Anyone else hear this crazy Alexei Yashin for Bryan McCabe rumor that’s been all over the internet?

I don’t know about you guys, but I nearly jumped out of my seat when I read about it the other day. While I think it sounds crazy at first, I think that after some dissection, it does make some sense for the Islanders. However, why the Maple Leafs would even consider doing something like this is beyond me.

First off, looking at their numbers over the past three seasons, McCabe and Yashin are extremely similar. Both have huge shots, but don’t score as much as some would like. Both have had problems playing smart hockey on both ends of the ice [McCabe has proven to be quite dirty at times as well]. Both have had problems maintaining some kind of consistency in their careers and both look like they may be in the need of a change of scenery.

I think the latter falls more into the category of Yashin, who despite a solid first season with the Islanders, has never really proven to be the point per game center the Isles thought they were getting when they gave up Bill Muckalt, Zdeno Chara and what eventually became Jason Spezza [what any Islander fan would do to have either Chara or Spezza on the Island is a story within itself].

Secondly, Yashin has been benched at one point or another during every season he’s been on the team, including during the team’s recent playoff series against the Sabres. Again, I don’t know how you guys feel, but I think the captain of your team has to be at the forefront of your game plan and Yashin really hasn’t done that. As well, with the Islanders looking to find a way to keep both Jason Blake and Ryan Smyth this offseason, the question really becomes, can they really afford to keep the underperforming Yashin around [and I’m not talking about on the ice either, what about the locker room?]? And is there anyway that they can unload the guy without getting totally ripped off?

That’s where this all gets tricky.

From what I’ve heard and read online, McCabe’s wife is a native-Long Islander [if this is true or not I have no idea] and the reason why McCabe’s play suffered down the stretch was because she wants her husband to return to where his career started and it took some type of toll on him. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is all the musings of one poor soul online, but if it’s true it could be pretty interesting.

With Sean Hill not an option for next season and Tom Poti a free agent, the Isles defense may look very different. Will it include McCabe? In my opinion, as much as I’d love to see him on the power play and cork-screwing every thing within a five-mile radius, I don’t see why Toronto management would want to trade one handful for an underachieving and overpaid one. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Unless the Isles are willing to throw in a prospect or two and are still willing to pay a portion of Yashin’s contract, I don’t see anyway this could get done. While critics all over the NHL don’t think McCabe is as solid as his numbers indicate, it’s pretty hard to argue with those numbers and the fact that McCabe can provide the type of physical presence the team needs with Hill gone and the need for another defenseman who can eat up minutes.

If that isn’t enough for you, you have to admit, having both Marc-Andre Bergeron and McCabe on the power play would be sweeter than a kiss on the cheek from Christy Brinkley.

Thank you.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Isles Thoughts 2007

Well, it’s over, but it sure was interesting, huh?

While the Isles did maintain a better offensive presence in this game, they weren’t as strong defensively or physical and in the end, that’s what cost them the most.
This may not be the best comparison, but I think that this team has a lot in common with the Islanders team that lost to the Maple Leafs in 2002. Sure, the Leafs that year were a completely different monster than the Sabres, but by the end of that series and the end of this one against Buffalo, I said the same thing to myself, “This team needs to be more physical.”

After the team lost to the Leafs that year, the Islanders parted ways with finesse winger Mariusz Czerkawski and went out and got Arron Asham and Jason Wiemer. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the team tried their hardest to pick up someone else with some “marbles” for next season. Someone like Taylor Pyatt immediately comes to mind.
As well, with Sean Hill no longer an option for next season, the Islanders are going to either give Chris Campoli and Bruno Gervais [who both played very well last night and seem ready to accept more responsibility] a bigger role or count on Radek Martinek to make a solid comeback after another injury-plagued season. With Tom Poti now a free agent as well, the Isles are going to have some serious questions to answer about their defense during the offseason.

