Islanders Gameday News: When Black Friday comes

I’m gonna stake my claim, I guess I’ll change my game (Islanders version).

I hope all our American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving and our Canadian friends had a lovely Thursday at work getting updates on their phones and wondering aloud “Why is there football on at 1:30 p.—oh yeah that’s right.”

We’re so thankful for our New York Islanders, aren’t we folks? We get to be thankful for them again this afternoon as they pay a visit to Washington, D.C., where President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday of November 1863 a national “day of Thanksgiving.” They take on the Washington Capitals, who are among the league’s best teams, which I don’t think anyone predicted. I still think they will fall back to earth a little bit at some point throughout the season, but the Capitals have banked a lot of points and haven’t completely fluked their way into them; they’ve been good. They are still without captain Alex Ovechkin, dealing with a broken leg that interrupted a resurgence to start the season likely brought on by the scent of Wayne Gretzky’s goals record.

The Islanders, as we all know, have been something a little less than “good.” Good for parts of games, sure. Sometimes even a majority of the game. But not usually toward the end of them, and definitely not at the end of them when you look at the scoreboard. They have points in 13 of their 23 games, sure, but they also only have eight wins in 23 games in a season where they will surely have as absurd a record as they did last season, currently 8-10-5.

American Thanksgiving essentially marks the NHL’s quarter pole, and by now we usually have a good idea of how the standings are shaping up. It’s a good time for a heat check. The Isles’ play has left them in the unfortunate position, at American Thanksgiving, of being only three points out of a wild card spot and thus not capital letters Out of It, but also three points out of 32nd in the NHL and with the sixth-worst points percentage. When you consider how many points they’ve given away when leading, the Islanders could theoretically be competing for first in the division. But instead, they’re—generously—a bubble team.

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Islanders News

About Thanksgiving Eve with the Bruins:

• It is what it is. [LHH]
• This time it was a bad start and a bad finish. [Islanders]
• They didn’t blow a lead this time, so that’s something new. [Newsday]
• They came back to tie the game twice, but the third period was still their undoing. [NY Post]
• “The Isles are 1-3-4 when tied after 40 minutes.” [NYI Skinny]

Onward:

• A preview of this afternoon’s game. It’s a 3:00 p.m. start. Hope you’re off work today.

• Patrick Roy is trying to stay upbeat. [Newsday]
• One big problem is that only one line is scoring. The Nelson line is rolling, but every other line is ice-cold. [THN]
• Oliver Wahlstrom still can’t seem to put it together and appears to be running out of rope with his third straight NHL coach. [NY Post]
• Another Question and Isles, this time involving the players’ favorite Thanksgiving sides.

Elsewhere

• No hockey yesterday, but there were 15 games Wednesday night, including another loss each for the Devils and Rangers.
• How the friendship between the late Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan lives on. [Sportsnet]
• What do the Islanders and Sharks have in common? They both lost a game in regulation despite giving up only 11 shots, but the culprit in San Jose wasn’t offense; it was goaltending. [TSN]
• The new episode of 32 Thoughts examines the fire the Rangers find themselves under because Jimmy D woke up from his latest coma.