Islanders 5
Lightning 2
If you screw up, blow an assignment or fall asleep in the defensive zone, it’s become quite clear this season that Steve Stirling will not hesitate pulling Islanders off the ice.
Some teams call that magic word “accountability,” and last night in a much needed 5-2 win over Tampa Bay, the rookie coach made one little adjustment that wound up winning it for his team and spawning a new line, complete with a cute, little name.
Arron Asham was the guilty party last night when, while skating on a line with Michael Peca and Shawn Bates, he froze in the defensive end on a left-corner cycle that led to a Ruslan Fedotenko one-timer midway through the second period that put the Bolts ahead by two goals.
“Some nights, the guys just don’t have it,” Stirling said, “and it’s different if everyone doesn’t have it. I don’t have any leverage on those nights. But tonight . . . I obviously saw a number of guys having it. There was something missing from a couple of guys.”
The very next shift, Asham was replaced by rookie Trent Hunter, who dominated the right side of the “7-Ups” line last night with points on his first three shifts there. The first was his 10th goal of the season as he dug the puck out of Brad Lukowich’s skates before beating Nikolai Khabibulin over the blocker 2:23 after Fedotenko’s score.
On Hunter’s next shift, he found Shawn Bates in the left circle for the tying goal. His third point came on another assist on Radek Martinek’s first goal of the year, the eventual game-winner.
“If I don’t see it from X, Y or Z,” Stirling said, “I’ve got [Mattias] Weinhandl and got Hunter and I got those guys that are just dying to get in there. Hunter, tonight, proved it.”
The inspirational win was by far the most impressive game the Isles have played since they beat Ottawa Nov. 3, a span of 15 games. This was a game in which the Isles overcame a lead against a quality opponent and got solid, game-saving goaltending from Garth Snow (29 saves) when they broke down in their own end. It was also a game in which they showed, for the first time in quite a while, character and emotion.
“You don’t go good, you don’t work hard, you’re not going to play,” Stirling said of not deploying Alexei Yashin’s line for crucial power-play time on a night that unit went 0-for-5.
Because there are apparently guys on this team that can and will work hard, and did last night.
* Kenny Jonsson’s assist on Mark Parrish’s third-period goal was his first point since the second game of the season . . . Jason Blake got an empty netter with 2.3 seconds left, his first goal in 11 games.