Regardless of that however, I still think this team is headed in the right direction and if they can manage to add a few more pieces, they’ll have better luck next year.
Throughout this entire season, the Islanders have been through more emotionally than the teenagers on Dawson Creek, but have always managed to put it together when it counted, thanks in part to some great coaching by Ted Nolan and a career years from Jason Blake and DiPietro. However, against Buffalo, the team just ran out of steam and couldn’t keep up with the uber-talented Sabres.

While being extremely disappointed right now that the team couldn’t keep the Sabres [who played far from a perfect series] on their toes a little bit longer, I’d have to be out of my mind to not be proud of this team. All season long, through injuries to key players such as Rick DiPietro, Alexei Yashin, Shawn Bates, Radek Martinek and the Chris Simon suspension, this team found a way to stay in the thick of things. For a team that was predicted by a myriad of media outlets to finish in last place or extremely close to it, just making the playoffs alone is a huge accomplishment.

Nevertheless, you can’t help but get the feeling that things could have been much different if the team could have stayed healthy and found away to stay away from some of the other drama that managed to engulf them.

Maybe next year will be different.

Well, that closes the book on the 2006-2007 New York Islanders season. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. I know there were plenty of times that had all of our stomach’s in knots, but I also know that there were a ton more that put a smile on all of our faces. I’ve said it numerous times this season, but I feel the urge to say it one last time: this season had more energy than the past five put together and despite being eliminated in the first round, I think that Islander fans and the organization itself have gotten a taste of what Ted Nolan can do when given an opportunity.

That in itself is probably one of the biggest things to happen to this team in a very long time and hopefully next season Nolan doesn’t have to deal with as much adversity and drama and can continue to take this team to the next level.

Let’s go Islanders.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Post Game Rants

This could be the last 60 minutes of Islanders hockey we get to watch all season.

I don’t know about you guys, but if this is the last Isles game I get to see until October, I want to see some hard-hitting and tough play in the corners for the entire 60 minutes. As well, I want to see the Islanders maintain a consistent offensive presence and take more than five shots in the last period.

If the Islanders can do that, I really won’t be upset if they fall to the Sabres. Let’s be honest here guys, the Islanders were never supposed to have a chance in this series and the fact that they’ve been in every game played says something to me. With a little more toughness up front and another puck moving defenseman, I think this team can surprise a few people.

However, this series isn’t over yet and a win against the Sabres today could give the Isles a chance to take the series to game seven win a win at the coliseum.

Can it happen?

Stranger things have happened before.

I mean c’mon, we’re living in a world were Michael Jackson is the father of multiple children. I’m sure that if the Isles manage to come back and win this series that the world will still continue to function as we know it.

Despite that however, I hold firm on the belief that this team could have faired a lot better against the Sabres if they had both Radek Martinek and Chris Simon in the lineup. All series, they’ve lacked the ability to break through Buffalo’s blue line and haven’t been in the Sabres faces nearly enough for my taste.

But then again, I do come from the Rich Pilon, Mick Vukota and Steve Webb school of playoff hockey. In all honesty, I don’t think I’d ever be able to hide my love of great checks and tough hockey. Sadly, this series, sans a few hits from Sean Hill, Brendan Witt and Trent Hunter, has been completely void of that.

After Jaroslav Spacek’s elbow throwing at the end of game one, I thought Arron Asham was going to have his name faster than an old lady at a bingo hall; it never happened. After Jason Blake got boarded by Teppo Numminen in game four, I expected to see Brendan Witt drop the gloves with someone; that didn’t happen either. What I’m trying to say here is that the Isles haven’t played as desperate as they needed to during this series and despite getting more than adequate goaltending from both Dubielewicz and DiPietro during the course of the series, they still find themselves on the brink of elimination.

Why you ask?

They haven’t been nearly as physical enough.

