The 2011-12 Season has come and gone for the New York Islanders and it ended the same as it has the past few years, with an early trip to the Golf Course. For the third time since the lockout the Islanders hit the 79 point mark on the season and have missed the playoffs each time. This year they were the only team in the Atlantic division to fail to make the playoffs and fail to record more than 80 points as a team. The team ended the year with almost identical records at home as they did on the road finishing 17-18-6 at home and 17-19-5 on the road leading to a total record of 34-37-11 . The only month on the season the team had a winning record was January when they went 6-5-1.
John Tavares led the team in scoring with a career high 81 points on 31 goals and 50 assists. The 50 assists also led the team. He was second on the team in both categories. Matt Moulson led the team in goals with 36 goals. The only players besides Tavares and Moulson to score more than 20 goals wer Kyle Okposo who had 21 and Michael Grabner who had 20. Josh Bailey (13), Frans Nielsen (17), and P.A. Parenteau (18) were the only other guys to hit double digits in goals this year for the club. Streit (40), Parenteau (49) and Tavares (50) were the only guys to have more than 40 assists this season. Matt Moulson and Travis Hamonic were the only Islanders to hit the plus side of the ledger of players who played more than 50 games, and Neilsen, Tavares Moulso and Streit are the only guys to play every game this season. The Isles only scored 4 shorthanded goals this year 3 coming from Josh Bailey and the other coming from Michael Grabner. Matt Moulson led the powerplay with 14 goals on the man advantage while Tavares chipped in 7 on the powerplay. The team powerplay was somewhat effective finishing the year at 18.5% good enough to tie the Panthers for the 7th best powerplay in the leauge, while the Penalty Kill unit wasn't as good finishing the year at 80.5% good for 23rd best in the NHL. The isles averaged 2.39 goals per game the 3rd worst in hockey, only the kings and wild scored less on average then the Islanders.
As far as the goaltending is concerned, the team averaged 3.06 Goals against per game which was 4th worst in hockey. Only the Blue Jackets Lightning and Maple Leafs allowed more goals per game on average than the Islanders. Al Montoya and Evgeni Nabokov handled the bulk of the goaltending duties this year despite both guys batteling injuries. Montoya played in 30 games and had a 9-10-5 record with a 2.96 GAA and a .897 SV%, and Nabokov played in 42 games with a 19-18-3 record a 2.55 GAA a .914 SV % and 2 shutouts (1/17 @ Washington and Feb 7 @ Flyers). Rick DiPietro once again battled injuries and was limited to 8 games and a 3-2-3 record. I will get to a nice little rant about Ricky later on.
There were some big games, wins and plays this season for the Islanders. The Islanders found a nose for hats and OT winners this season. The two hat tricks the Islanders turned this year were by their two best players John Tavares and Matt Moulson. Tavares scored his three against the Rangers in a 4-2 win in October 16th and Matt Moulson scored 4 against the Dallas Stars on December 3rd in a 5-4 Islanders win. Just so everybody can relive that night here is Moulson's 4-Goal Performance:
So as you can see Matt Moulson was red hot on that night. Tavares also had a sever hot streak this year too getting at least one point in 12 straight games. Between December 29th and January 12th Tavares picked up at least one point in 12 straight games something an Islander hasn't done in about a decade. The last Islander to have a 12 game point streak was Mark Parrish from early October to early November in 2001. Those two guys carried the team this season and basically knew how to find each other at almost all times and if you don't believe me watch this:
This was the passing play of the year for the Islanders and it shows how good those two guys have been together since joining forces with the Islanders.
Another area the Islanders played well this year was shootouts as they went 8-2 in 10 shootouts this season, lead mostly by the king of shootouts Frans Nielsen. Nielsen is known for hitting one of two moves, his backup move a quick wrist shot five-hole on the goalie, or his go to move the forehand deke and then ripping the roof on the backhand. Most goalies can probably guess the backhand shot is coming and they still have no real answer to stop Frans who scored 7 goals on 11 shots in shootouts who was the 4th best shooting percentage behind Malkin Parise and Kovalchuk. So Frans has shown he was well deserved of the 4 year $11 Million contract he signed with the Isladners back in February.
There were times this season the Islanders made me happy to be an Islanders fan. Nights like December 3rd with the 5-4 win over Dallas, the night Moulson scored 4, the 5-1 win at home over Detroit on January 10th and the 3 dramatic OT winners this season, Mark Eaton's winner in Ottawa February 3rd (2-1 Win), Mark Streit's winner at home against the Kings on February 11 (2-1 Win), and John Tavares winner against Carolina on January 21st (2-1 Win). So it has been some nights like these that have made me proud to say I'm an Islanders fan. Yet at the same time there are some nights I really am left scratching my head as to why I still follow the club. One of two things really seemed to happen more often than not with Islanders losses either the team just decided not to show up ata all and would get blown out, or they would build up a lead and then just completely fall apart and blow the lead, which would really drive me crazy. All I ask is that if you lose a hockey game either just don't bother showing up or at least go down swiinging, that's all I ask.
Now there are a few things I would love to see the Islanders really like to try and fix on the ice before the 2012-13 season starts in October. First I would love to see P.A. Parenteau get a contract with the Islanders and keep that top line of Parenteau-Tavares-Moulson together as they were the best line on the team by far. Also I would really love it if the team was able to get mroe of a balanced scoring attack so that way they don't have to keep relyin on the Tavares line. Grabner's goal numbers went down from the season before and he needs to step his game up for next season, same thing with Okposo. Yes it was a good thing Kyle scored 21 goals but 15 of those goals came in the 2nd half of the year when the Islanders were out of it. Also think about this in 2011 the Islanders had five guys score more than 20 goals and this year they only had three guys do it. Finally as far as the offense goes Nino Niederreiter needs to try and have more of an offensive impact having socred only two goals and three points in his NHL career. And this season he had only one point a goal against the Blackhawks in December in 52 games. That can't happen if the Islanders expect to be a contender in the league.
As for the Defense the team should be retaining their top three D-men in the form of Andrew MacDonald Travis Hamonic and Mark Streit. They all had good years but Streit had a down year, but lets not forget he is coming off a injury that kept him out of the 2011 season. I would really like to See Calvin De Hann brought up for more than the one game he played last season. The biggest change I would love to see the Islanders make is getting rid of Rick DiPietro who is being paid a ton of money to sit on the sidelines with injuries. This is the biggest damn reason I was against the whole contract in the first place is there is no guarentee that he would play good for the entire length of the contract. He did his first few years and then has seemed to fall off the map with injuries and it has been hampreing the Islanders and their possible ability to sign free agents. Now it is a RUMOR, again it is only a RUMOR that the reason Zenon Konopka left the Islanders to go play in Ottawa was he was unhappy with the Contract Rick signed and felt the Islanders were unable to win with it as they won't be able to sign players. Again that is just a RUMOR but I can see he has a legit gripe because when players see that contract they may look down a little on the team.
So now that we have covered the major points from this past season, I leave you with video tributes of monthly highlights from the first two months of the season for the 2011-12 New York Islanders:
Now here's a look at some December Magic!
Now for the Highlights from the only winning month of the year in January:
And finally heres the highlights from the last two months of the season:
So there you have it a recap of the 2011-12 New York Islanders! Thanks for some good memories boys!
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