Brierie Bud

Hi guys it's been awhile since I've been on this thread - up and down in terms of watching the Isles. After a great start then followed 1 win in 20 games which saw Scott Gordon lose his job. Jack Capuano stepped into the breach and has done fairly well. The story of our season has been goaltenders, losing Roloson to the Bolts was a big loss magnified by the injuries to other goal tenders resulting in 5 other goaltenders playing this season - DiPietro, Lawson, Poulin, Kosnioken and Montoya. Montoya is in goals at the moment and is playing quite well. Micheal Grabner has been outstanding in the last month or two and could easily get rookie of the year he has 25 goals so far this season. Tavares and Moulson continue to be the key players for us, Moulson leads the way with 28 goals while Tavares has 23. Highlights of the season included the 9-3 demolition on the Pens and good wins against the Red Wings and Flyers. The playoff are out of reach but a good end of the season trying to finish as high as possible in the league. The Devils have been on a great run over the last few months and it will be difficult to catch them buit not impossible. Playing the Blues today hoping to build on a good win against the Wild - C'mon you Isles!

We since the last time I was hear the Islanders have slumped to 9 defeats in a row. Streit in defence has been missed as I expected, the worst defeat IMO was a 7-2 loss to the Hurricanes. The last 3-4 games we have played we, created lots of chances but were not able to take them. Roloson coming in for DP has helped as he IMO is a better goaltender. Finally got a point at the Shark tank, which is good but we need to start picking up wins to bring back confidence. All these away games are not helping and another tonight at the Kings is going to be tough. The Isles have only played 5 home games out of 16 this season WTF !

Good win in Toronto on Monday with Tavares coming back to haunt his boyhood heroes in overtime. Roloson played an absolute blinder in the goals with some great saves. We got lucky to be honest but we showed great spirit to dig in and get a result. A bit of a grudge match tonight against the Bolts as my mate supports them.

Not a bad week for the Isles, a narrow defeat by the Caps 2-1 away and losing 3-2 in overtime to the Pens away was followed by a good 5-2 win over the Avs at home. Good to see Tavares back playing and scoring as well as Grabner opening his account for the Islanders. Bailey continued his great start to the season with another goal and Roloson made some good saves for his first game of the season. Next up the Leafs who are on fire at the moment.

Great win for the Isles in the New York derby. To be honest we should have been dead and buried in the 2nd period as the Rangers dominated and DiPietro made a great save on a Gaborik penalty shot also. Good to see Comeau and Moulson continue with their good form and a good 1st goal for ex-Ranger Parenteau. Good start 2 but 2 really tough road games at the Caps and Pens might bring us back down to earth. C'mon you Islelanders! On another note me and my mate were at the Braehead Clan game on saturday - some good action, decent standard of hockey, some good goals and a nice dust up at the end of the game. The Clan won 6-2 - not a bad first ice hockey game live.

Good to see the NHL is back, the Isles took on Dallas for the first game of the season. The Stars won 5-4 with a shootout win, but we were pretty unlucky to lose. Lehtonen played a blinder in goals for the Stars with 43 saves. I was fairly downbeat before the game having seen the Stars beat the Devils the other night looking quite good and with injuries to Okposo and our best defenseman out for 6 months also. Benn and Robidas put the Stars 2-0 in the 1st period and were the better side. Matters were also not helped when our star forward Tavares got nailed from behind by some Dallas thug leaving him with a concussion and ending his game. Into the 2nd period and the Islanders played fairly well with new boy from the Ducks James Wisniewski bagging a superb goal, Morrow scored a good one also to put Dallas 3-1 ahead. 2 minutes later the old boy Doug Weight scored on the power play to make it 3-2. Into the 3rd period and despite numerous chances to score the game looked over when Morrow scored again to make it 4-2. However the Isles rallied back 2 minutes later when Comeau scored, and a great finish from Moulson on the powerplay tied the game - hopefully he continues where he left off last season. Lehtonen was the difference in the shootout with Riberio sealing the win for the Stars. Overall, a point was a decent result on the board and good spirit was shown when they could have chucked it in at 4-2 down. A good contibution from Weight with a goal and two assits which he didn't do much last season. A New York derby next on Monday night - can't wait.

A dissapointing 5-4 loss for the Isles after blowing a 4-2 lead to lose in overtime. Another point on the board with another game tonight against the Kings.

