Islanders Throw Red Wings Out of Nassau 5-1

For the past few years, the Detroit Red Wings can’t seem to figure out the New York Islanders.  Tonight was no different as the Red Wings finished their four-game road trip on a sour note with a 5-1 beatdown by the Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum.

They finished their road trip at 2-2-0, which puts them now at an 11-13-0 record away from the Joe Louis Arena. Do you think that they’d want to head back to Detroit soon?

The Red Wings are now winless in their last six games against the Isles, who got two goals and an assist from Matt Moulson and 23 saves from Evgeni Nabokov, who got his 299th NHL win. John Tavares had a strong game by collecting a goal and adding two assists. Kyle Okposo and Michael Grabner also scored for the Isles.

The Red Wings’ lone goal came from Justin Abdelkader who was in the slot when he tipped in a Jakub Kindl shot early in the third period.

Pavel Datsyuk sat out tonight’s game with what was described as a lower-body injury. Let’s hope that tonight was the only game that he’ll sit out because the Red Wings can’t afford to lose one of the top-tier all-around forwards in the NHL. Tonight was a good example why.

After his stellar performance in Chicago Sunday night, Ty Conklin was rewarded with another start.  Instead of trying to ignite a two-game winning streak, he was the sacrificial lamb for the Red Wings as he was hung out to dry. He was peppered with 17 shots in the first period and was outstanding despite giving up a power-play goal by Moulson with 53 seconds left.  He faced a light workload in the second period by confronting four shots, but the bad news was that he gave up goals on three of them.

Since he got no help in front of him tonight, Conklin shouldn’t get the blame for the loss.  Speaking of which, has the team played differently in front of him this season?  The Red Wings have been out-scored 22-7 in games that they’ve lost with Conklin making the start, so is it that they play differently with him as they normally do with Howard or was it that they keep losing to the better teams on those nights?

If you want to look at the Red Wings’ stats tonight, feel free to. After a few seconds you’ll be like Bob Uecker as Harry Doyle in Major League when he attempted to read the Cleveland Indians’ scoresheet after another woeful loss and saying, “The hell with it.”  It is that frustrating.

The Red Wings return to the Joe Louis Arena this Thursday as they welcome the Phoenix Coyotes for their first home game of 2012.