Snap Shots : New York Islanders Vs Columbus Blue Jackets

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to Snap Shots, our condensed post-game recap of the New York Islanders latest NHL matchup

New York Islanders Vs Columbus Blue Jackets

Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio

Start Time:  7:08pm EST      End Time: 9:31pm EST

Announced attendance: 13,949

Starting Lineups

New York Islanders

Vanek – Tavares – Okposo
Grabner – Neilsen – Bailey
Bouchard- Regin – McDonald
Martin – Cizikas – Boulton

Hamonic – MacDonald
Hickey – Donovan
Ness – Carkner

20 Nabokov

Columbus Blue Jackets

Dubinsky – Johansen – Atkinson
Umberger – Anisimov – Gaborik
MacKenzie – Letestu – Comeau
Collins – Chaput – Boll

Tyutin – Johnson
Murray – Wisniewski
Nitkinen – Prout

Bobrovsky

Game Summary

Another lackluster performance on the road cost the Islanders their third straight game tonight as they fall to the Blue Jackets 5-2 at Nationwide Arena.

On a night where nothing went right, Thomas Vanek left the game after only 23 seconds and one shift with an upper body injury and did not return. The offense continues to look like they are in a struggle not only game to game but shift to shift and the defense without Lubomir Visnovsky continues to plod along making mistake after mistake.

After a fairly lackluster first two periods in which New York was actually fortunately tied, Columbus rattled off three third period goals on a flurry of deflections, uncovered men in front of starter Evgeni Nabokov and an empty net tally from his own goal line by ex-Islander James Wisniewski.

The solutions seem very far away at this point as the Islanders drop to 6-8-3 on the young season. Almost mirroring last season’s start, that could offer a strand for the fanbase to hold onto. The team at that point in 2013, went on a 15-6-3 roll to storm into the playoffs. Whether they can rekindle that magic this year remains to be seen but without their best defenseman, the road is definitely a lot more slippery.

The answers do not lie in a quick trade or a firing of head coach Jack Capuano. The players are simply not playing the system installed and missing assignments at all ends of the rink. But at the end of the day, you can’t fire them right?

Statistics

Islanders : 26 shots, 9 blocked, 9 missed shots = 44 attempts

Columbus : 29 shots, 13 blocked, 11 missed shots = 53 attempts

Faceoffs : Columbus 37, Islanders 26

Turning Point

Fortunate to be tied after two, the Islanders come out in the third with more passionless play and give up a huge goal to R.J Umberger on a deflected point shot just 27 seconds in. The life was sucked out of them at that point and Cam Atkinson converted another broken defensive sequence by Andrew MacDonald and Travis Hamonic to all but put New York to sleep.

What’s Ahead

The Islanders will re-evaulate Thomas Vanek’s injury and board a flight to Montreal to take on the Canadiens tomorrow night at 6pm EST.

They then return home for three games at Nassau Coliseum, Tuesday (Nashville), Thursday (Los Angeles) and Saturday (Detroit).