(Not So) Happy New Year In Detroit

I'm sure they didn't expect it. The hapless Islanders and their lack of points came into the Joe and spoiled the party -- again. It seems that no matter what the standings, the Islanders seem to play well against the Detroit Red Wings.

They weren't taken lightly, as evidenced by the first period. The Red Wings notched 12 shots on Dwayne Roloson. Granted, the Islanders had to kill off two penalties early in the first period. But it seemed for sure, this would be an ugly game. Especially when Franzen made it 1 - 0 at 11:52 of the first. That's when big angry man turned to me and said "This is going to be a 7 - 0 game."

"No." I assured him. "Not if the same team that showed up on Wednesday shows up tonight."

And oddly, and almost unexpectedly, that's exactly what happened. Out shot and out skated, the Islanders managed to find a way to win. Just like good teams do.

Now, I had prayed as much as I could and offered up a sacrifice (of four lobsters) to the hockey Gods to get Matt Moulson a goal to end his drought. I watched him intently cheering him in. Then something strange happened. A Red Wing clipped the puck after a MacDonald shot was redirected by Matt Moulson. At first it was credited to John Tavares who was parked by the net. However, review after review showed a redirect by Moulson and then a tip in by a Redwin stick. Tough break for the Red Wings, lucky break for Matt Moulson who had been goal-less since December 16th.

John Tavares, who probably knew he didn't actually touch that puck into the net decided to make sure he had one of his own and scored at 19:57 of the first. That really didn't sit well with the Red Wings.

They thought they would score and even things up when Jon Sin was sent to the box for goaltender interference. They didn't expect Scott Allen's PK unit to be able to hold them off, but they did.

It wasn't until 15:13 of the second that Bridgeport call-up Jesse Joensuu made it 3 - 1 and it became evident that the same Islanders that had defeated the Penguins were actually back on the ice. All of a sudden it didn't matter that Radek Martinek was on the IR (retroactive to 12/22) or that Jack Hillen was home with his new born baby. Once again the Islanders defenders came up big. So much bigger than you would have expected. It was another game where Travis Hamonic was proving he belongs and that Andy MacDonald showed why he was missed do desperately when he was out.

The Dynasty era die-hard Islander fan in my house mumbled, "Don't get too excited. The Red Wings will tie it up." Tsk Tsk oh ye of little faith, but at 19:51 of the second Filppula brought it within one.

The Islanders lead was quickly fading and my husband's prediction was getting closer. Meanwhile, I have to say that Dwayne Roloson was having fits with the referees who failed to call interference penalties on Red Wings who were in his net and keeping him from doing what he was there to do - stop the puck. While Roli was trying to make his case, the officials wanted no part of it.

It was pretty obvious if the Islanders wanted to win this game, they would have to do it without relying on the benefit of the doubt from the officials. The Islanders were called for five penalties. All of which they managed to kill off. But mid way through the third, a call up tied the game for Detroit on a goal he will never forget. Yep, some fresh faced kid named Tatar made it 3 - 3 and the Islanders had to work hard as hell just to keep the Wings from scoring and taking two points.

The game became nerve wracking and even Roloson, usually solid as a rock, bobbled the puck in his crease. Every moment counted. And then the buzzer sounded and the Islanders were assured at least a single point.

During overtime, it was pretty obvious that the officials were not watching the game the same way everyone else was. Blake Comeau was called for the slightest of an infraction and the Islanders were down a man in overtime.

Once again, the PK came up beyond huge. And then the hockey Gods smiled on the NY Islanders and the Red Wings were actually called for a penalty. There was a little wasting time with the puck to wind down the clock to get the Isles on a man advantage, basically being SMART with the puck, and then John Tavares batted the puck out of the air to control it, looked for an opportunity and found PA Parenteau who shot from one knee and ended the game.

It was a 4 - 3 Over time win for those hapless Islanders. The same team that has given Red Wings fits over and over again. Tonight, it was a repeat performance capped off by an ex-NY Ranger.

For that I'd like to say this: Hey Glen Sather, thanks for giving up on PA. I think he's found a niche here.

And to Matt Moulson; Hey, I told you you'd score tonight. I didn't say it would be fair or pretty but you're on the score sheet. Next one is all you!

Matt Moulson Explains the System at HB

*Dear Canadian Media: If we only have one person covering the Islanders, why are there reserved seats all the way around the press room? #imjustsayin'

Well, it was a fun morning at the rink today. Spoke with quite a few of the players as well as meeting new media types. Matt's explanation for me is here at HockeyBuzz.com.

Quick hits are as follows:

Jesse Joensuu is happy to be here and working with Jack and looking forward to being on a line with Zenon Konopka.

Matt Martin feels the same. He thinks they had a lot of energy and scoring chances last game and knows Jack is a smart man and had probably worked all night getting ready for the Panthers.

