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| Evgeni Nabokov manning the net (Photo by Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images) |
Nabokov has won 7 of his last 10 outings, some of them on his own. In 6 of those wins he has been one of the three stars of the game. In 3 of those contests he was the first overall star.
Islanders fans also won't soon forget a certain game in Philadelphia against the Flyers. If not for Nabokov the Islanders might not of had any type of shot in the game. But as it was, Nabokov turned away all 45 shots he faced in the regulation and overtime periods. He then proceeded to stop 2 additional shots in the shootout, while the Islanders scored twice, which gave them the unlikely win.
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| Nabokov is on his own island when it comes to trade talks (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Which brings me back to my 3 reasons why the Islanders should not trade away their starting goaltender:
1) In the top ten in Goals Against Average. He comes into the next game with a 2.29 GAA, which is tied with Calgary Flames goalie Mikka Kiprusoff for 10th in the league.
2) In an absolute zone right now. In his last 10 games Nabokov has won 7 of them. He's faced 301 shots and has only given up 16 goals, that's a 1.79 GAA. He's also added 2 shutouts.
3) The Isles are still 100% in the race for the 8th seed. The Islanders currently sit in the number 13 spot, but are only 8 points out of a playoff spot. The one thing a team needs in a playoff race and especially the playoffs, if they make it, is a solid number 1 goaltender. With 27 games to go the Islanders certainly have a good shot to grab that 8th seed and make a run at the playoffs.
Now I'm not Garth Snow nor Charles Wang. All I can say is that if I was, I would not even be fielding any phone calls inquiring about Nabokov.
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