The Islanders have allowed four goals in their last two games and every one of them came off the stick of one of their former players.
Vladimir Orszagh and Andreas Johansson both scored in the 2-0 loss at Nashville and then Mathieu Schneider and Ziggy Palffy, who are both being shopped by the Kings, beat Garth Snow in the Isles’ 3-2 win at L.A. Saturday.
So will Jason Krog, who left the team last summer as a free agent after playing in 28 games over three years with the Islanders, be the fifth in line? He and the Ducks host the Isles tonight as Peter Laviolette’s team plays the third of four road games of the current western trip.
Krog has a career-high 18 points with Anaheim this year and is playing more than he ever did with the Islanders, averaging 13:31 per game. The Ducks, winners of four straight including a three-assist performance by Krog before losing at Nashville Saturday, have the best record of any of the teams the Isles face on this trip.
While Krog is having a banner year, Islanders Arron Asham and Snow have been quietly and consistently chipping in as the stretch run to the playoffs begins. Asham had two of the Isles’ three goals against the Kings, and Snow has made 30 or more saves the last three games.
But then there’s Alexei Yashin, the Isles’ highest paid player, who has recently been demoted to a fourth line with Claude Lapointe and Steve Webb as part of a wake-up call issued by Laviolette. Yashin has 13 goals this season and is being outworked consistently.
Laviolette has been mum on the subject, saying only it’s “just a decision that we make internally.”
Yashin was replaced on the top line for the entire game in Los Angeles by Oleg Kvasha. Brad Isbister took Kvasha’s place on left wing, while Asham continued to man the right side masterfully in notching his ninth and 10th goals of his breakout season.
With Yashin struggling and the Islanders in need of a legitimate top-line scoring threat, the trade rumors picked up considerably this weekend. Palffy was quoted as saying that he would like to stay with the Kings, but many in Islander Country would welcome him back in a heartbeat.