Live at the Isles – Devils game

Courtesy of my other blog at www.viewfromsecton317.com, this is a live blog of the game:

Pregame musings:

Hopefully – they will be as happy today as they were on Saturday!

• Lots of Red/Black in the building.  Great opportunity for folks from the Garden state to spend the $11.00 each way in tolls to visit Uniondale
• Roloson should be in the nets today.  Would expect Marrty B as well.  However,it is still good motivation for Danis to play against his old mates.
• 8-2-1in 11 – we all know how this team is currently on fire.  The Isles have not beaten New Jersey this season, and with the opponents not exactly killing of late, this may be an outstanding opportunity to take a step forward.
• Pre Game skate:
• Brodeur and Ricky? interesting….
• No changes in the Isles lineup.
• We all know the stories about Ricky getting ‘up’ to play against Marty Brodeur – guess he convinced the coach of that as well.
• Keys to the game:
• 1.  Get to Brodeur early.  The longer that he has support and not letting up goals, the better he will get.
• 2.  Get physical and sustain that.  Devils are not a big team,and although they will hit, you can control them by initiating the physicality and keeping it up throughout the match
• 3.  Have Ricky just be like the Ricky of old.

Will update this blog after the start of the first period.

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Period 1

Starting Lineup for the Isles:

G – DiPietro, D – Streit, MacDonald F – Bailey, Park, Okposo

0:05 – win first faceoff

0:45 – three shots already on Brodeur – Devils force icing.  Nice sustained start.

Molson’s on me, boys!

1:07 – Moulson on second stab – drives backhand over Brodeur’s shoulder – 1-0 ISLES.

Now THAT’S WHAT I CALL A NICE START!

Moulson (18) from Nielsen and Hunter

Take the goalie out of his comfort zone – and he is beatable.

Goal goes in at 2:23 but immediately waived off. Whistle blown to stop play, which angered the 15,000+ referee’s in attendance.

2:57 – Devils Pelley – shoots puck out of play – Delay of Game.  power play time.

Let’s Go Islanders chan is LOUD tonight!

3:44 – Streit with a blast from the right point – 2-0 Isles!

Get to Brodeur early – and you have a chance… I guess we do.

4:35 – Sutton does his patented hit  the victim – Langenbrunner.

Devils look lost…

Streit (7) PP – Assisted by Tavares and Okposo 3:44

The Swiss fans in attendance are quite excited and the flags aplenty.

5:39 – Jacques Lemaire does not look too happy at the bench

5:45 – John Sim putAndy Greene into tomorrow.

6:58 – Brodeur gets Bronx cheer when he stops the puck on a harmless dump-in.

I’ve not seem the Devils look this harried all season long.  Bailey drew a penalty by Salvador by making such a crazy dipsy-doodle move.  Wow – the pre-game kool-aid is working wonders.

PP# 2 – do we go 2 for 2?

9:00 Brodeur just stacked the pads and with the blade – stop a great shot by Hunter.  Then a couple of point blank shots by Tavares and Weight.

Got about 4 shots on that power play – but the scoreboard is always late in getting the numbers up.

Just the simple case of battling to loose puck – the Isles just seem to move at will.

11:55- fantastic job by Bergie not only to muscle around Oduya, but draw a penalty on him as well, just by taking the puck to the net.

First 15 seconds on the PP – Isles doing an excellent job of moving the puck, and getting traffic on Brodeur.

JT just missed a gimmee.  But love the confidence they are showing.

Shots – NYI 17 NJD 3

Guess the NJ locker room will need some soundproofing…

15:20 – DP made a cuple of great stops of the rushing Devils forwards.  Not much activity – but did a nice job.

16:06 – Tavares takes a penalty for tripping Niklas Bergfors – 1st PK for the Isles.  PK did nice job (computer was slow).

Overall assessment – probably one of the best periods of the year.

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2nd Period

First minute or so – Devils look a little more inspired, or at least they have a purpose.  It is not overwelming, but it looks like a better hockey club.

5:00 RIcky got the chance to put one of his 100 foot passes out – did not hit the tape – but you can see how the opponent needs to change their game accordingly.