Just finished watching the Isles playing the Canucks on ESPN. A fantastic 5-2 victory for us inflicting Vancouver's first home defeat in 2 months. We started well with young defenseman Dylan Reese scoring his 1st NHL goal in only his 7th start with a peach of shot into the top corner. The Canucks gave away a few penalties in the 1st period and a close range powerplay goal from Tavares made it 2-0 Islanders midway through the 1st period. In the 2nd period the Canucks were the better team, with shots being fired in from everywhere. Some good saves from Roloson and great defensive work from Streit and Meyer in particular kept the Canucks at bay.Then it was unbelieveably 3-0 when a superb reverse pass from Tavares found Moulson who beat Luongo from close range to score goal number 26 of the season for him. The Canucks pressure finally resulted in two late goals in the 2nd period with Wellwood and Burrows bringing Vancouver back into the game. However with 8 seconds of the period remaining Tavares crossed for Meyer to score as he fell with his leg which crucially made it 4-2. Raycroft came into the net for Luongo in the 3rd period for the Canucks . The 3rd period was more even with both teams having good chances to score, both goalies making good saves. Raycroft was pulled with just under 3 minutes to go, but seconds later the victory was sealed when Streit found Tavares to score an empty net goal and his 20th of the season. What a great performance by us tonight, we may have been outshot 37 - 20 but that stat is some what misleading as we hit the frame of the goal 4 times. Special mention for John Tavares tonight - a 5 point game from him tonight, top class. Still in the playoff hunt but tough games away against the Ducks and the Kings. Come on you Isles!!

The Isles make it back to back victories with a 4-1 win against the Leafs at the Coliseum. Another shocking start for us with Kulemin leading a break to score for the Leafs after 57 seconds. Jackman equalised 2 minutes later after a close range shot. Great work from Comeau shorthanded set up Park to hit a belter past Giguere to make it 2-1. It was 3-1 near the end of the 2nd period, when good work from Sim and Comeau set up Nielsen for a tap in. The result was sealed at the end of 3rd period when Bailey setup Moulson on the powerplay to score his 25th goal of the season. Good win, 3 road games against the West next starting on Tuesday against the Canucks.

After a narrow shootout defeat against the Blues the Islanders managed to beat the mighty Devils.....again. 1-0 down after 3 minutes, we rallied with Meyer leading a break from the back to end up scoring from close range. Two well taken goals from Sim and Streit midway through the 2nd period put us 3-1 up. A great strike from Kovalchuk brought the Devils back into the game at the start of the 3rd period. Then a shorthanded break up the ice from Comeau played Bergenheim in to score from close range and seal a 4-2 victory. A vital game tonight against the Leafs, win that and we still have a chance at the playoffs.

Three straight defeats for the Islanders, with the last two defeats being rather unlucky 3-2 losses to the Bruins and the Flyers. Blew a 2-0 lead last night in Philly. Our lingering hopes of the playoffs depend on our next 4-5 games. Lose 3 or more and we are goosed. . A slight positive last night was Tavares breaking his run of 17 games without a goal.

It's good to see the NHL back. What a great result for the Isles last night with a 5-3 win against the Blackhawks. Comeau bagged a hat-trick and Roloson was great in goals with 41 saves. Only 5 points off 8th -it's a longshot but the play-offs are still possible.

The Islanders are up shit creek at the moment - a 5 game losing streak. Apart from last night's 2-0 loss against the Panthers, we have been outplayed in the others. Unless this run changes, our once decent chance at a play-off slot could disappear.

Saw the highlights and thought we were a bit unlucky in the 1st and 2nd period, Devils dominated most of the 3rd. First loss at home this year, could be two in a row with us playing the Captials on Tuesday. We can make the playoffs, but still too early to say. Well done to the Devils RWB.

Good to see us bounce back with a 2-1 win at home to Florida. The Panthers took the lead midway through the 2nd but Comeau equalised minutes later. In a tight game Schremp and Moulson scored in the shootout to make it 6 wins in a row at home. The result is more impressive considering they gubbed us 7-1 last month. Bring on the Devils(again )

Well it finally happened, the Islanders went down 6-4 to the Penguins last night. Actually managed to see most of this game live. Crosby and Malkin tore us a new one, with the 2 goals and a hat-trick respectively. I thought we actually played pretty well, outshot the Penguins in their own back yard. Too many penalties meant they scored 3 powerplay goals and the last an empty net one. We showed good character coming back to make a game of it at 3-0 down. Defencemen Sutton and Meyer scored but Crosby made it 4-2 at the end of the 2nd period. Once again we came back with Hunter and Park scoring to tie the game, but the penalties at the end just killed us. Special mention to Okposo who had a mare, missed 3 one-on-ones with the goalie including a penalty shot. Oh well it was good while it lasted. Next up the Panthers on Thursday.

Don't suppose you know why the game was on earlier RWB? Just watched the highlights as the Isles make it 4 in a row with a great 4-0 over the Devils. 2 goals in the first 4 minutes from Moulson and Streit(powerplay goal) sent us on our way as we dominated the game, the 1st and 2nd period in particular. We forced Brodeur into a number of fine saves, was quite surprised he was replaced in the 2rd period The game was won by the end of the 2nd period when Bailey and Moulson's 19th goal of the season put us well ahead. Good to see DiPietro get his first shutout in almost 2 years. Two shutouts in a week after only one all season previously. It's nice to see us continuing our good form (only the Blues are on a four game streak at the moment), keep this up and the play-offs is a real possibility. Hard game tomorrow night away against the Penguins though.

