Tag Archive for 'miroslav-satan'
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, hope you had a great holiday. The boys in blue and orange certainly did, winning all three games of the holiday homestand. The holidays and/or the wins also brought out an improvement in attendance for all three games, including a season high of 15,625 Friday afternoon vs. the Penguins.
Unfortunately, the third win vs. Washington ended on a sour note when Isles’ leading scorer Alexei Yashin was injured in the third period after a knee on knee collision with the Capitals’ Matt Bradley. Yash had an MRI on Monday, and will be out for 2-4 weeks. Yashin has been a quick healer in the past, so hopefully the diagnosis is correct and he won’t miss much more time than that.
Back to the games, last Wednesday night the Islanders came out incredibly strong against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes. The Isles outshot Carolina 20-1 in the first period, with Carolina’s only shot coming with less than 2 minutes in the period on net a harmless dump in that Ricky played into the corner. Shawn Bates scored to give the Isles a 1-0 lead after one. The Isles peppered Hurricanes’ goalie John Grahame with 17 more shots in the 2nd, but could not increase their lead. If this was last year’s team, you could have seen the third period collapse coming. But this is the 2006-07 Isles and Blake scored his team leading 12th goal of the year 59 seconds into the third to give the Isles some breathing room at 2-0. Yash scored a wraparound to make it 3-0, and the Isles won 4-2 as they outshot Carolina 48-15. I can’t find it anywhere, but I think the announced attendance was 13,000+.
Isles/Canes highlights
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Friday afternoon the Islanders played a matinée vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pens’ superstar/Olympic diver/serial whiner Sydney Crosby missed his 2nd straight game with a groin pull. Fans looking forward to seeing Sid the Kid should not fret, as the Islanders and Penguins will face each other four times in the next three weeks thanks to the NHL’s wonderful unbalanced schedule. Richard Park and Rick DiPietro were the first period heroes, helping to kill another 5-on-3 power play against the Islanders. Park broke his stick early in the shift and then proceeded to block two Penguins shots from the point with his body. The Penguins were 0-9 on the powerplay as the Islanders defense, especially shorthanded, is playing very well. Yashin netted the game’s first goal early in the second and then Satan and Hill scored in the third to give the Isles a 3-0 lead. Good to see Satan scoring again - he had a couple of empty netters last week, but it’s been a while since he scored on an actual goalie. The Pens’ other wonder-kid, Evgeni Malkin broke up DP’s shutout with about 8 minutes left to play. Brendan Witt drilled Malkin later in the game with a solid, clean hit that sent Malkin right to the dressing room. Word from the Pens was that Malkin had his bell rung, and his previously injured shoulder was just fine. ‘Atta boy Witter! As mentioned, the Isles had a season high attendance of 15,625 for the 3-1 win.
Isles/Pens highlights
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Finally, the Islanders wrapped up the homestand on Saturday night as Bob Bourne was inducted into the Islanders Hall of Fame (photos). In addition to the pre-game ceremonies, the team sported “BB” patches on their jerseys. Jason Blake continued his scoring assault, notching the game’s first two goals - one in the first, and one in the second. Richard Park scored late in the second giving the Isles a 3-0 lead. Washington’s own wonder-kid, Alexander Ovechkin scored a PP goal early in the third to cut the lead to 3-1, but that’s as close as they would come. Trent Hunter iced the game with a shorthanded goal late in the third for the 4-1 final. Another strong job by the Isles PK as the Capitals were 1/8 with the man advantage. Announced attendance was 13,000+.
Isles/Caps highlights
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The Isles play the Penguins (10-8-4) (again) tonight in Pittsburgh, their first game without Yashin. Eric Boguniecki was called up from Bridgeport to replace Yashin. Boguniecki had 3 goals and 5 assists in 12 games for the Sound Tigers. I think it’s a slightly interesting move considering the future of the Islanders, Jeff Tambellini and Robert Nilsson are leading the Sound Tigers in scoring. It’s apparent that Coach Nolan or someone at Bridgeport feels these two aren’t quite ready to contribute consistently at the NHL level. Personally, I’d like to see their speed out there over Boguniecki’s veteran experience.