Matt Moulson feels he is lucky to have been wearing a visor and that there is no place in the game for hits like the one he sustained.

Michael Grabner @Grabs40 will have a "getting to know you" piece on MSG tonight with Deb Placey. He doesn't mind Tweeting. It just takes a few seconds and keeps the fans connected. SMART MOVE @Grabs40! Keep it up.

Robbie threw his socks in the laundry bin and they almost landed on my head. Gee thanks.

The streak stops here. I thas to.

Let's get this going!

Eight Minutes with Scott Gordon 12-11-09

My lunch hour today at Iceworks garnered me this amazing amount of information from Scott Gordon:

Regarding Jesse Joensuu being called up from Bridgeport to be in the line-up against the Bruins: “Obviously were a little small without Jax and Bergy in the line-up. So, it’s a concern. One thing that we’ve lost is an element of physical play. I think that’s been accumulating over this stretch. It’s not that we don’t want to make hits. It’s not that we’re skating into hits. We’re not fore checking like we want; like we were a month ago. It’s been deteriorating. We’ve had moments of it. But we’ve gotten away from our pursuit of the puck and that has just come from a lack of practice time or not when we have had a practice we probably could have done a better job of making that a point of emphasis in our practices.

And then he continued in his very technical style, and I think I actually learned something.
“It’s very hard. If you look at the pursuit on the puck of what we’ve had prior to Toronto, I think our pursuit had stopped at the top of the circle when it should be to the goal line. If you’re doing that, if you’re pursuing on the puck to the goal line, your hits will find you. It will make sense. But if you’re skating hard to the top of the circle and then you glide to the man, the man moves the puck in. You lose momentum and the puck moves so it doesn’t seem like a situation where the hit is warranted. So it’s a combination of a lot of things. I am trying to make sure that we don’t overextend guys in practice. And with the limited amount of practice time, we probably lost some attention to detail. And that’s something we tried to address today. We’ll try to be more attentive of that. “

There are so many details in this game of lucky bounces.

While Gordon has not created his lines for tomorrow, Comeau was on a line with Tavares and Moulson today. Robbie Schremp was "getting some extra reps" too. But it doesn’t matter what color jerseys anyone wore in practice today or what position they played. “Everybody has the same responsibility. It doesn’t change with personnel.”

Scott Gordon and company finally got to put away the suitcases as they will be home for the next few weeks. But that doesn’t mean they can take it easy.
“We certainly can’t take for granted that because we’re at home, the points will come easy. You always hear about teams who come off the road and then the first game is a game you have to guard against. You can’t just say ‘Okay, we’ve got the home jerseys on and we’re okay now.’ For us, we have to ramp it up because obviously, we were close to a point in Toronto and we lost it. It would have salvaged the last four games of the trip had we come away with a point or maybe two.”

Until Jason Blake decided to score the game winner for the Leafs and I was left to ponder how to react at that on the couch.

“So it puts us in a little bit more of a hole than we would have liked to be in coming through that stretch.”

With rehabbing goalie, DiPietro playing tonight in the Sound Tigers net, he let up one goal on 15 shots through the first and second periods. He did not play the third, and the twitter chatter is that he felt a little stiffness or something to that effect. When Gordon was asked when he would be returning to Uniondale, he answered “ I don’t know if he’s playing another game up there or if he’s coming back. I don’t think any decision has been made on that." (And that’s Garth’s decision to make actually. But the Sound Tigers did WIN tonight.)

Regarding tomorrow’s upcoming game, I’ll admit I lost track when he was talking about the Bruins. But he knows they are a good team who is getting some good goaltending right now, even though they struggled earlier in the season.

“They’ll tell you, when they were coming off last year, they probably got away from what made them successful. And some times you have to go through those struggles to identify, ’This isn’t us. This isn’t our identity.’ And I think that’s what really happened with that team.”

With the injury bug once again biting the Islanders, information is sketchy. Even at the time of the media scrum, Jackman was listed as day to day. And when I asked about the Captain’s return date, I got “Dougie isn’t even practicing with us. There’s no time table until he can even practice. He’s skating, but he can’t practice.“

Okay, now for the time out question, or my MotherSlap of the Day.

FWWAAAPPP!!! To all those who have at one time or another strapped on a pair of skates and now think they can coach an NHL team from their couch. I read a lot of message board banter regarding Gordon’s perceived reluctance to use his time out. This is what he had to say when I asked him about his decisions:
“There are so many TV time outs. There’s a time out every 14, 10 and six. So it’s like, a lot of times when you’re thinking about calling a time out, it’s there. It doesn’t make sense to call a time out with two minutes to go in the period when you’re going to be in the locker room and you can address it there. I called a time out in Toronto two weeks ago, and we got scored on right after. So it’s like, big deal. You call a time out and it ends up in the back of your net. I called a time out in Boston after Boston scored their second goal. I think there was maybe five minutes to go in the game and they ended up scoring right after I called a time out. So, it doesn’t necessarily mean things are going to turn around.”

