Thursday, December 5, 2013

Battered By Blues


Your New York Islanders will face the Blues in St. Louis to start their 10 day, 5 game road trip against some very good teams.  Their hopes for the playoffs are fading fast.  B.D. Gallof puts up 93-95 pts. as the magic number.  That would require 72 points in the remaining 54 games.  There seem to be too many issues facing the team right now to be optimistic about reaching such a goal.  If it is at all possible, the Isles need to start tonight.
 

Forwards:  Vanek-Tavares-Okposo, Grabner-Nielsen-Bailey, Bouchard-Regin-Clutterbuck, Martin-Cizikas-McDonald.

D-Pairings:  MacDonald-Hamonic, Hickey-de Haan, Ness-Carkner.

Anders Nilsson gets his 3rd straight start.  Kevin Poulin will back up.

 

Anders Nilsson and the Islanders started the game off strong and put good pressure on the Blues, but left the first period down 1-0.  Michael Grabner had breakaway opportunities, but failed to score with one shit ringing off the crossbar.  In the second, they continued to push and played a physical game.  Andrew MacDonald PPG (Nielsen & Okposo) tied the score at 1-1 with a blast from the point.  The Isles continued to play hard, but their frustration level was rising.  The began to take foolish penalties and found themselves on the PK a few too many times.  By the time the second period expired, the score was 4-1 St. Louis.  In the third period, the first line wasn't on the ice much.  The game ended with a 5-1 score for the blues, outshooting the Isles 26-23 in the game.  The Isles played hard, but lost again. Anders Nilsson was 21/26 with an .808Sv%.


I love this team, but these games are hard to watch. It's tough to blame guys who aren't really experienced enough to be here, or the Vets for trying float incomplete roster.  The young patchwork defense and pair of AHL goaltenders have shinned at times, but to be blunt are just not getting the job done.  I understand that there are key injuries and the players haven't exactly been spectacular in the last 8 games, but lets be real.  Without appropriate leadership, they look as if they are going through the motions.  The team is still easily rattled and has difficulty protecting their own zone, especially in PK situations. 
 

Their deep prospect pool IS NOT READY and is only being taught to lose in this team culture with this coach.  I keep hearing about how this team supports the head coach, but their play has said differently for a while now.  They players are undisciplined and out of control.  They need to be reigned in and guided.  A coaching change is a must and not from within.  With all due respect to Doug Weight, this team needs a head coach with a fresh outlook who has experience at winning in the NHL on his resume.
 

The Islanders are 0-6-2 in their last eight and 8-16-5 with just 21pts.  I am worried that JT will want out if this situation keeps rolling along. How long is a player of his caliber going to tolerate this?

 



 

Isles Notes:

 
Per Scott Wheeler, "Isles prospect Ryan Strome leads all AHL rookies in scoring with 26 points in 21 games."


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