If the Isles can go out on a mission and take Buffalo out of the corners and force them to make perfect passes out of their zone, they’ll have plenty of opportunities on offense. However, that alone won’t induce a victory for them. In addition to playing a hard-nosed game, the Isles have to actually hit the net when they shoot, something they failed to do in game four.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not ready to let this season go down the tubes yet and hopefully the Isles can stick around for at least one more game. I’m at the point where I’m actually contemplating selling my soul to the Robot Devil [Futurama reference, get with it] just to see this season go on for a few more days.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Pregame Musings

The first time you guys threw stuff on the ice, I was a little pissed off. This time, while I still disagree with what you guys did, I can understand why.

This team didn’t play their best hockey last night, but there are huge questions still surrounding the game as we speak.

I know what most of you are thinking; “Why did Mike Leggo blow the whistle?”

Well, Rule 69.3 in the 2006-07 NHL rule book states:

“If an attacking player initiates contact with a goalkeeper, incidental or otherwise, while the goalkeeper is in his crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.

“If a goalkeeper, in the act of establishing his position within his goal crease, initiates contact with an attacking player who is in the goal crease, and this results in an impairment of the goalkeeper’s ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.”

Now the question is this, does the goal the Isles almost scored last night fall into one of those categories? Well, I guess you guys are going to going to have to be the judge on that.

At this point, it has to be either that or in an even more unfortunate situation for Leggo and Islander fans, he just lost sight of the puck.

If you guys want even more information on what happened, hear it straight from the horse’s mouth: http://www.newyorkislanders.com/pressbox/archive.asp?id=1576. By the way, it only gets more provocative from there, so be warned.

All I know is if that goal stands, then the Islanders have a totally different game on our hands. Instead, what happens is that the Isles find themselves down a goal and had no more momentum. It was like someone stepped on the garden hose when the water was on full boar. The energy was there, but after that goal wasn’t allowed, there was no way the Islanders were going to come out victorious against a team like the Sabres.

It almost felt like the deck was totally stacked against them. It was bad enough that for the past three games the team hasn’t gotten enough shots on goal, but to have a goal not counted like that had to be absolutely devastating.

As well, what was the deal with the Teppo Numminen boarding call? The guy went out of his way to take Jason Blake into the boards head first, so why not give him a double minor? The way these referees are calling this series, you’d have to think that the NHL is going to have to seriously reevaluate the way they call the game this offseason.

Let’s face it, this sport changes drastically when a team gets the opportunity on the power play and when there are really no clear cut penalties anymore and a variety of things are left up to the referees, things get really dangerous.

In addition, why didn’t the Islanders respond physically after their leading goal scorer was hit like that in the corner? Where was Arron Asham or Brendan Witt on that play? Why wasn’t Numminen taught a lesson? I don’t know about you guys, but I think Chris Simon could have been an extremely important factor in this series if he wasn’t suspended.

This whole series the Islanders have lacked the type of physical play that could have stifled the Buffalo attack. Rather than take the body on guys like Chris Drury, Daniel Briere and the myriad of other offensive threats on the Sabres, the Isles have given them room to skate and have allowed them to get in front of the net without paying the price.
Over the offseason, I’d really like this team to try and get some more power guys, more people in the mold of Trent Hunter and Ryan Smyth.

All that aside, the bottom line is that the Islanders still didn’t get enough shots on Miller. Sure, the power play looked much better, but they still shanked way too shots and missed the net more times than I can count. While the Isles have been in every game in this series, they missed a golden opportunity to keep the Sabres in check and live to fight another day. Instead, now they find themselves on the brink of oblivion with no room for error.

With the next game on Friday, the Isles will have to empty out their tanks and give everything they got. Otherwise, they’ll have to watch the rest of the playoffs at home with their families. My heart wants to say that this team still has a shot at taking this series, but my brain says that Friday will be the season finale for this team. I can’t say that I’m disappointed in this team however, because in all honesty, they kept me on the edge of my seat all season long.

