Islanders Free Agency Day 1 Review

The New York Islanders came into the first day of free agency with three main roles to fill, a center, a right wing, and a goaltender. The Islanders managed to fill all three of those roles, whether they managed to improve their team in the meantime is something that remains to be seen.

The free agency frenzy began with the Islanders re-signing goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to a one year deal worth $3.25 million. The veteran goaltender comes back for his third season as an Islander, and will try to make up to fans for his lackluster performance in the playoffs. The 37 year old is a good option for the Islanders as he’s a veteran presence and very much so a leader in the locker room. Nabokov’s return disappointed some fans who were expecting a trade for a Ryan Miller, or Jonas Hiller, to lead the team between the pipes next season. However, it seems to me that Snow is going to look to give Kevin Poulin a legitimate chance at making his case to be the starter of the future before looking elsewhere. Reports are suggesting that the Islanders will be looking to give Poulin 20+ games next season, his first real elongated stunt in the NHL, and his first chance to fight for a starting role in the near future. 

The second signing for the Islanders was ex-Minnesota Wild Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who signed a one year deal worth $2 million. Bouchard is second in scoring in Minnesota Wild history, and the playmaker is noted for his passing and vision on the ice. Although Bouchard has a history of concussions, last year he was relatively healthy playing 43 of 48 games, and posting 8 goals and 12 assists in the process. Although Bouchard is expected to be playing on Tavares’ wing next season, one of the things that make this signing good is his versatility in being able to play center effectively as well. Expectations are that Bouchard could post over 60 points if he plays on the first line aside Tavares, and can stay healthy. 

Travis Hamonic

The third signing, and quite certainly the least important one, was center Peter Regin. The 27 year old has been with the Senators since being drafted in the third round of the 2004 draft, making his debut in 2008. One would expect that the Regin signing was a depth signing to replace Keith Aucoin, giving competition to Brock Nelson for the third line center role. Having watched clips of Regin, he’s definitely shown flashes of brilliance, and possesses a good shot with which he usually hits his target.

Although not quite a free agency signing, the biggest signing of the day was without a doubt the seven year extension given to RFA defenseman Travis Hamonic worth a total of $27 million. Newsday reporter, Arthur Staple, quoted Hamonic as saying “we’re building something special with the Isles. I would never have signed this long if I didn’t truly believe that. Sever years is a long time – to me, that’s enough time to win a couple Stanley Cups…This is where I want to be.” 

Although this is definitely quite early into the offseason, taking into account the signings of the day this is what the Islanders lineup would look like if the status quo remains as such:

Moulson-Tavares-Bouchard                                        Moulson-Tavares-Clutterbuck

Bailey-Nielsen-Okposo                                              Bailey-Bouchard-Okposo

Grabner-Nelson-Clutterbuck                 OR                 Regin-Nielsen-Grabner

Martin-Cizikas-McDonald                                          Martin-Cizikas-McDonald

(Regin, Boulton as scratches)                                    (Boulton as scratch)

                                                                                        

MacDonald-Hamonic

Visnovsky-Hickey

Strait-Donovan

(Carkner as scratch)

Nabokov

Poulin

Islanders Fall to Senators

The Islanders didn’t get the start they were looking for in their current 4 game road trip, as they lost their first game 5-2 against the Ottawa Senators. The road only gets harder for the Isles as they must now head to Washington, Philadelphia, and Boston, and can’t truly afford to get another regulation loss if they are to count this road trip a success.

The game started out on a good note as not even a minute in, a bad pinch by Erik Karlsson, led to the Islanders getting a 2-on-1 rush and finished with John Tavares going five hole on, Senator goaltender, Robin Lehner to give the Islanders an early 1-0 lead. The Islanders would continue their pressure throughout the first, but just failed to get anything else past Lehner, and as is so often the case in hockey, the lack of ability to finish off their opponent only ended up giving the Senators life in the second period.

Fast forward a couple of penalties and the Senators come out of the second period with a 2-1 lead, off goals by Milan Michalek, a result of a stupid penalty in the faceoff circle by recent call-up David Ullstrom, and Jason Spezza, who was given way too much space by Milan Jurcina and took advantage of it by firing a bullet past Nabokov.

Although down by one, the Islanders entered the third period with belief that they could come back… cue Mike Mottau. Coming from behind the net, the returnee made a blind pass to Nielsen, which very quickly turned into a turnover right on O’Brien’s stick in the slot and right past Nabokov. 

However, the Islanders simply refused to go down without a fight, and a little bit under five minutes later a great keep in by Andrew MacDonald turned into PA Parenteau carrying the puck down the slot and putting it past Lehner to keep the Islanders in the game. 

The Islanders continued to battle and battle, but tonight just wasn’t their night. Two scoring chances, one after another, turned into an Ottawa goal as Mark Streit broke his stick on a shot and was caught helpless on an Ottawa rush going the other way. Chris Neil deflected a puck midair and past Nabokov and basically ending the game. Kyle Turris would bury an empty netter, and close the game at 5-2.

While in the middle of a playoff race, the Islanders simply can’t afford to lose games that they should have in the bag after the first period. They can’t afford to not bury scoring chance after scoring chance, and keep teams around, simply because it will come back to haunt you as it did tonight. The Islanders need to fix their penalty kill, which has been a huge problem the past 2 games, as they allowed 4 PPG. Capuano mentioned the issue in his post game interview, “That’s an issue right now. It’s something that we really have to take a look at. We aren’t the highest scoring team in the league so our PK has to be good.”

Defenseman Travis Hamonic, who had 2 assists on the night, said the game was lost after Ottawa cashed in on their two power plays during the second period. “It’s frustrating trying to play catch up in the rest of the game,” Hamonic said. “When you have to play catch up like that, it’s unfortunate.”

The Islanders head to Washington on Tuesday night next, and can hardly afford another regulation loss to another team in the playoff hunt with them.