It’s happened a few times this season and it happened again last night. When the Isles powerplay gets hot, they find ways to win. Add in a few huge penalty kills and they got the two points they needed and are keeping their bleak playoff hopes alive. Now four points out of a playoff spot, the Isles will have to continue to win games like this at a breakneck pace, or else there season is over.

With five games left until the trading deadline, I feel the Isles will have to get closer to a playoff spot before they can make a move that truly benefits them in the long run. Like many other people, I’m totally down with this team starting the rebuilding process now. I feel that even though they’ve won a few in a row that the worst is yet to come. Brendan Witt is going to miss a bunch of games with a sprained MCL and with an already thin defense, the Isles are going to need Radek Martinek, Andy Sutton and Bruno Gervais to step up big time. Bryan Berard has been pretty solid offensively since he’s gotten regular ice-time, but I’m still not sold on Aaron Johnson. Don’t even get me started on Marc-Andre Bergeron.

On the goaltending front, Rick DiPietro, made several solid saves while the Isles were getting their mojo back on offense, but he still needs to control the rebounds he gives up with more precision. Most of the goals in the NHL are scored on those second and third shots. Those are the ones that the great goaltenders have to stop. Against the Leafs last night, DP wasn’t as sharp on those second shots and it was what kept Toronto in the game. With an anemic offense and depleted defense behind him, his chances at success are already incredibly slim. He has to make those big saves, or else this team is finished.

On another note, it seems like Ted Nolan’s talk with Ruslan Fedotenko has really paid off. He’s got the grittiness back to his game and has been getting himself to the front of the net. None of his goals are going to be immortalized on highlight reels or anything like that, but they’ve been extremely important ones for the team. At this point, the Isles should count their lucky stars that they’ve been able to score nine goals through their last two games. I mean before then, the Isles only had seven markers through their last four.

Miroslav Satan was also on his best behavior, setting up a pair of goals with beautiful passes. The only question is, how long can these guys keep it up?

Posted under Post Game Rants

Coming off an impressive 4-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, where they racked up a season-high 47 shots on goal, the Islanders face-off with another conference rival in the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. However, that is pretty much the only thing the Flyers and Maple Leafs have in common. As a matter of fact, the Maple Leafs are in the same situation as their Valentine’s Day opponents. Not getting the offensive support from their newly acquired talent, the Leafs have to string a couple of wins together or else they could be sellers at the deadline and looking to rebuild.

 

What does this mean for the Islanders you ask? It means that the Leafs are doing to be extremely desperate out there and the Islanders are going to need to match that level of intensity. The line of Frans Nielsen, Jeff Tambellini and Blake Comeau will be asked to play a solid game in both ends of the ice, similar to the way they played against the Flyers and Sean Bergenheim, Trent Hunter and Ruslan Fedotenko will have to continue to build off their recent success.

 

With Brendan Witt nursing a knee injury [after a collision in the Philly game] Bryan Berard and Aaron Johnson are both going to have to step up to the plate and play play big time minutes. The same thing goes for Radek Martinek, Freddy Meyer and Marc-Andre Bergeron, who haven’t been nearly as solid as they were at other points in the season [Bergeron has been his usual streaky-offensive self as of late and hasn’t nabbed a point in his last 11 games]. It would also be nice if Mike Comrie, Miroslav Satan and Bill Guerin started scoring more regularly, as they have a combined four goals in their past 10 games.

 

Rick DiPietro also needs a bounce back game after a sloppy outing against the Flyers. Like I said before, the defense will be much thinner than usual and they of course will have to step up, but DP needs to make the saves he was making earlier in the season. Make no mistake about it, this is crunch time. This is the time when someone who signs a 15-year contract steps up and puts the team that has invested so much in him on his shoulders and takes them for a ride. While I’ve stated before that I don’t know if this team has the goods to make the playoffs, they’ve shown at times that they can if they stick to their system.

 

Beating a team they should beat, like the Maple Leafs would keep the Isles in the hunt for at least another day and could provide them with the spark they need to keep going.

Posted under Pregame Musings

Last night’s game produced a mishmash of feelings in me that leave tons of questions that need to be answered. I figured I’d address them and see if we can find the answers together.

1-Why can’t the Islanders defense play that way every night?

The score might have said 4-3, but the Islanders defense was much better than they have been as of late. Scott Hartnell chipped in a goal and so did Danny Briere, but those weren’t exactly the Islanders fault. Keeping Philadelphia to 26 shots may not seem like a big deal, but most of the shots were of the harmless variety or from bad angles. The Islanders penalty killing also rebounded after a few bad games and kept the deadly Flyers powerplay in the mud. Overall, it was a performance I’d like to see more of.