Despite being on the brink of elimination, I’m not ready to give up on them yet; there’s still 60 minutes of hockey left to play at the very least and you guys can rest assured that I’ll be watching. I’ve refused to give up on them all season and I’m not about to start now.

Because in the end, no one loves a Cinderella story more than I do.

However, can the Islanders miraculously turn this series around and beat the Sabres?

There’s only one way to find out.

Guess we’ll have to wait until Friday.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Post Game Rants

With the Isles now down 2-1 in Conference Quarterfinals against the Sabres, it’s obvious to say that things are only going to get tougher from here on out. As a matter of fact, if the Islanders have any chance in keeping their playoff hopes alive tonight, they have to get traffic in front of the net and take the body.

And do it all night long.

Despite the fact that the Islanders still aren’t out of this series, make no mistakes about it, they’re on some extremely thin ice. Failing to amount any serious kind of offense throughout the series, the Islanders have kept themselves out of two games that they could have came out victorious in if they scored a few more goals.

Let’s be honest here, while the Islanders haven’t played their best hockey in this series and have failed to put forth a solid effort for a full 60-minutes, the Buffalo Sabres have totally underestimated them and haven’t played their best hockey either. With that being said, if the Isles can get back on track as soon as possible and reclaim some of the passion they had in game 2, they could still shock the rest of the league and take the Sabres down.

In order for that to happen though, they Islanders need to get the powerplay going.

Unable to break the wall the Sabres have set up along their blue line during the power play, the Isles have been forced to basically play dump and chase with the man advantage and haven’t been able to get the cycle going. As well, when they finally get the cycle going in Buffalo’s zone, they’ve been passing the puck way too much, instead of taking shots and peppering Ryan Miller, who’s looked far from invincible in the series.

If the Isles can get more than 22 shots against Miller and get some bodies in front of him, they can and will be able to score some goals. However, in order to maintain the puck long enough to get it into the Sabres zone, the Islanders need to play physical and have to attack Buffalo’s defensemen, who have been playing a huge role in the team’s offense during the course of this series.

If the Sabres defenseman can’t make the first pass out of their zone, the Islanders are going to have a ton of chances on offense. As well, they’ll limit the load on DiPietro, who’s been forced to make over 30 saves a night all season. Despite the fact that it’s obvious that DP can handle the workload, giving the opposition the opportunity to take that many shots seriously limits the Islanders puck possession time and time in the attack zone, therefore eliminating any chance the team has at amounting any type of serious offense.

In the end, tonight’s game will come down to how desperate the Islanders are willing to play. Do they want to fight in the corners and skate as hard as they possibly can and hang on Buffalo all night long, or do they want to sit back and kill penalties and watch the Sabres skate again?

I guess we’re going to have to wait and find out.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Pregame Musings

Aside from taking too many penalties tonight, The New York Islanders hung in there with the Sabres for pretty much the entire game. Sadly however, they couldn’t hang in long enough to induce a win, eventually falling to Buffalo 3-2.

Last night, the Isles just couldn’t maintain the same kind of intensity they had in game 2. Regardless of occasional flashes of brilliance, New York was extremely sloppy and couldn’t break the Buffalo blue line on the power play and just didn’t execute they way they needed to. It didn’t help either that there were marginal penalties being called throughout the game that ended up playing a role in the final score.

It was so bad that Stan Fischler said that the referees calling tonight’s game made marginal calls and failed to use common sense.

You tell ‘em Stan.

On top of all of that, Islander fans started throwing debris on the ice after Randy Robitaille got called for a ridiculous tripping call at the end of the third period that just managed to prolong the misery. The fact that one Islander fan actually had the audacity to throw a bottle on the ice during the last minute of gameplay is a disgrace. It’s bad enough that the team got called for a joke penalty with less than two minutes to go, the fact that some Isles fans proved that they were utter trash just made things even worse.

