Grabners 2 Goals Lift Isles Over Panthers

 photo courtesy of http://cdn3.sbnation.com/

Tonight, in their final regular season home game of the season the Islanders defeated the Florida Panthers by a score of 5-2.  Here are some of my notes:

-Nice to see the powerplay get a couple conversions tonight.  Hopefully, this leads them to another one of the hot streaks they get so often.

-Is something wrong with Tavares?  He didn't do much of anything tonight and turned the puck over a lot!  He also hasn't scored in a little while now for him.  Heading to the end of the season the Islanders could really use him returning to form.

-Hopefully Casey is ok!  His energy would be very vital to the team down the stretch.

-Nice game from Grabner!  Games like tonight are those that will help get him extra ice time in the future if the first line continues to struggle.  It was a great pass by MacDonald to set up Grabners first goal.

-Nice game from Martin!  Solid screen on the fourth goal and good tip to set up the first goal.

-Was happy to see the team stand up when things got physical!!

-Did anyone else take a huge deep breath when Nabby continued on after being out for a couple minutes?  He is arguably our most important player down the stretch and past that.

-Another great crowd tonight!!  Although it wasn't sold out, it was easy to tell that the crowd wants playoffs!

It was nice to see the team come out in a must win game and play that way.  Not only that, play like it was a game they wanted to win big!  It is really cool to see how much this team has matured even in the last four months.  This road trip won't be easy, but the Islanders control their own destiny which is the ideal situation to be in.  It has been a while since the NHL regular season finished but the Islanders season continued, we aren't done yet, but the way this team is playing its tough to not be optimistic.

Next Game: Thursday @ Toronto 7:00PM

1	Y - PITTSBURGH	ATL	42	32	10	0	64	29	141	102	+39	16-5-0	16-5-0	3-0	8-2-0	WON 4
2	X - MONTRÉAL	NE	42	26	11	5	57	23	131	107	+24	13-6-3	13-5-2	3-2	6-4-0	LOST 2
3	* - WASHINGTON	SE	43	24	17	2	50	21	134	119	+15	13-8-0	11-9-2	3-0	9-0-1	WON 8
4	BOSTON	NE	41	26	11	4	56	22	116	91	+25	14-3-2	12-8-2	4-2	5-4-1	LOST 2
5	TORONTO	NE	43	24	14	5	53	24	131	118	+13	13-7-2	11-7-3	0-5	7-2-1	LOST 1
6	OTTAWA	NE	42	22	14	6	50	18	104	91	+13	14-3-3	8-11-3	4-4	5-5-0	WON 3
7	NY ISLANDERS	ATL	43	22	16	5	49	19	124	124	E	10-11-3	12-5-2	3-1	7-1-2	WON 1
8	NY RANGERS	ATL	42	21	17	4	46	17	102	100	+2	13-6-2	8-11-2	4-4	5-4-1	LOST 1
9	WINNIPEG	SE	43	22	19	2	46	20	113	126	-13	12-9-0	10-10-2	2-2	5-5-0	WON 4
10	BUFFALO	NE	43	18	19	6	42	13	111	128	-17	10-8-3	8-11-3	5-4	5-3-2	WON 2
11	PHILADELPHIA	ATL	43	19	21	3	41	18	119	131	-12	13-6-2	6-15-1	1-2	6-4-0	WON 2
12	NEW JERSEY	ATL	42	15	17	10	40	13	96	115	-19	10-9-2	5-8-8	2-7	0-6-4	LOST 3
13	TAMPA BAY	SE	43	17	22	4	38	16	136	135	+1	11-8-2	6-14-2	1-3	3-4-3	OT 1
14	CAROLINA	SE	42	17	23	2	36	17	109	134	-25	8-13-0	9-10-2	0-1	2-8-0	LOST 1
15	FLORIDA	SE	42	13	23	6	32	10	101	147	-46	7-10-5	6-13-1	3-1	4-6-0	LOST 3

photo courtesy of http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm#?navid=nav-stn-main