photo courtesy of http://cdn.nhl.com/Tonight, our Islanders came out and defeated the Boston Bruins by a score of 3-1. Here are some of my notes from the game:
-Given Poulin's lack of playing time this season he was very solid tonight. Given his solid play tonight and Nabby's less then stellar play last night, consideration has to be given to start Poulin in Washington on Tuesday.
-Okposo has been on fire to start the season. Its nice to see him finally come out of the gate strong.
-Congrats to Thomas Vanek on his 500th NHL point and his first goal as an Islander. Vanek has quickly endeared himself to Islander fans with his creative pass plays and impressive stick-handling.
-While there were more then a few positives tonight, one glaring negative is still the powerplay. It is pretty clear that they haven't figured out how to cope with the loss of Visnovsky. They have been able to get a handful of chances but as a hole it needs to be better.
-Brock Nelson had a decent game in his limited ice time. It seems like Nelson is getting the Nino treatment which is unfortunate for him.
-Frans Nielsen is a man on a mission. Nielsen may have not had a point tonight, but you could see in his game that he has elevated himself and is at a level I don't think we have seen from him as an Islander. It will be interesting to see how long he can keep this up.
-This team didn't look like one that was playing the back end of a back to back tonight. They stuck right with the Bruins in the first period. Then in the second period they came out and took it to them for a majority of the period. A difference in third period play was clearly evident tonight. Instead of just sticking back and trying to protect the lead like the Islanders do sometimes. They continued to attack and play their game and it paid dividends on the scoreboard. The fact that they showed really zero ill effects of playing the second game in back to back nights is really encouraging.
Tonight was the team's most complete game of the year. The Islanders hung right in there with the Bruins for a full sixty minute effort which for this team is really encouraging. Furthering on that though, they actually took it to them for some aspects of the game which was really impressive for me. The fact that we were able to take 4 points in this back to back is really big after our bad losses to the Rangers and Flyers. Let's see if they are able massage this into a longer streak as they head out onto a road trip.
Next Game: Tuesday Night 11/5 @ Washington
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