The Drive for Five is now a year old!

It’s crazy to think I’ve been doing this for a year already and all the things I’ve written about. But I digress. This is probably the last thing you guys want to hear. You came here to read about hockey, so let’s get started.

One more day until the Islanders next game and you wonder how they’re going to come out. Tampa Bay is a quick team that relies on Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier for most of their scoring, which means the Islanders may have their hands full. Expect to see Brendan Witt and Radek Martinek playing against them all night long.

Aside from them, the Islanders don’t have much to worry about because the other forward lines on Tampa aren’t nearly as imposing. To be honest, I never quite understood why they never kept Corey Stillman a few years ago, he really gave that team the depth they needed to win the cup. Brad Richards is this generation’s Adam Oates or Craig Janney, the guy is a great passer, but they always put him on a line with scrubs. If they went out and got a good 25-goal scorer to play with him, that team would be 25 times better.

Anyway, the same way Carolina controlled the game the other night because of the Islanders ineptitude on defense and

lack of focus, Tampa Bay, despite their lack of depth on offense, will do the same thing. Guys like Prospal, Boyle and Paul Ranger, who is really starting to develop into a quality offensive defenseman, will bite the Islanders in the arse if they’re not careful.

Keys to the game- Every time the Islanders have played well this season, they’ve consistently drew penalties. Guys like Richard Park, Trent Hunter and Sean Bergenheim have to work hard in the corners and keep their legs moving. If they can do that, the chances with the man advantage will come and the team will generate offense.

As well, Rick DiPietro went puck crazy during the team’s last game and needs to stay in the net. Someone from the Islanders Booster should bring their bungee chords just to play it safe.

If DP stays in the net and the Islanders get a few chances on the powerplay, they should be able to keep pace with the Lightning. A few goals from Mike Sillinger and a few other players struggling wouldn’t be so bad either.

Last year in Islander Country- This is a new segment for the site that I’m going to start today. As many of you may already know, the site crashed at the end of May and as a result, all the old posts were lost from the site. Considering today is the site’s birthday, I’m going to start reposting all of the old pieces, so I can rebuild the site. It will be a slow and tedious process, but it should make for an interesting little side note every day and will be a cool way of seeing where the team was last year in oppose to this season.

Last year at this time, http://www.thedriveforfive.com/?p=60 the Isles defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2, courtesy of some solid play by Mike Sillinger, Shawn Bates and Richard Park and a game winning goal by Alexei Yashin. It was also the game that got the Isles over .500 for the first time of the season after losing five of their fist seven games to start the season.

Record last season at this point in the season 5-4-2-12 points

Record so far this season- 5-4-10 points