overtime goal 51 seconds into overtime.
Here’s your boxscore. Here’s the team site’s game story.
The Post-Game
Scott Gordon - “We could have easily had a letdown after they tied it up 2-2 and then battled back when they tied it at 3. I thought we showed something.”
On giving up the lead: “When you don’t make the other team work for all 200 feet, it’s gonna bite you. And it did tonight.”
On his team shooting more: “It’s a mindset. If you’re always looking for the perfect play, it might not arise.”
On Joey MacDonald: “Can’t say enough about how Joey came back after Monday.”
Trent Hunter: “We weren’t happy with the way we played Monday. We wanted a fresh start and to come out skating. That’s why we won tonight.”
The No. 1 Story - On the down side, unless your bar is real low, giving up 2-0 and 3-2 leads in the third period against a Tampa Bay team routinely shooting itself in the foot is not good. Still, you can look at the two points as the Islanders’ reward for an impressive first two periods.
The No. 2 Story: Joey MacDonald started and gave his team a chance to win. Playing with a bit of house money, the questions now is: do you have MacDonald play Saturday and give Rick DiPietro an extra week of rest?
3 Standout Islanders (not named Stars):
Mark Streit - Doesn’t have to be perfect to make the Islanders a far better team.
Frans Nielsen - Establishing himself as a playmaking center in just his third year in North America.
Jeff Tambellini - It’s a start.
What We Learned Tonight:
- With four goals in his first four games, Trent Hunter should topple last season’s 12. As we’ve written, Hunter hitting the mid-20s helps the Islanders stay around the playoff chase.
- Single-handedly, Kyle Okposo gives the beginning of the Islanders’ youth movement some cred.
- Take a pointless offensive zone slashing penalty while on the power play and you’ll see Gordon cursing exclaiming behind the bench like the guys in Glengarry Glen Ross. In the second period it was Jeff Tambellini, although the refs wrongly fingered Mike Comrie.
- Bruno Gervais may not be ready to remind anyone of Guy Lapointe, but he’s starting to transition from everyone’s favorite seventh defenseman to a solid two-way, 20-minute man.
- The new Lightning ownership really didn’t think all those moves and all that spending was making their team better, did they?
Game Rating (out of 5 stars): 2.5 - The overspeed penalty calling - most of them deserved, not the refs’ fault - hurt the flow of the game. Still, a 2-2 battle mid-third brings the drama.
Islanders Performance: 3.0 - It’s now safe to burn Monday’s tape. For all the troubling parts of the third period, the play of the kids (and many of the vets) makes this a good one.
Attendance: 14,420
Hallelujah Moment: Okposo, Frans Nielsen and Jeff Tambellini getting power play time. I told my kid I wasn’t crying…just had something in my eye.
Just Keeping it..Ya Know: Far too many penalties that did not meet Gordon’s criteria - “They have to prevent a goal.”
Just Sayin’: The last time the Islanders played the Panthers, their defensemen Chris Lee was carried off on a stretcher after a brutal hit from behind by Florida forward Rostislav Olesz. Maybe Mitch Fritz plays on Saturday.
Billy Jaffe Analysis of the Night: (On the goal to make it 3-2) “An excellent exhibition of acceleration from Jeff Tambellini! That’s what we want to see more of from the youngster.”
The Q About Q: We received a few emails from Islander fans wondering about Joel Quenneville reportedly saying during the Islanders’ search that he was taking the season off, then taking the Blackhawks job today. My A about Q is that we never heard those words come directly from Joel.
NYI Prospect of the Day: 2008 5th round pick Matt Martin has been named captain of Sarnia of the Ontario Hockey League. His teammate, sixth round pick Justin DiBenedetto, has been given one of the As. REVISED: Islanders draft pick Mark Katic, too. The 19-year old Martin is an intriguing prospect, making Sarnia as a walk-on and scoring 25 goals (with 155 PIMs) in 66 games last season.
Islanders Press Coverage: from Newsday - The man they call Logie. Greg’s got some good stuff today on his blog about increased icetime for Mark Streit, among other topics.
No Thank you, Rays: Tampa Bay’s baseball team beating the Red Sox = no baseball this weekend on ESPN Radio = La Greca and I being able to do our third “NY Hockey This Week” on 1050 AM. I’ll have schedule info tomorrow. UPDATED: Never mind!
Next Up: Saturday in Sunrise for the Panthers and then a long break before hosting Sean Avery and the hat-trickin’ Fabian Brunnstrom and the Dallas Stars at the Coliseum on Thursday at 7:05 pm.
Power Play Units
Guerin - Nielsen - Hunter
Weight - Streit
Tambellini - Comrie - Okposo
Gervais - Streit
Open up about the game. Do it all in Comments.
30 Responses to “ISLANDERS 4, TAMPA BAY 3 (OT)
The glass-is-half-full recap”
Please Wait
It was far from pretty, but man will I take it. Wooooo.
My thoughts on the game…
Great first two periods by the Isles and good gut check win after blowing two leads. I hope the lackluster third period is not a result of “overspeed” sapping guys legs late in the game. That could be an issue in the future.
If the power play wasn’t 1-9 this could have been a far easier game.
Okposo looks like a player. No goals yet, but the kid can skate, he’s got vision, and he can dance around people. This kid’s going to be a force.
Good redemption game by JMac. You couldn’t ask for more than 2-2 from your backup goalie starting the year.
Best part of this win is that it was on the road after a terrible home loss. Keep it up!
This game was almost a huge letdown. The Lightning were beat, we just couldn’t prevent them for getting back up. If we are gonna have any success this year we can’t let a team come back like that late in the game, it happens way to much.
