4:16 PM: I so love when I'm wrong about the wins and loses!!!! I'm starting to think when I am a pessimist, they love to prove me wrong!
Congratulations to Anders Nilsson on his first career shoot-out and the win. And Kyle Okposo continues to amaze and make USA Hockey look so foolish!
11:17 am: Confirmed, Anders Nilsson gets his shot at the Flyers. Boulton or Regin to be determined and the defense remains the same.
7 am: Back on home ice for the annual MLK Day 1 pm game. Hopefully it is the tonic that will wash the bad taste of Saturday's loss out of everyone's mouth. But... I won't hold my breath.
The truth is it was bad enough to be without Visnovsky all these weeks, but to lose Hamonic too may just be too much for the Isles to overcome. Sure, the good news is Lubo has been cleared to practice, but not for contact. That's a step, but we still don't know when he will actually be his old self, or if he will ever be.
Also, while Nabokov also skated, it may take him a few more games before he is capable of playing at his 100%, which is for the 38-year-old actually .905% save average.
The Isles are in a bad spot. A really bad spot: 8th in the Metropolitan Division and 14th in the Eastern Conference. Yikes. That's a mighty deep hole to climb out of without your two top defensemen and your starting goalie.
As much as I would like to say the Isles can salvage this Home-and-Home series today against the Flyers, I can't. If I said I believed they could win today, I'd be lying. Day games are generally not their friend and the Flyers have won the last three outings against the Isles.
That isn't to say they won't put up a valiant effort or come close, I just don't think there will be two points on the Isles score sheet at the end of the day.
The good thing is -- this will be the last time they have to face the Flyers this season. Bonus.
Art Staple will have news from the morning skate with the line-up changes, so we will look for those.
I'm looking to the skies and hoping they are wrong about the impending snow storm for tomorrow that may dump four to eight inches of fluffly white stuff on the Island. I'm very much looking forward to the Isles viewing party at the Diamond Bar at 33 Railroad Ave in Ronkonkoma hosted by Matt Saidman. $20 includes drinks and Buffet from 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm. And ofcourse, Islander hockey on the TVs.
Let's just get through this afternoon first.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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