January 2014
Lots of excitement surrounded the Islanders this month!
To the Islanders: Logan Couture
To the Sharks: Matt Moulson, 2015 4th Round Pick (Islanders)
A few interesting things happened during this negotiation. At one time, a total of 9 players were involved, GM Doug Wilson in San Jose was in favour of accepting the deal but the Islanders GM decided to reject the trade. A few days later, GM Wolf pitched the above offer to Wilson and bang - it was done.
Perhaps the Sharks weren't looking forward to Couture's massive contract extension that was due to kick in next season (5 years at $6million per season), or maybe the Sharks needed a LW more than they needed a C...either way, the Islanders are very happy to bring a young dynamic player into their roster.
Two days after being traded, Couture joined his new teammates for a road game in Denver. He was slotted into the lineup as the #2 center, playing in between (LW) Grabner and (RW) Strome. As far as debuts go - this one will probably never be matched....
Including that impressive 8-5 win, the Islanders record for the month was 8-7-1. Overall, the team has a 28-23-6 record, good enough for 3rd in the Metro DIvision and 7th in the Eastern Conference. Goal scoring is up big time, but the goals against jumped up as well. With 185 goals scored, the Islanders now have the second most total goals scored in the league.
The Couture-Strome-Grabner line was absolutely incredible during the month. Couture had 11g - 11a - 22 points in 12 games, Strome had 6g - 15a - 21 points in 13 games and Grabner had 12g - 6a - 18 points in 16 games.
Defensively, Braden Holtby's game slipped a bit - his record was 4-6-1 and he was noticably tired in several of the games. Fortunately, new backup Anders Nilsson filled in admirably!
In other happenings, Matt Donovan finally managed to get into the lineup - his play was decent. Expect the Islanders to try and move him before the trade deadline. One other rookie also made his debut this month - John Persson dressed in 15 games and managed to score 4 goals, and while that may not sound very impressive - consider that two of those goals were short-handed efforts and the third goal was on the PP.
Looking forward, the Islanders will try to land a defenseman for the stretch run.