6:30 – Parise made a great move on Hillen – hits the post to Ricky’s left.

7:50 – Tavares and Moulson got some chances in front of Brodeur – which he denied.

9:05 – although the Devils are looking a little better – the shots are 6-1 Isles for the period (24-8).

9:34- Isles are moving the puck with some serious ease.  Almost looks like the Devils are just standing back – waitng for Brodeur to stop the play.

12:54 – Sim steaks a Mottau pass, and blasts a shot that hits Marty in the mask.  Shakes him up a bit – but continues on.

A lot of blocked shots by the Isles as well – they are creating a lot of defensive havoc that is leading to a lot of easy chances for DP.  The Isles look like they play a much tighter game around their 15 year man.

14:30 – Bergie looks real good.  No affects from th injury, hits with reckless abandon, and is just the aggressive kind of player that the team needs.

15:42 – Bailey on a nice re-direction – gets it by Brodeur – 3-0 Isles!  FREE CHILI!!

Goal by Bailey (12) – assisted by Hillen at 15:42

17:38 – Jon Sim is just about singlehandedly causing extremem chaos.  Getting in fronr of Brodeur – making like difficult  for him.  Salvador and Oduya both wanted a piece of him.  Summary… Sim is a royal pain in the arse!

18:05 – Moulson – redirects a shot by Hunter – 4-0 Islanders! – oops – I was wrong….

Sutton goal (4) – assist by Hunter – 18:05

– Question – will we see Yann Dais in the 3rd period?

19:50 – LeBlond does a nasty cross check on Weight.  Looks like the 3rd period will be a nasty affair – tune in to see my commentary about it.

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3rd period

Notes from first 2 periods

Sutton and Hillen – +3 a piece  Streit leads in ice time with almost 18 minutes.

Okposo – with almost 15 minutes leads the forwards.

Nielsen, Moulson and Hunter are all +2.  Tavares has 6 shots to lead all shooters.

CORRECTION – on the 4th goal – it will be give to Matt Moulson (19) from Sutton and Hunter.

What to expect in period 3 – —-?

• Keep it coming – dont stop the intensity
• Mistake free hockey
• Don’t let the assignments slip

Yann Danis in the nets for the Devils – Marty has been chased.  Danis beat the Islanders in November, so it should be good motivation to take it to them.

500+ wins – gives you the luxury of not sitting in the runway.

And for the record, I was not happy to hear the Brodeur – you SUCK chants!  He is a goalie, regardless of who you root for, you should RESPECT.

4:30 – Schremp with a great pass to Comeau – got a good shot on – but just missed the left post.

6:00 – Devils getting some opportunities – but defense is getting rid of the garbage.  Weight gets called for tripping McCammond.

6:17 – Isles on 2nd PK of the day.

6:52 – Langenbrunner trips Bergenhei as he was trying  to skate out of the defensive zone.  4 on 4 for 1:25.

7:33 – deflected sho goes about 10 rows up to section 337.  That will wake them up…

Islander quick PP leaves them with just about nothing.

9:05 – Parise shows alot of energy, but not many other ones in white and red.

9:50 – Ricky made a save,but Parise gobble up what I thought was a controlled stop, and just missed scoring.

10:50 – Bergenheim and Sim did a nice give and go, which Danis made the stop.

11:55 – Isles had a few good chances – Comean and Gervais – Danis took care of them.  Making the simple moves and doing them well.

Isles are playing my 3rd period gameplan correctly.  Staying aggressive, but not acting silly.

Shots are 41-17 Isles – amazing that they are stopping this high flying Devil team to just 17 shots.

15:00 – Sim makesa nice shot that Dais controls.

15:45 – DiPietro makes the stop, chucks the puck in the air and tries to slap it like you were at baseball practice playing fungos.  Hey Rick – the Ducks could always use a lefty DH in the summer.

17:30 – Hunter slams White to the glass.  Extra effort.

17:45 – this will be the last entry. what A GREAT GAME.  I am saying it – Ricky gets the goose egg!