Hey fellas. I wanted to take a break from some of the heavy stuff and make sure I got this started. I'll be flying back tonight during most of the game but hope to be home to catch the (happy?) ending.
I haven't looked through a lot of what's been posted recently, but I think it's unanimous that we're all excited that Strait is sitting with Reinhart taking his place. While Hamonic and Boychuk are skating in practice, Hammer is a likely Monday, if not Friday return, and Boychuk looks to be on track for next week as well. Zeeker also skating which is a good sign. Bailey returns to the lineup and Jaro Halak gets the start tonight facing Scott Darling. Towes, despite a scary hit into the boards versus the B's is taking his morning skate and looks to be a go for tonight. For those losing sleep over it, Conacher cleared waivers and reports to BPT.
My guess as to D-pairings: Leddy-Reinhart, Hickey-Viz and CDH-Donovan
Forwards likely to be:
Kulemin-Tavares-Okposo
Grabovski–Nielsen-Bailey
Grabner–Nelson-Lee
Martin–Strome–Clutterbuck
On the kid front, Josh Ho-Sang notched another 3 assists in last night's game against Oshawa. Oshawa was without leading scorer Michael Dal Colle, who is at the Team Canada WJC training camp.
Let's Go Islanders!
This one's for you, dad
Time stand still --
I'm not looking back --
But I want to look around me now
See more of the people
And the places that surround me now
Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger
Experience slips away...
First conacher put on waivers, now strait out of the line up. Christmas comes early for Islander fans.
let's get this back on track. Keep peppering their goalie with shots. Crash the net. Create chances.
Let's go.
Leddy-CDH
Visnovsky-Hickey
Donovan-Reinhart
This has been a fun game to watch so far.
Reinhart >Strait
Pens just tied it in last sec.
As for the game it was the closest I was to the Coliseum as my wife and I were at a Christmas Party in Massapequa Park. How nice to see Strait jacket not in the lineup and we tho back to giving up less than 3 goals again. They looked like the team from 3 weeks ago instead of the team from a week ago. Saw this and thought it summed up the game very well for us .
New York turned the tide in the second period and had a 17-7 shots advantage.
"Scotty kept us in," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "We didn't make them do things they didn't want to do.
"That's a good team. They definitely outworked us."
We go back to the way we played 3 weeks ago and never play Strait again and this is going to be a lot of fun.
Condolences again pga. I know how difficult these last few days have been for you and your family. Continued prayers to you...
Looks like the theme to set the tone last night was "swagger". Gillies spoke to the team before the game:
And Cappy afterward:
I think you're seeing the normal maturation steps and growing pains associated with becoming a very good team. For so long, this is a team that's risen when odds are stacked against them, fighting back from deficits. Playing with (what should be commanding) leads is something new. The way these guys score, I'm confident that they'll learn how to close those leads out, now that we have a stud goalie, and especially when the D returns to full strength.