Three in a row for the Islanders after a 3-2 win at home to Buffalo with a shootout win. The Isles dominated the 1st and 2nd periods, and had Ryan Miller to thank in the Sabres goal for only being 2-1 ahead. Tavares and Berginhiem scored for us, both ending fairly long goal droughts. Buffalo tied it in the 3rd period with some good attacking hockey. Hunter got the winner in the shootout (finished 4-3), with Rick DiPietro getting his 1st win this season while in goal. Devils and Penguins coming up on Monday and Tuesday night, tough fixtures but if we play like we are at the moment we have a good chacnes of picking up some points. C'mon you Isles!!

Last night was the Islanders best performance of the season(and of what I've seen as a fan so far) when the Red Wings were on the end of a 6-0 gubbing. Moulson scored after 71 seconds, and we never looked back. Schremp scored a brace, with his second a total gift from Detriot midway through the 2nd period. Osgood replaced Howard in the Reg Wings goal, but couldn't stop the rout. Striet added another in the 2nd from a powerplay. Okposo and a thunderbolt from Gervais in the 3rd completed an incredible night at the Coliseum. We limited Detriot to only 16 shots at goal, meaning that the Isles recorded only their 2nd shutout (Roloson's 1st in 81 games ) Very happy!

Don't know why I was nervous, Islanders won 5-4 against the Coyotes with another shootout win. Roloson back in goals for us, was very good in the shootout with 3 saves. Pheonix took an early lead from a powerplay but two goals in the last 3 minutes of the 1st period from Comeau and Okposo put the Isles into the lead. We totally dominated the 2nd period and two powerplay goals midway in the period from Streit and Bailey put us 4-1 up, which promted a change in goaltender with Bryzgalov being replaced by Labarbera. The 3rd period saw the Coyotes dominate, with 3 goals being scored (2 powerplay goals) and tying the game. In the shootout it went to the 6th round of shooters and Moulson kept his cool to seal the win, at a difficult venue. Overall, happy with recent performances but watching the Islanders could give you a heartattck. A few games have gone to shootout when we have been 3 goals up and had the game won. Oh well, bring on the Red Wings

Isles went down 4-3 in Dallas last night. The main talking point was Rick Dipietro's first start for over a year for the Islanders. Didn't do that badly, and despite talking the lead three times with goals from Bailey, Okposo and Neilsen - the Stars were probably the better side and deserved the win. Tough game in Pheonix tonight, not feeling confident.

Just watched the highlights of the Isles game at the Pepsi Center last night. A great 3-2 win, back by quite a few fans travelling from Long Island. . The Avs dominated early on in the first period and took an early lead from a powerplay. Sim equalised late in the 1st with a scrappy goal. The Isles then took the lead from a powerplay midway through the 2nd period with technically one of the best goals I've seen this season. A long range effort was blocked by the Avs goalie and the puck went airborne to Schremp who was standing 2yards to the right of the goal. He touched the puck down with his right hand, and as it dropped to waist height he smashed the puck baseball style into the top corner of the net. Fantastic goal (fans on here should check it out and see what they think). Colorado equalised midway through the 3rd period and looked more likely to win, only to be stopped by some great goalkeeping by Roloson. The winner came on the break as Okposo race through with 2 minutes to go and smashed the puck in the top corner for the victory.

A great game at the Coliseum last night against Atlanta, with the Islanders win 6-5 in the shootout. The Isles totally dominated the 1st period going 3-0 up with Moulson, Sim and Park baging the goals (Sim's was a belter). 2nd period Atlanta came more into it, but the Islanders found themselves 5-1 at one point with Hunter and Bailey scoring. We then fell apart in defence and found ourselves leading 5-4 by the end of the period. Kovalchuk bagged himself a powerplay goal to tie the game midway through the 3rd period. Islanders won 2-1 in the shootout thanks to Neilsen and Tambellini scoring. Third game in a row the Isles have been involved in a shootout, won two and lost one. At least we are picking up points , which is just as well with 3 tough road games coming up against Colorado, Dallas and Phoenix .

Islanders lost in Ottawa last night, 3-2 in the shoot-out. Game finished 2-2 in regulation. Schremp put the Isles 1-0 up with a powerplay goal midway during the 2nd period. The Senators scored twice in the same period to lead before Sim scored early in the 3rd to tie the game. Tavares missed the only shot out of 6 in the shootout to give Ottawa the victory. A decent point given that we didn't play that well. Atlanta at home tomorrow, both teams on the same points at the moment, could be a close one.

Oh well thought I'd make my last post of the year on here. Watched the highlights of the Islanders game against Columbus on Tuesday night, won 2-1 with a shootout win (1st since I've started following them). Bailey scored a slightly fortunate goal to put us 1 up, touching the puck just before the line after Okposo's long range effort went over the head of Mason in the Blue Jacket goal. Umberger equalised in the middle of the third to send the game into overtime. In the shootout, Roloson made two good saves and Schremp netted with the final shot for the victory. Senators away tonight, very tight in the Eastern at the moment. We are 13th, but are only a point off 8th. On another note, the Rangers got pumped 6-0 by the Flyers.