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Scouting The Enemy: New York Islanders, Goaltender Edition

Florida’s fifth-ever Stanley Cup Playoff appearance (and just their second this millenium) starts against the New York Islanders on Thursday night. The Islanders, although they’ve been to the playoffs in three of the last four seasons, haven’t won a playoff series since 1993. This is the final part of a three part series where we took an in-depth look at the team that we are favored to beat in five or six games. Here’s yesterday’s article, on the defensemen, and Monday’s look at the forwards.

Thomas Greiss

Greiss is a 6’1″, 228 lb. left-handed catching goaltender from Fussen, Germany. The 30-year-old is in his seventh NHL season with his fourth NHL franchise after getting drafted in the third round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the San Jose Sharks. Before joining the Islanders, he went 31-17-16 with San Jose, 20-10-8 for the Phoenix Coyotes, and 18-9-6 backing up Marc-Andre Fleury last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Assets: Has excellent puck-stopping ability, as well as the ideal demeanor for the goaltending position. Honed his craft well in Europe, and has usually put up very good numbers at lower levels.
Flaws: Is still trying to prove he can handle a bigger workload in the National Hockey League (and the jury is still out at this point). Needs to avoid giving up bad goals at the wrong time, too.
Career Potential: Solid veteran goaltender.

GP

GS

W

L

OTL

GA

SA

SV

SV%

GAA

SO

QS

QS%

MIN

Career

130

106

59

41

15

285

3443

3158

0.917

2.44

4

59

55.7%

7020

Season

41

37

23

11

4

90

1197

1107

0.925

2.36

1

22

59.5%

2287

Last 10

10

9

5

4

0

25

289

264

0.913

2.69

0

5

55.5%

559

vs. Florida

3

3

1

1

1

10

88

78

0.886

3.29

0

1

33.3%

183

Here’s some older Greiss highlights:

…and some newer ones:

Greiss should get the bulk of the starts for New York between the pipes.

Christopher Gibson

Gibson is somewhat of a mystery at the NHL level. A 6’1″, 188 lb goalie from Karkkila, Finland, the Los Angeles Kings made him a second round selection in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft with the 49th overall selection. Karkkila, now 23-years-old, hadn’t made an appearance at North American Hockey’s top level until injuries necessitated his callup earlier this season. He did not earn a decision in his debut, playing 30 minutes against the Pittsburgh Penguins on January 2nd and giving up a single goal on 17 shots after Greiss gave up four on 26 shots through the first half of the game. He was sent down after that game, but rejoined the club two weeks ago for the stretch run after Jaroslav Halak went down with a groin injury.

Assets: Is a very athletic goaltender who uses his awesome reflexes to gain an edge on shooters’ tendencies. Also owns a very projectable (6-1) frame for the goalkeeping position.
Flaws: Struggles with his game-to-game consistency, as he has a tendency to let in bad goals from time to time. Needs to improve his overall positioning to maximize potential.
Career Potential: Solid depth goaltender with a little upside.

GP

GS

W

L

OTL

GA

SA

SV

SV%

GAA

SO

QS

QS%

MIN

Career

4

2

1

1

1

11

93

82

0.882

3.40

0

0

0%

194

Season

4

2

1

1

1

11

93

82

0.882

3.40

0

0

0%

194

Last 10

4

2

1

1

1

11

93

82

0.882

3.40

0

0

0%

194

vs. Florida

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Gibson probably won’t get many (if any) starts for the Islanders. If he gets any playing time at all it will likely be in relief of Greiss.

Thanks for joining us here at LBC for everything through the regular season, but now it’s time for a little more. Tune in tomorrow night for the Game One live GameThread, right about 7:30 PM.

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