Islanders Defeat NHL's Best in Impressive Fashion

photo by ESPN

Tonight, in their final regular season visit ever to the Coliseum, the Islanders defeated the NHL best Predators by a score of 5-2.  Here are some of my notes from the game:

-After the struggle the third period was for the team in Mondays game, to come out tonight in the third period and put on the performance they did was impressive.  In a year that has been full of making statements, they definitely made another one tonight.

-Well wishes to Mikhail Grabovski who took a huge hit from Eric Nystrom tonight.  If he is out a significant period, I wonder if that will change Garth Snows trade deadline thinking at all.  With him out, I wonder if we will see Harry Zolnierczyk in the interim or if Casey Cizikas is healthy enough to return to the lineup.

-Anders Lee continued his quest toward rookie of the year tonight with an assist.  While he wasn't able to match his counter part Filip Forsberg with the goal, it wasn't for lack of effort as he had a few great opportunities.  The assist gave him his 30th point on the season which if you ask me is a solid rookie season, especially with over 20 games still left to play.

-Congrats to Nick Leddy on setting a new career high in goals for himself with his 8th of the season tonight.  He added two helpers on top of that to be named to the number one star of the game.  After a brief cold streak, maybe this will get Leddy going offensively again.  

-Brian Strait had an up and down game as he remained in the lineup again over Calvin de Haan.  On the one side he did score which was good to see.  However, he got burned defensively by James Neal on the Predators second goal.

-Solid game from Grabner who has been skating very well since his return from injury.

Going into tonights game I expected it to be a tough hard fought low scoring contest.  To get five goals by Pekka Rinne who has arguably been the second best goalie in the entire league this season is no easy feat.  Additionally, the effort in it of itself the team put forth for most of the night against the leagues best team was very impressive to say the least.  If they can continue to play like they did most of tonight going forward, I have a sense that they will continue to win a lot more games than they lose.

Next Game: Saturday 12:30 @ Washington