Atlantic GP W L OTL Pts
Pittsburgh 10 7 3 0 14
NY Islanders 12 6 4 2 14
NY Rangers 13 7 6 0 14
New Jersey 12 6 5 1 13
Philadelphia 12 3 8 1 7
Of all the games to miss…the Islanders best game of the season. 5 goals vs Brodeur and only 16 shots allowed to the Devils. Were the Devils only allowed to wear one skate last night or something? I missed the whole game and couldn’t DVR it either. Come on Google, post the #@^&! game already.
The Islanders beat the Devils last night 5-2 to put them into a 3-way tie for first place in the Atlantic Division. They are also now tied for 6th in the Conference. It is also only November 3rd, so this all counts for nothing really. But the Islanders are playing well so far this season. Hunter and Satan scored in the first, for both of them it was their first goals since the season opening road trip. Check out the highlights, Satan’s goal is a nice backhand that he roofs from the side of the net over Brodeur, and Blake and Yashin play some nice Tic-Tac-Toe on the final goal.
P.S. Announced crowd in the swamp was only 8,269, lower than the Coliseum’s season low.
Video highlights from NHL.com
The Islanders beat the Florida Panthers last night 4-3 after 10 rounds of shootout hockey. Andy Hilbert was the hero, beating Ed Belfour with a backhander to The Eagle’s glove side. DiPietro then stopped Joel Kwiatkowski to end the game. The goal was Hilbert’s first as an Islander, but it doesn’t even count in the stats for him.
Thanks again to another Saturday night men’s league hockey game, I didn’t get to see too much of the game. Bits and pieces, here and there. I was actually in the parking lot of Newbridge Arena listening to the shootout on the radio. As exciting as the shootout is in person and on TV…it’s horrible on the radio.
Shawn “Breakaway” Bates got the Isles on the board first. DiPietro picked up an assist, but it was Brendan Witt’s long pass up ice to Bates that sprung him for the breakaway. Florida’s Nathan Horton tied the game at 1 as he went strong to the net from DP’s left to right, and beat him to the far post. Yashin continues to play well, picking up goal #4 on the season on a 3-on-1 and converting Blake’s pass. The Isles led 2-1 after one period.
The teams traded goals in the 2nd, Kwiatkowski for Florida and Blake for the Islanders. Blake’s goal was a nice one, a backhand redirection of a Tom Poti pass from the point. The goal was the 99th of Blake’s career, his next one will be #100.
In the 3rd, the Isles were less than 4 minutes away from victory until Stephen Weiss’ kick-pass from behind the net surprised DiPietro and ended up on the stick of Jay Bouwmeester who buried it to tie the game. It was a very slick play, and an incredibly accurate kick-pass, but it looked like DiPietro lost sight of it behind the net and had no idea where the puck was.
In the shootout, Miroslav Satan started things for the Islanders and scored…with an assist from the video review. Satan shot, Belfour got some of the puck and it was trickling towards the goal line. Miro swiped at the puck, which is a no-no in the shootout - no rebounds allowed - but the replay showed Satan missed the puck and the goal stood. Belfour stopped Kozlov and York, but Olli Jokinen beat DP in round three to tie things up and send the shootout into sudden death. 7 rounds later, Hilbert was the hero in the longest shootout in the NHL so far this season.
Powerplay: Isles 1/4, Florida 0/4. Attendance: 10,000+.
