Back in October when Buffalo beat the Islanders 3-0 in their first meeting, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff responded to a question about Ted Nolan’s coaching style by hinting that the NHL game had changed so much in the nine years the Isles’ coach was out of the league that his gritty, physical style might not work the way it once did in Buffalo. Ruff had no reason to revise that view after his team outskated the Isles on New Year’s Day in Buffalo in a 3-1 win.
However, the game Nolan’s team played to beat the Eastern Conference-leading Sabres 5-3 on Saturday night at the Coliseum showed that the NHL might not have changed as much as people believe. Yes, Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller uncharacteristically let in two long shots by Arron Asham and a screened drive by Randy Robitaille for the gamewinner in the three-goal rally in the third period. But Nolan came away feeling as though the Islanders carried the play to the Sabres as much as their 24-13 edge in hits suggests.
The playoff push means it’s time for playoff-style hockey. There’s no room for the silly penalties like the one Miro Satan took for cross-checking at the end of a play in front of the referee that led to the Sabres’ only power play goal. But there were times when the officials let a little more go, especially when the Isles were in on the forecheck fighting hard for the puck.
In their comeback from an early 3-0 deficit to get a shootout loss in Atlanta and again in the Buffalo game, the Islanders had the edge in territorial dominance. It was especially pronounced in Atlanta, where the Thrashers had 24 giveaways under pressure to nine by the Isles.
The third line with Mike Sillinger, Trent Hunter and Andy Hilbert has been especially effective in playing defense to create offense. Describing the Thrashers' offensive-oriented attack, Sillinger said, “They’re a team that loves the transition. They have lots of firepower, and they love to score goals. So, we knew that if we were patient and got in on the forecheck, we could come back. Sure enough, we did. But we fell short in overtime.”
That’s the formula these Islanders have learned to play under Nolan. If it were a boxing match, the Isles would be the counter-puncher, waiting for the other guy to make a mistake and leave an opening so they can come crashing through. Speaking of which, they’re doing a better job of creating traffic in front of the net and of putting the puck on net to create more scoring chances.
During their recent 4-2-2 stretch, Sillinger’s line and Viktor Kozlov’s second line with Satan and Robitaille have generated two-thirds of the goals. Top line center Alexei Yashin has 26 shots on goal in the past five games plus two assists and his only goal in the past 17 games, so, maybe he’s due to break out of his slump.
Against Buffalo, the fourth line of Asham, Shawn Bates and Richard Park had a big game. “I hate to categorize 1-2-3-4 lines,” Nolan said after the game. “It’s one of four. We could have called them our first line, especially Arron and Bates with the way he hit toward the end of that game. That’s what we need him to do.”
Keep punching. Go to the body. That’s the way to slow down the highly skilled teams coming up on the schedule. Hunter usually sets the tone in that department, but defenseman Chris Campoli delivered a game-high eight hits against the Sabres in the absence of injured Brendan Witt.
Despite their rough start in Atlanta, the Islanders got three of a possible four points from two division leaders on back-to-back nights to start their playoff push. They have to do more of the same against Detroit, which will be tough because the Red Wings rely more on defense with Dominek Hasek in goal. Then, it’s back on the road for six of the Islanders’ next seven games.
If they’re still in the playoff picture when they get to Valentine’s Day with seven straight home games on the schedule and nine of the next 11 at the Coliseum, they will be in position to make up some serious ground. It will be interesting to see if the last team standing in the donnybrook for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference will be the fastest, most skilled team or the grittiest, most physical team.
p.s. -- I totally agree with Edgar's comment on my previous blog that the Islanders should adopt their original jersey as their third jersey in place of the orange ones they wear now. The orange numbers on the old blue jerseys was very sharp looking.
Comments (22)
Regarding jerseys, I agree, but I think that we might see a more substantial change when the NHL switches over to the new equipment next season. This is all just speculation on my part, but I wouldn't be shocked if they did away with the navy blue and bright orange and instead just went with the pre-fisherman jersey. Short of that, I think dumping the bright orange and going with the retro jerseys would be a great move.
I'll second (or third, I guess) enthusiasm for the classic jerseys.
On a previous blog post, I tried to make the point that this season will be a disappointment if the team doesn't finish first in the division. That was quickly shot down: we don't have enough talent, we're too slow, etc. I didn't have the data points to respond, since we were in a nasty skid, but perhaps I should raise my point again.
