|
Tampa 4 Isles 1 - Final 10:59 pm |
|
|
|
|
|
10:59 pm: As I told my buddy Dr. David Lubin, the Tampa Bay 7th Man, yesterday - The Lightning couldn't lose forever. Nothing lasts forever. They just decided to change their luck when the Isles were in their building.
However, it wasn't just the Bolt's desire to win that made this such a blow out. The Isles were flat and weren't skating. Many times they looked like they were standing still. The four goals weren't Al Montoya's fault.
Only Michael Grabner managed to score for the Isles, and he wasn't happy about it. As Jack Capuano said in his post game, they outworked the Isles and the Bolts deserved to win. They did.
10:57 am: As I expected, Art Staple just Tweeted out that Al Montoya should get the net tonight to face Mathieu Garon. Sorry Rolie, you don't get to make up for the stinker on the Islander tonight.
And in a surprising move -- Blake Comeau is the healthy scratch and Trevor Gillies is in the line-up. What did you do Blakie boy? What did you do?
Oh boy! This could get interesting! After a stretch of four days without Isles hockey, the Islanders will be in Tampa Bay to face the Lightning once again. I don’t think they will get a bonus goal from Victor Hedman this time. I’m pretty sure everyone will have that image planted firmly in their brains. Especially Dwayne Roloson who has struggled not only against the Islanders, but every team he’s faced so far.
The Lightning are 1-3-1 while the Isles are 3-1-0. Tampa had an embarrassing showing on Monday night against their Florida rivals, the Panthers with a 7-4 loss. Ouch.
The Isles have their night cut out for them. The Lightning are looking for revenge and something to make the home town fans proud other than the fabulous renovations to their arena.
Will Roloson even get the start tonight against his old team? After all he was chased from the net last week when they met. He may be watching the game from the bench and not the pipes.
If I had to guess, I’d say Jack will get the net to the Big Cubano for tonight with Nabby dressed as back-up. But that’s just a guess.
Neither of these games in the Sunshine state are going to be easy for the surging Islanders. Their top line is producing, but everyone (including Capuano) is looking for scoring from their other lines. While Tampa may be on their longest losing streak under coach Guy Boucher, nothing lasts forever. Things could change tonight. Also, the Panthers just seem to be dominating and we’ve seen how fired up Sean Bergenheim plays against his old team now. Saturday won’t be easy either.
John Tavares has been on fire himself with consecutive four point games, but Marc-Andre Bergeron has been pretty hot himself with seven points in four games. (Did he do that when he wore the Blue, White and Orange? Just a question.)
As a matter of fact, John Tavares is such a hot ticket right now that you can even BUY tickets to four Isles games and get to meet him. Yep. The ad was in today’s Newsday explaining that for as little as $199 you could get one ticket to each of four games, a buffet before each game AND a meet and greet with JT.
Great promo, but I remember the days when you needed clearance from the Pope just to get within a few feet of JT.
Once again, I can’t get to practice since I have a day job -- and practice is in Tampa. So that put a damper on my chances as well. Perhaps my old Blog Box buddy Jon Jordan will have some interesting things to say from the arena this morning. Check back after lunch to find out. Until then…
LET’S GO ISLANDERS!
New York Islanders Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»