The condition of the ice at the Coliseum was horrible as well, making it pretty damn hard to make long distance passes and throwing all that garbage all over the ice couldn’t have helped matters. When it was all said and done however, the Islanders were the ones that couldn’t get enough shots on Ryan Miller in the third and aside from the bad penalty calls, the fact that they couldn’t generate any serious offense was what really cost them the game.

On a positive note, I don’t know about you guys, but I think Ryan Smyth had one of his best games as an Islander. That line of Mike Sillinger [who was amazing on face offs as well], Trent Hunter and Ryan Smyth was really the only one that managed to maintain the same kind of jump they had in game 2. However since those guys were the only ones with real jump, Nolan was forced to throw the old Hilbert, Sillinger and Hunter line out there late in the third and was double shifting Smyth with a myriad of different players.

Sadly, the Isles could muster the game typing goal.

As well, DP kept the Islanders in the thick of things until the end. Getting out shot 17-2 in the third, the Islanders are lucky that they didn’t lose this game 5-2 instead of 3-2.

With one more game at the Coliseum before going back to Buffalo for Game 5, the Isles need to put the pieces back together.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Post Game Rants

With DP back at the helm for the Islanders, fans now have one less thing to worry about. If the team’s performance in game 2 is any indication, they now understand that they have to play their tails off for every second of the rest of this series if they want to stay in it.

Knowing that, it seems that Islanders head coach Ted Nolan isn’t going to take any chances and is going to bench anyone that isn’t up to the task.

One of those players in game 2 was Alexei Yashin.

Anyone else notice that Yashin got barely any playing time in Game 2? I did. Looks like Nolan is going through the same things that Peter Laviolette, Steve Stirling and Brad Shaw all had to deal with at one time or another, as Yashin’s play in the playoffs so far has been lackluster to say the very least.

Despite going through similar stretches during the regular season, it’s kind of hard to argue with 50 points and a +6 in 58 games. Maybe I’m stretching here, but if Yashin doesn’t get hurt down the stretch, maybe he leads the Isles in scoring and the team doesn’t have to fight as hard as they did to get into the playoffs.

For the time being though, guesses and hunches about what Yashin could have done aren’t going to help the team now. Going into the playoffs, I thought Yashin was at least going to have a little bit more jump in his game than he’s had now, considering that he had. Aside from drawing a penalty in game two, what has Yashin done so far in this series?

Not much.

It’s kind of sad when you think about how things have gone with Yashin. Here we have a guy that was supposed to give this team the kind of offensive presence they haven’t had since Ziggy Palffy got traded and aside from a decent first year with the Isles in 2002, what else has he done? I mean, sure, you can say that the guy didn’t have a consistent pair of linemates for a majority of the time he’s been here, but what about now? Viktor Kozlov and Miroslav Satan aren’t exactly Oleg Kvasha and Brad Isbister; they have talent and have proven it time and time again over the course of their careers. I may be stretching here, but they may be two of the best players Yashin’s ever played with.

In Ottawa, Yashin’s favorite linemate was Shawn McEachern. Last time I checked, Kozlov and Satan could skate rings around that guy. With the goaltending situation taken care of and the Isles having noticeably more jump, it’s time that Yashin starts playing the kind of hockey he was playing in the beginning of the season.

That means keeping his legs moving and getting himself in a position where he can use his shot. There’s a reason why NHL scouts still think that Yashin is one of the most talented players in the league; that’s because he is. However, his talent has never been under question. Sadly, his lack of desire has.

Let’s face it, he’s the captain of this team; it’s time for him to start leading by example. If not, the Isles are going to have a tough time taking the Sabres down.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Pregame Musings

I think maybe someone with some sort of divine power in the Islanders organization reads this blog, because the Isles pretty much did everything that I thought they needed to do to win tonight. Sure, they weren’t as physical as they could have been, but they were extra gritty and got the traffic in front of the net they needed to score off of Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller.

As Meat Loaf once said, “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad.” However, unlike that classic 70’s rock song, the Isles weren’t heartbroken by the next of last night’s game. Instead, they were empowered.