This often-criticized team (with the best of intentions by my fellow readers; please don't get me wrong) has now come off of two important games against highly regarded and successful teams. Let's also not forget that this team was, earlier in the season, in first place. When the guys play with heart, they can compete and win against any team in the league, new NHL or no. I also think it's particularly interesting that the guys who have been producing of late have been the ones frequently derided as being nothing more than third- or fourth-liners.
We must stay out of the penalty box. The Isles are solid five-on-five. Our defense, and DP, has to step up and stop letting in stomach-punch fluky goals.
The bottom line is, when the Isles have their hearts and heads in the game (when they skate hard, take the body, avoid bad penalties) they win. The alternative would be to suggest that the last two games--and the first quarter or so of the season--were flukes.
I'm looking forward to seeing how we carry this forward against Detroit: game 2 of the 6 game package.
Go Isles.
have to admit that i like the orange jerseys. i would rather they stay with navy blue than royal b/c the rangers wear royal blue. seems a little weird for two hated rivals to be wearing the same color. i wouldn't mind if they revamped the old lighthouse logo as an alternate logo. the orange numbers on the retro jerseys looked a little silly. i have a feeling that the isles may be wearing something similar to brideport's home jerseys next year. while the road (blue) jersey is virtually idential to the isles blue jersey, the white one is different. it feature orange going down the sides of the jerseys, which sounds a lot like how the new reebok jerseys will look next year. just my opinion. let's hope the isles stay in the playoff hunt the whole way and keeps things interesting. good to see attendance up and the team playing well.
I'm for the retro jerseys and against the Isles current orange third jerseys. I wish the NHL would go back to the white at home and color on the road, not sure why they changed, probably marketing.
Anyway, it's tough right now in the conference with the Rangers playing well again, Pittsburgh lighting up the scoreboard and the Devils continuing to play their awfully boring style of hockey, so the Isles are going to have to stay away from "pointless" games and any losing streaks. Our power play has been bad, just bad, can we get Simon out of there and maybe tinker with four forwards..something to liven it up?
I'm happy with our goaltending. Hopefully DiPietro can continue his solid play. I realize the contract overshadows his performance this year, but he's been very solid for us this year and his stats are comparable with the rest of the "All Star" goalies in this league. By the way, can people please stop saying that Ryan Miller is head and shoulders the best American goalie in the league. DiPietro has been just as good. I'm just tired of hearing that.
Lets Go Isles!
Yes, it's marketing. But in the old NHL, home teams played in dark colors...
I like the third jersey, but would like to go to road blues and home whites. As I said earlier, the special teams need to vastly improve in order to compete.
The orange jersies are horrible - bad design and you can't read the numbers on TV. The '72-'73 have the same number visibility problem. Since every team gets new jersies next year, the isles should institute a new logo at the same time - lighthouse sounds ok, or something else appropriate to LI.
I wish I shared Steven CC's optimism for this team. And I hope he's right about their chance for winning. But you can't ignore that before they played the Isles Atlanta was 4-6 and Buffalo was 5-7 in January. And Buffalo lost to Columbus the night before. So the point is that every team has down periods and the Isles may have caught the thrashers and sabres at the right time. And reality says that there's no way that any team in this league with these rules can consistently win and remain a top tier team without a power play. Good PP's require a depth of scoring talent. The Islanders don not have a depth of scoring talent. Therfore the Islanders do not have a good PP and will remain a B-level team.
And lets not kid ourselves. DP had one good stretch this year that lasted maybe games. Otherwise he's been unsteady at best. His team bailed him out numerous times in the Sabres game when he was caught out of position after what should have been routine saves. His balance has been awful of late and he's again reverting back to bad puck-handling habits.
About their jerseys. I would love to see the NHL go back to the road colors and home whites, why they made the switch is beyond me. About the logo, the isles should NEVER EVER get rid of their current circular logo with NY Islanders and an orange silhouette Long Island, its a classic like the Red Wings' wheel and wing design. Perhaps they could go back to the old days with they royal blue (even though the Rangers wear it) because it would symbolize the heyday of Islander dominance. I 100% agree with Mr. Logan that the Isles should dump their current orange 3rd jersey and go retro with the 1972 jersey as their 3rd jersey. These aesthetic changes would align with the "retro shift" of sports since Camden Yards was built. Both the Giants and Jets switched to old logos, many teams are having "retro nights", new baseball parks are retro styled and perhaps the hockey mullet will return.