Shootout Results
1 NYI M. SATAN G 0 - 1
2 FLA N. HORTON S 0 - 1
3 NYI V. KOZLOV S 0 - 1
4 FLA J. KOLNIK S 0 - 1
5 NYI M. YORK S 0 - 1
6 FLA O. JOKINEN G 1 - 1
7 NYI T. HUNTER S 1 - 1
8 FLA J. STUMPEL S 1 - 1
9 NYI J. BLAKE S 1 - 1
10 FLA R. OLESZ S 1 - 1
11 NYI A. YASHIN S 1 - 1
12 FLA J. BOUWMEESTER S 1 - 1
13 NYI S. BATES S 1 - 1
14 FLA S. WEISS S 1 - 1
15 NYI M. SILLINGER S 1 - 1
16 FLA M. GELINAS S 1 - 1
17 NYI T. POTI S 1 - 1
18 FLA G. ROBERTS S 1 - 1
19 NYI A. HILBERT G 1 - 2
20 FLA J. KWIATKOWSKI S 1 - 2
Video highlights from NHL.com
Big Islander Win on The Big Opening Night. Day started off with my flight from Jacksonville delayed by three hours. Still managed to make it to the tailgate by 5:30. By that time the lot was about a third full with plenty of tailgaters, lots of horn-honking and “Let’s Go Islander” chants. Couple beers and a burger later, the IslandersArmy crew headed to our seats in Section 320, about two rows below the obstructed view seats, so we were happy.
Night starts off with Sparky the Dragon descending from the rafters. Sparky is so lame. I’m a Jet fan and it bothers me that the Green Guys play their home games in Giant Stadium. Bothers me a lot. But how much lamer is it that the Islanders have to offer the mascot for the Arena Football League’s New York Dragons some part-time work to moonlight as their own mascot? As far as I know, there were never any Dragons on Long Island. And even if there were, they wouldn’t be skating on the ice cause one false breath and it would all be over. I just can’t stand historical inaccuracies is all. So Sparky is on the ice, joined by two Ice Girls who like they’re going clubbing and minutes later, the PA man says give a warm welcome to Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier. I was so fired up for this going in. I mean it was Bossy and Trots. I still get goosebumps watching highlights of these guys. They spoiled us all. So Bossy and Trots come out in suits. They look smooth. Have to say here that I was disappointed with the crowd. I understand people were still filing in and it was a Saturday so the place was packed with kids, but I would have liked a more vocal reaction. There were some “Bos-sey” chants and that was fun, but overall it was kind of weak.
Onto the game, Bruins were bringing it early and the Isles looked sluggish, playing back on their heals. There was pretty much no hitting at all in the first 10 minutes of the game. Mike Dunham started his second straight game and was easily the best Islander on the ice in the first period, making several nice saves during three consecutive Boston power plays. Glenn Murray managed to sneak one past Dunham at the end of the final power play, on what might have been the Bruins’ 100th shot of the period. We go into the first intermission Islanders down 1-0.
After that it was all good guys - Mike Sillinger got it started off with a goal off of a sweet pass from Satan, putting the puck off the left arm of the keeper and into the net. One of the Army’s favorites - Mighty Jason Blake - got his first of the year with a slap shot with about six minutes left in the period. As usual Blake skated hard all night, sometimes looking a bit out of control, but you have to love the guy’s effort. Blake started off the third period on a power play by putting in his own rebound. Some kid sitting near us threatened Blake that he better get a hat trick. The kid was about 8. The scoring closed when Blake fed a perfect cross-ice pass to Tom Poti who re-directed it past the keeper. After scoring, Poti remained bent over the keeper, looked like he was staring him down, maybe even talking smack. Not sure what the hell that was about, but I dug it. Isles controlled the puck for the rest of the way and easily won 4-1. Good times.
The highlight of the night, for me, was the second intermission when the team brought back Bossy and Trottier to take part in the shootout, with each guy shooting on behalf of a lucky fan. Trots went first, dressed in the home whites, and put three of his 15 shots in. I know these guys are older and wearing button-down shirts under too-big brand new jerseys, but this still shows how hard it is to shoot a puck from the blue line into a gap about four-pucks wide in the middle of the net. If Trots gets just three, it ain’t easy. So Bossy, wearing Blue jersey (thankfully not the Orange) goes next and while I love both of these guys, Bossy’s always been my favorite. When I was a kid I seriously expected him to score every time he touched the puck. Kind of like my wife expected me to gas up the car every time I walk by the damn thing. My only care was that the BossMan not embarass himself. I couldn’t handle that. I didn’t have to worry. I lost count as the cheers started getting louder and louder and Bossy started unleashing the shots faster and faster. I would say, being totally objective, that he must have scored 32 times on his 15 shots. I know the math doesn’t work out but just trust me on this. Bossy was great. The “Bos-sey” chants started when he had about five shots left, with even Trots participating by banging his stick on the ice to the rhythm of the chants. It was great. The Old First-Liners back on the ice, getting the crowd excited, cheering each other on, and putting the puck in the net.
