Well, at least they went out in style, right?

See now that was a fun game to watch. The Isles may have been outplayed, but they got great goaltending from Wade Dubielewicz and took advantage of the mistakes the Rangers made in the neutral and offensive zones. Good hockey teams find ways of going that and it’s a shame that they couldn’t have done it more often.

In the end, with guys like Brendan Witt, Mike Sillinger, Andy Hilbert, Chris Campoli, Bruno Gervais and Andy Sutton all going down, the Islanders simply lost their heart. If Bill Guerin and Mike Comrie were second line players, I think we could all agree that they had good seasons. If they were third liners, I would have been thrilled at their production. The bottom line this season though was that solid goaltending doesn’t make up for a lack of offense.

The Islanders need to go into this offseason and say to themselves, “How are we going to be able to put more pucks in the net?” Josef Vasicek may resign, considering he had one of the better years of his career here. While I did my fair share of picking on him this season, Vasicek was decent and could be much better than that if he finds some kind of consistency. Guys like Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko though are most likely gone, due to their lack of consistency and penchant for cash; to that, I say good riddance. This team is going to have the fundage [I think I just made a new word up] to sign a player or two to help in that department. However, I don’t think they should go crazy.

Rather, they have to build around guys like Kyle Okposo, who I think has proven in his nine-game stint in the NHL that he can score enough to be a first line threat. As a matter of fact, I think he could have scored 20 goals this season if he was here all year. His consistency isn’t quite there yet, but he has it, make no mistake about it. Something similar can be said about Sean Bergenheim and Blake Comeau as well. Give these guys more of a role next year, please! The question also remains if the Isles will give Jeremy Colliton, Frans Nielsen and Jeff Tambellini a real shot. At the very least, it will make for a very interesting training camp.

Jack Killen can also be one of those players if the Isles give him a shot. He was quiet in his two games with the Isles, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Good defensemen don’t make many mistakes and Killen did a solid job. Who knows what he can do with more ice-time. Now with Campoli and Gervais [most likely] coming back, the Isles defense just got a heck of a lot younger and faster. As I’ve said before I don’t care if this team make the playoffs or not, I just want to see them building towards something.

We’ll see what starts coming up from the ground in a month or two I guess.

BTW, since the regular season is over, I will now be in offseason mode, which means two posts a week, rather than every day. It was a lot of fun guys, thanks for all the comments, they forced me to keep writing and made me care a lot more about this team than I have in previous years. Times were tough, but we all got through it together. Anyway, no more of sappy stuff, it makes me sick. See you all on Tuesday!

Posted under Post Game Rants