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Islanders make surprising goalie move for game vs. Wild

Islanders make surprising goalie move for game vs. Wild

The New York Islanders are back in action on Tuesday night against the Minnesota Wild. They’ll have Jaroslav Halak in uniform. They will not have Jaroslav Halak starting in goal.

Jean-Francois Berube, with one NHL start to his credit, gets the nod for the Islanders tonight, with Halak as his backup.

Dan Saraceni of Lighthouse Hockey provides some context:

Remember Jean-Francios Berube? The goalie the Islanders picked up from the Kings off waivers before the season started when Jaroslav Halak was hurt? The guy who played pretty well in his one appearance of the year, a 4-1 loss on the road to the defending Stanley Cup champions in which he was basically the only Islander to show up? He's the guy who was loaned to Bridgeport for conditioning, then immediately got hurt and was placed on injured reserve for a while but is back now. That J-F Berube?

So why play Berube? As Cory Wright notes, Berube is on a tear with AHL Bridgeport, going 4-0 with a 0.97 GAA and a .967 save percentage over the last two weeks.

Hey, Jack Capuano has to play the hot hand, right? Even if that hand was stopping AHL shots while Jaroslav Halak is 2-2-1 in his last five against NHL competition.

Meanwhile, we assume Thomas Greiss is somewhere on the Island changing flats.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.