[murph's comments] Attendance was 14,000 and change, first time since 1999 the Isles didn’t sell out the home opener. Not bad, but I thought there would be more of a walk up. The Mets playoff game probably didn’t help much. Islanders All-Time home opener record is 22-10-1-1.
The third jerseys are nice, I do actually like them…but on a night where Trotts and Boss are right there, do us all a favor and wear some classic blue next time. The other thought regarding jerseys we had last night was that anyone walking into the Coliseum at this point still wearing the fisherman jersey should receive a brand new jersey free of charge. Give ‘em the orange one, I don’t care, just kill off the fisherman for good. I don’t know what these people are thinking when they wear that debacle to the game. I’d show up buck nekkid before I showed up wearing %$@& Captain Ahab. Off to Jersey to see the Jets…
Video Highlights from NHL.com
IslesInfo.com has video of Satan’s goal from the Phoenix game. Hunter pulls up after crossing the blue line and hits a streaking Satan with a long pass on the right side.
Well that went well didn’t it? After all the changes, new players, and talk about this year’s Islanders being different and better than last year, the Isles took the ice for the season opener last night in Phoenix and got run out of the building 6-3. The $67.5 million dollar man was the first to leave - after two periods, 32 shots, 6 goals, and 2 penalties.
The game started off well for the Islanders, just 1:45 into the game Trent Hunter threw a long pass from the point to a streaking Miroslav Satan on the right side. The pass was almost broken up by the Coyotes’ defense, but it had enough on it to make it all the way to Satan. Satan did a great job adjusting to the pass and then roofed it over Cujo for a 1-0 Islanders lead.
It was all downhill from there as a steady stream of Islanders to and from the penalty box doomed the team. Five penalties in the first resulted in the Islanders being outshot 15-4 in the period and down 2-1. Things got worse in the second period when the Coyotes scored 4 goals (1 PP) within a 5 minute span. Four more Islander penalties during the period kept the team from gaining any momentum. DiPietro took his second penalty of the game late in the second period, and was replaced by Mike Dunham in the third. Dunham stopped 12 of 12 shots in relief. The Islanders ended up taking 11 penalties last night, giving up 2 PP goals and were outshot 44-29 in the game.
Here’s the official spin press release from NewYorkIslanders.com. “Made it respectable”? What a joke, who wrote this crap? Charles Wang himself?
The Islanders may not have won tonight’s game, but they did win the third period. The Islanders fell behind 6-1 after two periods, but made it respectable after Viktor Kozlov, playing in his first game as an Islander, scored two goals to make the final score 6-3 in the team’s season opener Thursday night at the Glendale Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
[Update 1] Well Wang and the Isles’ PR team might be satisfied with “respectable”, but it’s obvious Coach Nolan is not. From NewYorkIslanders.com Coach Nolan’s thoughts on last night’s game.
We competed too late
You’re not going to win in this league when you miss assignments and don’t battle for loose pucks. We didn’t compete until the third period and that’s not good enough. Not even close. We had a couple of bad breaks, goals that went off defensemen’s skates. But those are also the kids of breaks winning teams earn. I took Ricky out after the second period to keep him fresh for the rest of the trip, shake things up a bit and give Mike Dunham work. Rick will be back on. I’m not worried about him. I thought Dunham did a good job in a tough spot. We have a practice here in Arizona tomorrow afternoon and plenty of time to work on things.