Rather than let the Sabres skate all over them for a second consecutive game, the Islanders worked extremely hard and limited their mistakes on both ends of the ice. In addition, they took more shots at Miller and got results. On all three goals, the Islanders managed to get people in front of the net, something they had problems doing in game one. While Hunter’s tally in the first was a garbage goal that Miller couldn’t have been blamed for, he definitely dropped the ball on Gervais’s goal. Looking at the replay, it looked like Miller didn’t even move. Great goalies usually tend to make that stop in the playoffs on home ice.

I said before the series started that while Ryan Miller is an above average NHL goaltender, the fact that the Sabres offense is so strong from top to bottom, people around the league have put him on a pedestal that he doesn’t belong on yet. I know for a fact that in a few years Miller will have earned all the praise he gets already, but let’s be honest here, the guy just finished his second full NHL season and isn’t a hockey god yet.
You wouldn’t know that though by the way everyone talks about him. As well, media correspondents from all over the country seem to have counted the Islanders out before this series began, failing to realize that they’ve been dead wrong about this team all season.

You’d think they’d learn after having every prediction regarding the Isles blow up in their collective faces. Hopefully, for the Islanders, the media has the situation wrong again.
The only person that the hockey covering media seems to be right on the money about is Rick DiPietro, whose presence in the Islanders lineup last night without a doubt recharged a team that was running with a tank half empty with you know what I mean. It’s not that Dubielewicz played bad in game one, as a matter of fact, if the defense didn’t let him down a few times and stayed out of the box, the Isles could have very well came out victorious. The fact that this team is even in the playoffs has everything to do with the way Dubie played with the heart of lion the last week of the season. Nevertheless DP’s presence in the Islanders lineup last night was the boost the team needed.

It’s just that this team seems to play different when DP is at the helm, they finish checks, they work harder and have the confidence needed to get them through a series with the Sabres. During last night’s game, DiPietro was extremely solid and gave the team every chance to win and covered up for a few mistakes the Isles made in the third period. While I’m not saying that all of a sudden this team can win this series just because Rico is back that the helm, the reality of the situation speaks for itself.

The series is tied 1-1 with the next two games at the Coliseum.

Let’s go Islanders.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Post Game Rants

This is go time. No more excuses. The Islanders need to come out and show the Sabres that they’re not going to go down without a fight. As a matter of fact, they need to show the Sabres they’re not going to go down at all.

Like I said yesterday, the Islanders need to get back to the gritty, blue-collared and physical game that got them into the playoffs and have to stop trying to beat the Sabres at their own game. That means that guys like Sean Hill, Brendan Witt, Trent Hunter, Arron Asham and Chris Campoli need to start throwing their bodies around more.

I still don’t understand why this team looked so pensive against Buffalo, were they scared to make huge mistakes and get down early?

Were they intimated by the Sabres skating ability?

Was Buffalo just that damn good on Thursday?

Why I disagree with the later, I do think that the Islanders didn’t want to put themselves in the same situation with the Sabres that they were in on March 30, when they lost 6-4 and found themselves down early. As well, the Sabres are one of the best skating teams in the league and it’s easy to just stand there and watch when a team can do the things on offense that they can do. If the Islanders are going to have any chance at making it to the next round, they have to find a way of stopping the flashy Sabres from finding open ice.
One way of doing that is to start taking the body.

Another way for the Isles to stifle Buffalo’s offensive attack is to have every Islander skate hard, in an effort to outwork the Sabres. How many times this season have we seen guys like Alexei Yashin, Viktor Kozlov and Ryan Smyth draw penalties in the corners because they kept their heads down and kept fighting for the puck? If the Islanders can keep skating, they’ll draw penalties and keep the play in the Buffalo zone, which would give whoever’s playing goal for the Isles a break.