P.S. I want to see the Isles bring up their young stars from Bridgeport and see what they can do before making any rash trade decisions. I would love to see Bill Guerin getting PP time wearing the Islanders logo. I DONT want to see Peter Forsberg wearing orange and blue beacuse, in no time he would be wearing an orange and blue cast (think Mo Vaughn and Mets).
P.P.S. Lets get Blakey locked up, losing him would be losing 110% effort a game and every game.
Guggie, with regard to your comment on Blake. I disagree. I feel that if we do sign Blake off of this career year we're going to severly overpay for him and at 33, I really can't see him producing like this again. He's going to want long term deal. I say, explore the trade market with him. Could we get a #1 pick and a prospect a la the Roloson trade last year. Who knows, but I'm against signing him long term. I also hope they bring up the young players from Bridgeport. I'd love to see what they could do. They should just bring up the line of Nilsson, Tambellini and Nielsen and see what they can do.
Exiled in Cincy, while I realize that DiPietro still makes bad decisions, he has kept this team in games. I can't help if his defense doesn't help him.
Enjoy the game tonight.
Regarding Blake, I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to stay for a reasonable price and length of time. This organization is almost solely responsible for getting his NHL career rolling, and picking him up was one of the few great moves Milbury ever made. I'd love to see him locked up for 3 years tops, at $3-3.5m. If he demands significantly more money or time then I agree, he should be shipped out at the deadline as his trade value there will likely be higher than it ever will be in the future.
I hate this team. Disgusted after that last period vs. Detroit. 3 goal lead and leave it up to the Isles to blow it. Playing very well the first two periods won't justify a third period breakdown and NO hustling in overtime. Although we got a needed point, we had the other and blew it.
Friday night. OT. Atlanta gets the puck to their stud, Ilya Kovalchuk. He moves into the face off circle and fires. Goal.
Tuesday night. OT. The Isles get the puck to their "stud," Alexei Yashin. He moves into the face off circle and fires.
Wide.
Not that we should have been in OT in the first place, but I thought I'd mention it.
Greg-
Can you ask a question to the coaching staff about the Isles in OT?
They have lost three straight games in overtime without getting a shot on goal in any of the games (NJ 5-0, Atl 4-0, and Det 3-0). In fact, the Isles have been outshot in all their OT games this year 46-12! Obviously, something is wrong that requires adjustments.
Yes, that was a disgusting effort. 5 shots in the second, 5 in the third and 0 shot in OT. As previous post alluded to, we don't have that one dominant player. I was looking at the top 50 scoring leaders in the NHL and we don't have one player in the top 40 and only one in the top 50! Blake shows up at #42. Are you kidding me? In all the years that we've been bad, we didn't come away with one star player. Had Luongo, had the rights to Spezza, had the pick that could have been Heatley or Gaborik among other assinine moves. I realize I have to move on from these awful personnel moves, but for a team to have one player in the top 50 that's ridiculous. Look at our roster. Who on this team would be a first line player on any other team in the league?
I'm frustrated by last night's loss, but I'm also frustrated by the fact that I don't like the make-up of my favorite hockey team right now.
Merrick, to address your question regarding overtime. A team's talent level becomes apparent in OT; More open ice, more freedom, etc. It just goes to show you how much talent this team really has.
They take an impressive lead on guts and luck, look confident, then play "pretty," (get rid of satan and Yashin already!),get some bad calls against them, start skating backwards--and voila!--a very putrid loss to Detroit. I hope Nolan punishes the team for that travesty last night. I hope Snow et al. are calling GMs and developing a team for contention in 2008-09. Draft picks and smart scouting=Stanley Cup.
Re: why the dark jerseys at home?
The NHL made the switch so that teams on the road would not have to bring 2 sets of jerseys. Every team's 3rd jersey is dark, so before the switch, when a team wore its 3rd jersey, the road team had to wear white anyway.
The fact that I know this is sad. Just sad.
Will we be seeing the NHL switch to having the home teams wear white and the visitoing teams wear dark anytime soon?
The reason that road teams where white, is that most team's 3rd jerseys are dark, so this way road teams only need to travel with one set of uniforms. So, unless 3rd jerseys go, road teams will con't to wear white.
As for next season's jersey, a merchandise person at the coliseum, said they will be going back to the royal blue for next year!
You guys aware that back in the 50's and 60's and some of the 70's.. they Teams wore the dark jerseys at home?
it was only in like 73 when they changed it to White at home....
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