2- What was going on with Rick DiPietro?

He looked like a fish out of water on the goal that Briere scored and just wasn’t as sharp as this team needs him to be. I’ve stuck by him all season because I thought the Isles defense either wasn’t cutting it or they weren’t getting goals. When your team takes 47 shots on goal and gets the defense they got tonight, they should be winning by more than a goal. We’ve saw how much a day off did for Mike Sillinger a few weeks ago, maybe DP needs one as well. If the Islanders are going to make the playoffs this season, they need DP at his best. Last night, he wasn’t.

3- Can Sean Bergenheim keep it up?

Over the past nine games, Bergie has four goals. Always working his tail off on both ends of the ice, it’s nice to see him finally starting to finish. In addition, it feels great seeing the kid score these gritty, hardworking goals that keep the team in hockey games. If he keeps it up, he may even be able to infect the rest of his teammates with his energy and passion.

4- Can Trent Hunter and Ruslan Fedotenko build off of last night’s game?

They played one of their best games of the season last night and helped fuel the Islanders victory. I’ve said before that both of them have to start scoring more or else they’ll both be traded. I’m sure there are plenty of teams that would want both of them, especially Fedotenko, who has some experience in the playoffs. The Islanders may cut Hunter some slack because of everything else he does and how long he’s been with the team, but coming off a 20-goal season last year, Hunter is going to have to come pretty close to that for the Isles to give him the kind of deal he wants.

5- Can the new Kid Line be a force?

Blake Comeau is having a solid season and it looks like Jeff Tambellini and Frans Nielsen have gotten better with every game they’ve played. The only question is, can they keep it up and will Ted Nolan give them the playing time they need to become a force.

Now that I’ve addressed these questions, what do you guys think?

Posted under Post Game Rants

Here are just a few quotes from the Islanders last game that I found quite interesting:

“We’re definitely not happy with the result, but the game itself: I don’t know how much better we could play. Our guys gave what they have.”

Those words are from Islanders coach Ted Nolan. While they originally seem like the generic quotes you’d expect from a coach in the situation Nolan is in right now, I think there’s something more there. “Our guys gave what they have” means to me that Nolan is beginning to understand that this team is done. Sure, the Wild are a far superior team than the Isles, but if they could have played better defense and converted on a few golden opportunities [Jeff Tambellini’s immediately comes to mind] they could have come out on top.

“It’s a good point, but it should’ve been two. We played well tonight. I thought we played hard, but we’ve got to finish the job.”

Very well said by the Islanders captain. They needed a point worse than Glen Quagmire needs a monogamous relationship. In addition, Guerin also said that the Isles need to start finishing more, something that I’ve been saying for a month now. Also considering how many one-goal games this team has been involved in this season, where would they be if they had a few more goals under their belt. On second thought, let’s not think that way, it’s only going to make digesting this season even more difficult.

While the Islanders offensive problems have been well documented this year, I just thought I’d put things into perspective a little more by showing you some projected offensive numbers of a few Islanders players, according to ESPN.com.

Mike Comrie- 23-goals, 37 assists, 60 points

Bill Guerin- 28 goals, 18 assists, 45 points

Miroslav Satan- 16 goals, 28 assists, 44 points

Trent Hunter- 10 goals, 29 assists-39 points

Mike Sillinger- 21 goals, 17 assists, 38 points

Ruslan Fedotenko- 13 goals, 22 assists, 35 points

Richard Park- 13 goals, 19 assists, 32 points

Josef Vasicek- 16 goals, 11 assists, 27 points

Marc-Andre Bergeron- 12 goals, 13 assists, 25 points

Andy Hilbert- nine goals, nine assists, 18 points

Sean Bergenheim- seven goals, 10 assists- 17 points

Now I’m not a rocket scientist, but with more playing time, Comrie should be looking at least a 70 point season. Guerin’s goals are fine, but he should be looking at a 60 point season. Satan should have twice as many goals and about 10 more assists. Hunter’s assist totals are higher than expected this season, but he has to put the puck in the net more. Sillinger has been playing hurt all season and despite that has turned in a decent season. Nonetheless, he’s expected to have about 50 points. Fedotenko, like Comrie, has been getting more ice-time this season and should have gotten about 20 goals and 25 assists this season. Vasicek is having his usual season, but also should have more assists, considering how many opportunities Satan has had this season.

As far as Hilbert and Bergenheim go, they’ve worked hard in both ends this season, but you’d still like to see more offensive production from them. Bergeron has solid offensive numbers considering all the games he was scratched for, but there’s so much else to talk about when it comes to his game like his horrendous defense.

