Game 2 – Stay the Course

As Patrick Roy said after the game – the Isles played a good game – good enough to win.

Not taking advantage of chances was the main reason for the “L” in the column instead of the “W”.

To limit the team with one of the most shot attempts in the league to just 26 – is a quite important stat to digest. A lot of the shots were outside and in non-danger situations. To me – that is a good thing to take out of the game.

What is something that I did not like to see?

Faceoffs. The numbers were 34-24 for the home team. This is where missing JG Pageau is quite obvious. He is the one that takes the big faceoffs in serious situations. Hoping he returns to the lineup (from the looks on “X” – he should be) – that will be useful.

Assuming Varly returns to the net tonight (no reason why he should not) – he needs to keep his game up to have the team stay in the game.

As I have stated in the podcast “Isles Talk” – special teams are critical for success. The Canes were the number 1 PK in the league for a reason – they are swarming as soon you get to the blue line. They need to get in the zone and establish themselves in order to gain traction.

As far as the PK is concerned, we all know where we stand. This needs to be strong, aggressive as well as relentless. Carolina has weapons on both PP units. A good sign of a strong special teams is that the sum of the PP and PK percentages are over 100. Carolina sits at nearly 110, the Islanders are at 90. Needless to say, Orange and Blue need to be MUCH better than that!

THINGS I AM LOOKING FOR:

1. “Set the Tone” – Thomas Hickey mentioned it in the pregame show on Saturday. For the visitors, they were unable to mix it up – as Anders Lee ended up going in the box on a questionable call just sixty seconds into the game, causing a quick 1-0 deficit just seconds after his entry to the box. I really think that Patrick should pull a Barry Trotz and put the “Identity Line” out there to start. I know that Kyle MacLean should be back on the fourth line tonight – which will be a positive, but putting Casey out there – with Cal and Matty would be a point to make. Most of the game 1’s were heavy physicality and lots of emotions spewing to the ice. Being physical is the equalizer for the Isles.
2. Moving their feet on the power play – With Carolina being such a tough team to take on when the PP is out – they need to be able to bring the puck up, get it above the visiting blue line and establish themselves. Once they are in – the key to beating such a good PK – is to the keep the feet moving. When the Islanders are showing a good power play, all five skaters are moving around and not just sitting still. Barzy is such a key to make defenses rely on him and make mistakes, allowing Lee and Palmieri to get open looks.
3. GAP GAP GAP – the Isles had good gap control on Saturday – which needs to continue. Closing up the blue line is a way to stop the overabundance of shot attempts as well as keeping the forwards to the corners, as opposed to the slot area.

To the folks that think the Isles played a bad game – look closer. They limited the shots, played hard, and just did not have the puclk luck that teams look for in the playoffs. To win this, and bring the team back 1-1, there needs to be solid forechecking to the point of getting the Canes off their game. As Paul and I have said in our podcasts, “NO STUPID PENALTIES”, and take advantage of the PP that has not been on point lately.

Let’s enjoy game 2 and hope that we are going to Thursday’s game 1-1. All eight game 1’s were won by the home team. Let’s change the narrative tonight, Islanders!