No. It doesn’t. So for all those sitting at home yelling at the TV, “Call a Time Out!!,” let the coach do what he knows how to do. He’s got a little more experience at it.

Scott Gordon: Playing for Pride & Next Season's Roster

There is no "tanking" in Uniondale. The team that suits up for coach Scott Gordon plays to the best of their ability. After all, they want Gordon to see them as a perfect fit for his team next season. They also play for each other. Whether Islander or Sound Tiger, they are a team.

The newest promotion last night on the Jumbotron was something to the effect of each prominent Islanders player who had spent time on the Sound Tigers saying something like "I was born in Bridgeport." It made a statement. The call ups you see now can very well be the Islander stars of tomorrow. Providing "tomorrow" ever comes.

Scott Gordon spent at least 90 seconds of the four-minute post game interview smiling at some of the questions that were asked. Winning always makes him smile. Even if it does mean possibly changing the Islanders rank in the draft lottery.

Scott Gordon spends so much time teaching and coaching that he doesn't have time for stat watching. "Until you told me we were a game over 500, I didn't know." He told C.J. Papa with a broad smile. "It's important we do well in the second half." (Which is now down to a number of games you can count on one hand.)

He had some nice things to say about Jesse Joensuu "He used his speed, he was physical. His positioning was good all night. Obviously he's a guy we are excited about for the future. I was really happy with Jesse. I thought he played well."

I think Jesse would be happy to hear that as he said in the locker room, "The biggest thing on my mind when I get here is always that I'm living my dream. When you get points, it pumps up your confidence. When I got to the locker room and saw that I would play with Doug Weight and Richard Park, I just thought that, I can't think about it, because if I think about my line mates I'm going to be somewhere except on the ice. So I just tried to forget who I played with." Yep, Jesse is living his dream.

The future also is looking brighter for Josh Bailey, who did have a slow start coming directly from Juniors. "For Josh, the offensive for him is going to build as he gets stronger. The biggest take away for me is the skating part of it, and that will improve. But the fact that he is moving his feet, he's getting more opportunities because of it. He's around the puck more often. As a result, he gets that goal because he was in stride."

Gordon has been working with Josh... a lot..."It's identifying, showing him on video and in practice that once you move the puck there's someplace to go. That's the biggest thing. In juniors he's probably so accustomed to slowing the play down, timing his options and standing still. When you're at a standstill, it's easy to get locked in. Now when he moves the puck, he's moving his spots and whether it's to be part of a fore check on an unsuccessful pass or to be part of a tag on a successful pass, it leads to opportunities offered to him."

Josh is a good student as he told the reporters "The system is second nature now. When you see plays like that work out, it gives you some satisfaction. I think the part of the first year is adapting to the league and learning stuff that you have to do and get away with. I think as of late I feel as if I've grown more as a player."

Gordon would tend to agree with you Josh.

With Yann Danis in net following his previous high scoring loss, Gordon once again touted his faith in the young goaltender. "One of the things I was talking to Yann about before the game was, I want to see that sort of response I saw tonight. He had three goals go off of sticks, kind of flukey type and then he had the one that came down the middle of the ice and they scored on, which I didn't think there was a whole lot he could do on. That being said, he even said he felt pretty good. It was just one of those games that you don't get the bounces and for me tonight I thought he was really good."

Notice something here, Scott Gordon remembers every play from every game. I know I've said it before, but I will say it again. From a tactical standpoint, this man just amazes me. Granted, he may lose me completely from time to time with his technical explanations. When that happens, I just focus on what he's wearing. I don't think we've ever had a GQ model coach before. Have we?

Yann Danis feels the same way about bad losses as ex-goalie Scott Gordon, "It's part of the game. All goalies have to go through it. All you have to do is battle through it and stay positive and eventually things will get better. I hate losing."

I was snapped back into the post game by the next question regarding the five Bridgeport call-ups. The answer was simple. He knew not to completely devastate Jack's team when they are playing today at 1 pm and are headed for post season when the Islanders are heading for the golf course. He admitted that calling Mitch Fritz up was because Tampa had come down hard last time on Jackman. Fritz was just a little added protection along with Rechlichz. In the end, Joel beat Fritz on the stat sheet in every column. More shifts, more ice time, more penalty minutes and more love from the crowd. (Although Fritz did take a face off and won helping to bring the Islanders face off percentage to a whopping 59%.)

Not to leave out his veteran players, Gordon said "I thought Marty and Witter were solid. I don't know what the final total was for scoring chances on their top line, but those guys did a great job."

They did such a great job that the Islanders walked away with three goals and free chili for their fans from Wendy's. Everyone please remember to ask for it today. And don't look at the lottery standings. Gordon doesn't.