The only person on this team that is having anywhere near a more than solid offensive season is Park. When a role player is the only one exceeding a team’s expectations, it’s no wonder this team is playing so badly.

Make no mistake about it, right now is go time. This season is still worth saving, this team just needs to start playing with some desperation.

The only question is, do they want to?

Posted under Random Rant

Over the last few games, the Islanders play on defense has gotten consistently sloppy. Nonetheless, I stick to my guns when I say that Rick DiPietro’s play has not been the reason why this team is stuck in a rut.

However more than a few fans have expressed their opinions to me over the past few weeks, to the point where I have been getting e-mails [from more than a few people] who are complaining that I’m “drinking the orange and blue kool-aid.,” among a few other choice remarks that put a smirk on my face. However, anyone that’s been reading this blog since I started it last season knows that I am the farthest thing from a huge DP supporter. As a matter of fact, I dedicated several posts last season [which aren’t back on the site because it crashed in June, but will be back once I repost everything over the summer] to bashing his idiotic puck chasing and selfish play.

The reason why it was so easy to do that last season was because after about 25 games, Tom Poti, Sean Hill and Brendan Witt were playing some extremely solid hockey. Bruno Gervais and Chris Campoli were also working hard and playing tough in their own end, making me extremely teed off that this team was hovering around the .500 mark all season. If DP would have played the way he’s played this season, last year, this team could have been in the fifth or sixth spot in the Eastern Conference, not the eighth.

But enough of the wishful thinking. The reason why the Islanders are under .500 right now has nothing to do with DP. The defense is no where near as solid as last year’s and the offense is anemic. Does anyone remember that the Isles had a 40-goal scorer on this team last season and four 20-goal scorers [and five players with over 50 points], to go along with two defensemen with over 40 points and Ryan Smyth? I’d be surprised if the Isles had more than one player with over 50 points this season. Now ask yourself, does it even matter what type of goaltending you get when your team scores this much. The answer is no.

Right now, DP could go out there and make 35 saves, give up two goals and his chances at victory would be extremely slim, so don’t get on his case when the Isles lose 4-3 against a team that is far superior in every facet of the game as they are. Until the Isles step it up on both ends of the ice, things like this are going to be happening a lot more than the annoying e-mails I’ve been getting lately [which I welcome regardless of their “matter of factness” and annoying self-righteous bravado]. And like I said, this has nothing to do with how I feel about DiPietro. The Isles could clone Tony Esposito and Ken Dryden and put them in net and this team would still be in the same situation. Throw all the stats on DP that you want at me that you got, but they don’t mean anything in the end.

As far as I’m concerned, the only stat that does mean anything is the Islanders league-low 132 goals.

Posted under Random Rant

Considering how long it’s been since the Islanders were able to take a point away from a game, I guess they should be happy they coughed up a lead and then took the game into overtime, right? Probably not. Nevertheless, a point is a point and despite the loss in overtime, the Islanders offense is showing signs of life. Unfortunately the defense was craptastic once again.

For instance, James Sheppard was allowed to walk right into the slot on one of Minnesota’s goals, while Miroslav Satan was schooled worse than a fat white kid at Rucker Park in overtime, effectively costing the Isles the game. DiPietro did his fair share to keep the Islanders in the game, but the combination of sloppy defense and missed opportunities on offense signaled the end.

While the Mike Comrie, Andy Hilbert and Bill Guerin line were uber sharp last night, the Kid Line with Blake Comeau, Jeff Tambellini and Frans Nielsen has some golden opportunities, even with limited ice-time. Tambellini’s breakaway in the third period should have been converted. That’s how you get more ice time in this league boys. You make the most of what is given to you. Sure, they’re all youngsters and aren’t expected and shouldn’t be expected to carry the load offensively, but it’s obvious that these guys should convert when they have the opportunity.

Sean Bergenheim did his part last night on a line with Josef Vasicek and Satan, which put the Islanders ahead late in the third. However, it seems the Isles thought they were going to coast by a first place team the rest of the game and they loosened the reins on defense and it ended up costing them.

What were you thinking?- Was anybody else extremely pissed off to see DiPietro run out of the net and swat the puck into the Islanders bench last night? It was one of the first times I’ve seen him try and take the game into his own hands, rather than playing smart all season. It’s obvious that he’s stressed, considering the lack of help that the Islanders have given him this season, but the guy has to play smart. He’s got another 13 years left on his contract and the last thing he or this organization needs is him getting another concussion. At any rate, that alone should have been the wakeup call the Isles needed to get their act together on defense. Unfortunately, it wasn’t and the Isles are now on a seven-game skid.

A handful of games left until the trading deadline and still no consistency to speak of. Makes you wonder what this team is going to do.

Posted under Post Game Rants