Top Shelf – Islanders Daily – 5/19/2013

Decisions, decisions, decisions….Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Middletown, N. J. – Tough decisions await general manager Garth Snow and his staff as the off-season looms large in what Islanders team we will see on the ice come training camp in September.

Captain Mark Streit, goaltender Evgeni Nabokov and right wing Brad Boyes are the major players in the drama that will unfold over the course of the next month. With competition forecast to be heavy from the youngsters trying to make their mark from Bridgeport, fans are anxiously anticipating the decisions that Snow and his staff will ultimately make.

For now, we are left with watching some outstanding goaltending performances thus far in the other series around the league as the march towards determining the Stanley Cup champion marches on. The Isles have had their exit interview days and parted ways for the summer to reflect on the past accomplishments of 2013.

We here at Eyes are following that blueprint, as we have been publishing our series of fan retrospectives which allows you, the loyal reader, to pen your thoughts and get them put front and center on our website. The response has been extremely positive and we truly appreciate all the submissions. With three remaining in the queue and my desire to keep it running as long as possible, we are asking for more! Don’t be shy! If there is one thing I can guarantee, it’s that we all have strong opinions on just what the season meant to us, good and/or bad. Send your pieces to eyesonisles@gmail.com. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with our ever expanding reader and fan base.

At our weekly meeting tomorrow night, the staff at Eyes will be putting the final touches on our off-season schedule for you, the reader. An end of season recap followed by individual player report cards and ‘stay or go’ features are just some of the exciting material to come your way soon.

Links

• Eyes appearance on the SND Podcast show (begins at the 26 min mark if you want to skip ahead)
• Eric Bordin with his quick thoughts on the Eric Boulton signing
• NY Times with a recap of the Swiss victory over the US with Nino Niederreiter scoring 
• Season ending chat with Islanders beat writer Arthur Staple is here

From Around The Twitter-Sphere

• As would I my good man. I have been an Islanders fan for 35 years and have seen the glory days as well as the lean years. This is a very accurate statement. I appreciated this season much more than I ever could have imagined. We still have holes to patch among the roster but our faith in management has to be restored at this point that we are on the right path.

• I have gotten this comment more and more over the last couple of days. Someone on our Eyes facebook page commented yesterday when I reminded about the retrospectives that they still cannot bear to write one as they are still too upset. If the Knicks had some of that ‘jam’ that the Isles were spreading, they would still be playing as well.

• This one made me chuckle, never an easy thing to do on a Sunday morning. ?

• Another endorsement of the atmosphere of the Nassau Coliseum during that opening round. From all the other games I have watched so far I have yet to see a building that matches the raw emotion and noise level. And yes, that includes you Chicago.

Around The NHL

• The Detroit Red Wings scored 4 unanswered goals to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 at United Center, evening their best of seven series at a game each and stealing home-ice advantage. After Patrick Kane scored his first of the playoffs, the Wings got goals from Damian Brunner, Brendan Smith, Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula and held Chicago to only 20 shots.
• Logan Couture scored on the power play 1:29 into overtime, lifting the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 home win over the Los Angeles Kings. The Sharks scored a must-win after dropping the first two in LA. I have been very critical of the officiating this entire playoffs but the Sharks getting a 5 on 3 to close out the 3rd and begin overtime were the right decisions. A clear hooking penalty on Robyn Regehr to take away a scoring chance then a goaltender interference call on Trevor Lewis 40 seconds later when he barreled over Antii Neimi in the Sharks crease. Jonathan Quick was spectacular yet again, making 38 saves, but his misconduct at the conclusion of the game was not his best moment. This one is on your teammates and not the zebras Jon. This series could easily go either way right now.

Pretty passing for the Sharks OT winner…

I will leave you with this….an absolute must watch if you are one of those fans, like me, who love the behind the scenes action and on-ice audio. My favorite is Ryan Getzlaf….what is yours?

-AG