Islanders dress, collapse like Mets as Danny Briere returns to scoresheet

Here’s the deal, kiddies. All other bloglords are otherwise occupied at the moment. I, myself am headed off to a showing of the Muppets. So this was written as a stop-gap to hold you guys over until Travis can clean it up and add the applicable information. So here’s what I got from the first two periods and what I was able to watch of the third.

(And he kinda covered everything... so, you know. - Travis)

18 seconds. That’s how long it took before a rocket from Andrej Meszaros slipped past the crumbly duct taped brick wall that is Rick DiPietro. The Flyers looked pretty good in those 18 seconds. In the 59 minutes and 42 seconds that followed, they were less impressive.

19 seconds later, the game was tied. Coming into tonight’s contest vs the Flyers, Kyle Okposo was scoreless, so of course he went on to score twice to put the Robocops Islanders ahead by one. For good measure, Michael Grabner added another tally with one and a half minutes to go in the period.

20 minutes was all Ilya Bryzgalov would play as he was pulled from a shaky start. While he wasn’t soley to blame on any of the Islanders goals, he both over and underplayed pucks, was off his angles and looked as though he left his TOMTOM in Philly. #Insertgoaliecontroversyhere.

I can’t think of a way to start this paragraph with 21 so this ends the counting portion of the recap.

With 5:25 gone in the second period, Scott Hartnell took advantage of a room-service bounce off the backboards, roofing a shot over a beffudled DiPietro. After the puck entered the net, the shakey goaltender was either stumped by how the shot beat him, or what his next injury will be. Sources would not confirm either way.

The second period was a much better effort from the Flyers, but that wasn’t saying a whole lot after the first. The line of Matt Read, Jakub Voracek and James Van Reimsdyk is clicking and during a couple shifts really worked the cycle well.

Sergei Bobrovsky looked very strong in relief. He made saves to keep the Flyers in the game including a great breakaway stop on a Robocop. It's very difficult for a goaltender to come in cold to a game, even more difficult when he faces sporadic but good scoring chances from the other team. Bob said "Nyet" on more than one occasion and he said it loudly and clearly.

In the third period the Flyers did their best to pressure and create chances but believe it or not DiPietro, not only did not injure himself, but came up big when he had to. I know, take a minute, let it sink in and breathe.

Danny Briere, yes he's still on the team even though you may not have noticed, took advantage of another rather servicable carom off the glass to pot his sixth goal of the season and tie the game at three. The goal made the Islanders' Mets colored jerseys even more applicable as the collapse was near complete.

Claude Giroux almost put the Flyers ahead with 2:16 left after a flash of brilliance and a weird bounce off the post and DiPietro's pad however the collapsable net-minder managed to fall on the puck before it entered the goal.

The hideousness of the Islanders jerseys finally got to Hartnell in overtime as he lost his mind and moronically hooked the puck carrier, putting the Flyers struggling penalty kill on the ice 20 seconds into the extra frame. However, the penalty kill performed admirably holding the Islanders off bolstered by great play by the young Sean Couturier and the slightly less young Max Talbot. Bobrovsky made some great saves as well.

With Hartnell out of the box, the Flyers began a rush that ended with a Danny Briere twisted wrister to burry the puck and the game.

Odds and Ends

Meszaros, in addition to scoring a beautiful ugly goal, was all over the ice tonight. Whether it was a big hit, or a saving defensive play the man played like a giant. He also has been known to dish out the puck, as if it were candy protruding from his neck.

Zac Rinaldo got a penalty tonight. That never happens.

Jaromir Jagr left the game. Most likely more groin discomfort. Apparently the Islanders ice girls had outfits as ugly as their team’s new jerseys.

Van Riemsdyk continued his beast mode play, specifically in the third period when he inside-outside-inside'd a Robocop defender so bad he had to be tackled.

Questions with Answers

1. The Flyers have been lifeless in the last two games, but it was really bad against Carolina. Can a division game get them back in the swing of things? There were times where they looked very lackadaisical but for the most part there was much more energy from the orange and black.

2. How does Braydon Coburn look after whatever his injury was? Honestly didn’t really notice him so I guess that’s a good thing?

3. Can we go another game without noticing Marc-Andre Bourdon? He hits well, I noticed that for sure. He did get undressed on the Isles second goal though.

4. Who is the healthy scratch, and was that a good decision? Shelley. Always a good decisison.

5. Does goon call up Micheal Haley actually fight tonight? Nope. But he did manage to hit two people in the back of the head. Good thing Rinaldo was in there to stop him from doing so a third time.

6. How hilariously bad are the Isles new third jerseys? The Mets were seen laughing at them.

Comment of the Night:

Creed? Oh god, the Isles suck.

-LeepinLizards