ISLANDERS SWEEP HOME-AND-HOME SERIES

Game Review

November 22, 2014

With the weekend sweep, the New York Islanders are now tied atop the Metropolitan Divison with the Pittsburgh Penguins, each with 28 points.  The Islanders (14-6-0) defeated the Penguins (13-4-2) by a score of 4-1 at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night, coming back from a 1-0 deficit in the first period.

Evgeni Malkin scored his eighth goal of the year, while the Islanders reeled off four unanswered, starting with Matt Martin, followed by Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, and John Taveras.  The last three tallies came in the third period.

Jaroslav Halak played one heck of a hockey game and certainly out-dueled the opposing netminder, Thomas Greiss.

The Penguins looked flat in both contests and with a team like the Islanders, speed kills and that's exactly what happened as the Penguins picked up one out of a potential four points over the two contests.

Positives:

• Evgeni Malkin.  Played a much better game compared to Friday, picking up the goal and further developing chemistry with Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling.  Was decent in his zone and was the most noticeable forward for the team wearing white.
• Beau Bennett.  Since his call-up, Bennett has been improving more and more throughout his season.  He has a great chemistry with Steve Downie and Brandon Sutter so far and one has to assume he will be promoted to the top six sooner than later.  
• Steve Downie.  While he racked up 17 penalty minutes seemed to one of the only Penguins playing with emotion and fire in his stomach.  He was physical and in your face.  Not as offensive minded tonight as he was on Friday, Downie continues to impress me.
• First 40 Minutes.  The Penguins were stout defensively and honestly, weathered the Islanders' storm.  Their neutral zone defense was better and in their own zone, were not allowing as much time and space as they had on Friday night.  

Negatives:

• Sidney Crosby.  Has been making too many ill-advised passes, has not had a ton of room to maneuver and does not shoot the puck with regularity anymore.  He has four goals in his last sixteen games; unacceptable for the "Best Player in the Game."
• Thomas Greiss.  He was not on at all tonight.  Granted, the defense did not play well in front of him in the final 20 minutes, Greiss still did not look good in net and hopefully will have a rebound night his next start.
• Chris Kunitz.  I honestly cannot remember the last positive shift he has had in the last, lets say, five games.  Certainly one that needs to pick up his game moving along without Pascal Dupuis.
• Defense.  What looked like a solid effort to start with dwindled and evaporated in the last 20 minutes.  Not a strong effort at all from anyone on the blueline.  The addition of Simon Despres was an improvement, but the results just did not follow.
• Offense.  Let's not take anything away from the Islanders; they played a fantastic hockey game.  The Penguins could not find a way to get through their neutral zone pressure and once they were in the offensive zone, there was little sustained pressure.