I’ve said it a thousand times this season and I find myself forced to say it again, the Islanders defense needs to try and limit how many shots the opposition takes. I still can’t believe they managed to get this far facing easily over 30 shots a game and if there going to make it further, they have to start playing more aggressively on defense and need to clear the front of the net and not botch any assignments.

If they don’t do that, it doesn’t matter who’s in net.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Pregame Musings

It’s not that the Islanders played horribly last night, it’s just that they didn’t play that good.

For the most part, despite the score, they managed to keep things close until the end of the third when Campbell put the game away, but they really never challenged the Sabres or threatened to make a comeback. As well, they couldn’t get any decent forecheck going and didn’t give Dubie the support that he needed in front of the net. It just felt like the Islanders were trying to limit their mistakes against the Sabres and as a result, were extremely tentative.

It wound up costing them the game.

First off, the entire team wasn’t taking the body as much as they should have and the defense wasn’t clearing the front of the net for Dubielewicz, thus giving the Sabres way too many golden opportunities to score. Too often was Dubie forced to look around opposing Buffalo forwards who were standing in front of him. As well, the Islanders had more than a few opportunities to get back into the game via the powerplay and really didn’t execute the way they should have.

I mean, I love the fact that the Isles got Bruno Gervais back in the lineup after missing 24 games with an ankle injury, but the guy does not belong on the power play and why he was taking so many shots with the man advantage is beyond me. I mean, I’d rather see Brendan Witt on the PP then Gervais. However, all jokes aside, I know that the Isles played Bergeron for over 26 minutes and they didn’t want to overplay him late in the game, but why not use Campoli and Gervais a bit more on even strength so you can use Bergeron on the powerplay were he’s his most effective? Giving both Gervais and Campoli as little as three more minutes a piece on even strength would have given the Islanders two offensively gifted defensemen, Tom Poti and Bergeron more gas in the their tanks, enabling them more time on the PP and would have been huge in the team’s ability to stage a comeback.

As well, why were Richard Park and Alexei Yashin sitting on the bench for most of the game? Park only had eight minutes of ice time and Yashin only had 13. Remember guys that earlier in the season, when this team was playing their best hockey, all four lines were getting good chunks of ice-time, with Park playing about 10 minutes a game and the Islanders captain getting about 17. I mean, all Park did was almost single-handedly get this team into the playoffs this weekend and bust his hump all season on both ends of the ice, why wasn’t he given more ice time?

Secondly, Yashin’s play since he came back hasn’t been bad at all, as he has 12 points in his last 16 games [remember also that Yashin got barely an ice time his first few games back] and with the team in the playoffs, he needs to get an opportunity to earn his huge paycheck.

However, despite the myriad of things that didn’t go the Isles way last night, there was one positive the Isles can take into the next game on Saturday… hatred for the Sabres. Towards the end of the game, things started to get really feisty and especially at the end, things looked like they were going to carry over into the next game. It all really started to escalate when Jaroslav Spacek started to throw elbows at Ryan Smyth and Trent Hunter like it was 1995 and he was playing NBA Jam.

Was it me or was the HSBC Arena so loud that Ryan Smyth didn’t hear the offside call late in the third? Why would Spacek then decide to crosscheck Smyth and then hit him with an elbow? I don’t know about you guys, but I thought after that little incident, the Isles started to finish their checks, well at least Arron Asham did. If the Isles can get gritty and revert back to the blue collar game that got them into the playoffs, we could see a much different series. Last night just looked like the Islanders were trying to beat the Sabres at their own game.

With only 21 shots on goal in Game 1, it’s obvious that if the Isles continue down this path then we all know where they’re going to wind up.

At any rate, the Islanders still have to get more pucks at Miller and need to pick up their physical play and defense if they want to hang with the Sabres. However, if they can win on Saturday and can manage to get DP healthy for game three, a series win could still be within their grasp.

For now however, the Islanders are skating on some pretty thin ice. Some will say that it’s only one game, but with only four losses to give in the series, things just got a little easier for the Sabres.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Post Game Rants