Also whats with Prospal’s goal celebration?, he looked like a little kid kicking his legs like that. When I played hockey if someone on the other team did something like that we would make sure someone plastered him into the boards. Not very professional from him, but whatever, I’m just happy with the win.
Great game…Very entertaining hockey! Where is my boy Bergie?
cb you called it !!! isles gotta stop penalty’s
Good win, especially for a team learning a new system with a new coach. Weight, Meyer and Sim were unsung heroes. Okposo beginning to find his game. Tamby made a dozen mistakes this game but made one good play when it counted.
Bergenheim was nonexistant, 7 min of ice time, I have a feeling he’ll be sitting for Fritz, even Thompson got a shift on the pp and played the pk double. Hilbert hasnt impressed me again, same with Pock and Tamby. Id rather see Fritz and Comeau out there than any of those guys.
Again too many penalties, but all in all a good game by the Islanders.. the kids and I mean all the kids(yes Tamby too) looked good tonight. I’m really impressed with the growth of Frans Nielsen, right on Chris, he could become a very good playmaking center. Tamby had his best game, I think, ever as an Islander and Okposo just continues too develop . It’s only four games but I’m satisfied with the growth of this team so far, they could have easily sat back and died after such a bad game Monday.
I’ll take the win. Good call CB on the score!
Joe… How can you make an impression in 7 min OIT? I didn’t see him making major mistakes. He scored a goal already and can be used in PP effectively. Very puzzling.
Chris, you forgot about Mark Katic. He also received an A on Sarnia as well. tsk tsk lol
Frans! Garth and the scouts saw something to sign him to 4 years with almost no NHL experience. I think he is for real. I recall when we gave up on JP Dumont, he reminds me of the same situation (not him as a player). Something about him simply says “special” and I have a feeling he is the real deal. Not just tonight but ever since his first shootout goal. Go frans!
Great job with the prediction (Isles 4, Tampa 3)!
Never doubt the Sox!
At least in this century.
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CB… spoke too soon on the Rays win
The Reverse Curse lives on. I’ve updated it. Don’t think we’ll have an ESPN show now. I’ve paid the price…CB
This was not a true win..we gave away a point to a conference team
I hate the red sox!!! Was looking forward to another show CB…plus I’m a Yankee fan
I’ll preface this with two facts: It’s only the 4th game and it was a victory. However, Bergenheim only 7+ minutes (4 game ave 9) and Okposo 10+minutes (4 game ave 12)? Conversely, Tambellini, had averaged 13 minutes and received over 17 tonight, while Nielsen had averaged over 15 the first 3 games and received just under 15 tonight. If the “young guys” are being counted on for significant contributions, they must get the responsibility which leads to significant minutes! Two out of four isn’t bad but they all should see 15 minutes a night to fairly evaluate their development. Hopefully we’ll see this change as we get through the first month of play.
-Bergenheim is being mis-utilized
-Okposo’s play is so enticing
-Tambellini…eh, still looks weak to me
-Hilbert - not a big fan of but he seems strong in every zone and always seems in the right position.
Tampa should have walked away with nothing, but Vinny always steals points from the Islanders no matter who is in net.
Yes, I finally noticed Jeff was on the ice, and for some reason… I’m worried about Hillen. And lastly, I see Guerin can’t find the back of the net.. again… just to add to his frustration.
No radio show Saturday? You could hit the Oyster Fest before you make your way to Bridgeport. Happy Friday.
The late game penalty(s)have to stop! No way this team is good enough to overcome late game penalty’s night after night!
FREDDY had a great game!
Glad to see Jeff woke up.
Jon Sim never takes a shift off!
well I think like CB said, it depends on how you view it, glass half full or empty. I thought lastnights game was a more solid effort made by all, I thought our defense and our passing was way better then the other nights nightmare game. I say Good Job Guys!
True we still have issues but everything wont happen overnight, and like Darren stated, we have to stop with the penalties, we need to stay out of that box!
The Lightening did everything they could to give the Islanders the game with all the penalties they took. The Islanders power play has to be better than 1 out of 9, and they have to score on those 5 on 3’s.
that was an exciting game like to see #13 get it going ..somebody has to score on a 5 on 3
Two ponits…..two points.
by the way….he’s not burning it up, but Jack Hillen has really come out of nowhere to be a solid contributor….nice job scouting department.
This theme is all to familiar. Don’t get me wrong the two points are great, but I remember last year we gave so many third period leads. We did give a point to the Lightning which may matter at the end of the season. If the Islanders finish a point behind the Lightning this may figure in. We have to clamp down defensively and really go for the kill. Although we have a youth movement there is no excuse. There are more than enough veterans here to show the youngsters. If I reca.ll i believe Brendan Witt was on the ice when the Lightning tied it with just over five minutes left. Not saying it’s his fault but we have to put these games away.
Wow… Some of you “half empty” people need to take another look at this thing. Is it good giving Tampa a point? No, but that was a team also looking for a rebound game, and in front of their home fans they probably figured they could get the two points our guys got. And, if before the season started, someone told you that not only would this team be getting used to a new coach and unfamiliar system, but that they would be without their franchise goalie and three of their top six d-men, but would still start out 2-2 through all of that, wouldn’t you have taken it?
Perspective, people.
I agree with Marc. There’s a lot of star power on that Lightning team. And we’re without Marty, Sutton and Campoli.. Oh yeah, DP too. Good win.
Thank you Marc! I was reading through all the comments waiting for one like yours.