Rangers Sweep Home and Home Against Islanders

The Islanders and Rangers played a much different game than the one they played Thursday night. While that one may have had more of a pond hockey feel to it, this one was purely defensive for both teams.

The Rangers out shot the Islanders 20-17. The lone puck that beat a goaltender was when Marc Staal's shot from the point got through three Isles on a power-play for the Rangers. Brian Boyle would add an empty netter to give the Rangers a 2-0 win.

After the Thursday night game, I didn't really bother to go into much detail about the defensive play since the game was pure offense all around. Friday, with the Islanders offense non-existent and the Rangers offense almost non-existent, the only details to point out are really only on the defensive end.

While Thursday's game was not a banner game for many of the Isles blue-liners, Friday's game was a little bit of a different story.

Two of the Islanders biggest culprits of poor play in the first go around were Mark Eaton and Radek Martinek. I felt both of them were the most solid Friday. It was quite a change from a day ago, but a very welcome sight indeed.

Eaton did a lot of what he does best - block shots. He finished the game with four registered blocks. Throughout the night, especially on the penalty kill you could see him using his stick and making some nice poke checks and stick checks.

Martinek blocked a good amount of shots too, and got more involved with the offense. He had a couple of nice shots and even made a little toe drag move on an offensive rush. The speed he showed there was something that I don't recall seeing before.

Travis Hamonic played well once again, while his defensive partner Andrew MacDonald threw some nice checks and looked very smooth again. It's not taking him very long to get back into the swing of things.

Once again, you can't say enough about Dwayne Roloson. He was solid once again, and made a few spectacular saves.

As far as the offense goes, the Islanders had some chances to get pucks towards the net and quite simply they did not. They hold on to the puck, and take too long to make decisions. When they are going on an offensive rush, there is way too much East-West movement, giving the opposing team the chance to get back in. I understand wanting to have strength in numbers, but there are some times where you can wait for your teammates to come back into the play. Sometimes, the puck carrier has to go in by himself, get the puck in deep and go from there.

Frans Nielsen got hit in the head by an elbow from Ryan Callahan, and while he did not get injured it was still a penalty. It was the right call by the refs, and the right move for Jesse Joensuu to go after him. Joensuu is no fighter, and Callahan is much tougher than he is. I give a lot of credit to Joensuu for going after him, even if it cost him 19 minutes in penalties.

Now the Isles will turn their attention to Sunday, where they will turn their attention to the Philadelphia Flyers as they return home.

-CH

nyifyi@gmail.com

Islanders Begin Home-and-Home with Rangers

After five off days, the Islanders finally get back in action tonight as they take on the New York Rangers.

Andrew MacDonald and Jack Hillen have been taken off of IR, and MacDonald will definitely be in the line-up tonight. Hillen and Bruno Gervais are the healthy scratches, meaning both Dylan Reese and Travis Hamonic are playing.

Doug Weight remains out with the back spasms. He has spent the last two days helping out to coach the power-play. There is something to be said for that, but I'll save that for the coaching candidates post that will hopefully come soon.

Rick DiPietro gets his 4th straight start in net, and he deserves it. However, part of me wanted to split this home and home up and have DP go in MSG, where he seems to always play very well. Jack Capuano is riding the hot hand for however long. If DP plays well once again tonight, then he most likely will get Friday's game at MSG too.

Matrin Biron gets the start for the Rangers against his former team. Biron has become an Islanders killer over the years, so this is not good news for the blue and orange. He has looked strong this year.

The Rangers provide a tough test for the Islanders despite some of their scoring problems. Their defense has surprisingly been one of the best in the league, leading the way in blocked shots. Marian Gaborik has been in and out of the lineup with some injuries, which is one of the main reasons for the scoring issues. Both Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan have picked up a lot of the slack this season, and both always play very well against the Islanders. They will surely be ones to watch.

From the Islanders side, Blake Comeau always has excellent performances against the Rangers, and I would expect this to be a two day outburst from him. Will it last longer that these two games though? One would like to think so, considering he only has one point in his last 10 games. But at the same time, we have seen this act many times before. We can only hope that this serves as a wake-up call for him. If practice lines from yesterday are any indication, Comeau will be on the third line tonight with  Rob Schremp and Jesse Joensuu.

Trevor Gillies most likely will find his way back into the line-up tonight seeing as it will be an intense game. The Rangers are angry from losing their last game to the Penguins, where Sidney Crosby had his alleged "slew foot." I would expect this one to get chippy.

Get ready for a fun one.

-CH

nyifyi@gmail.com