Before I get into this edition of the blog, let me just apologize for my lack of updates. Over the past week or so, I’ve gotten up to two dozen e-mails from angry fans to even my own father asking me to update this site. The reason why I haven’t, you ask? I’m swamped. A college professor, Sports Editor of a Local Newspaper and a graduate student, I barely have time to watch games on DVR these days. Yes, The Drive for Five is still one of my passions, but I need sleep my friends. However, I pinky promise to update this site twice a week during the season.

Sorry for the delay.

OK, here we go.

These kids are a lot better than I thought that they would be and once guys like Doug Weight get back in the swing of things, Trent Hunter and Frans Nielsen come back healthy and the defense tightens up a bit more, this team is going to be a blast to watch.

Guys like John Tavares, Kyle Okposo, Sean Bergenheim, Ron Schremp and Matt Moulson put a smile on my face every time they touch the puck. Sure, they may still lack the polish this team needs to make the playoffs, but they’re hungry. Tavares’ goal the other night against Boston [where I'll be from the 28th to the 30th on a mini-vacation, going whale watching and to a Bruins/Oilers game] was just a small taste of what this kid is capable of and I’d love to see him continue to shoot more. It seems to me right now most of the youngsters are trying way too hard to make the pretty play, rather than the one that works.

If they are going to get through the season, they’ll need to collect as many garbage goals now. It seems Moulson has the idea as the puck seems to be following him on a nightly basis. Now if the rest of the youngsters could follow suit, this team could be the ball breakers of the league.

With the goaltending the Isles have, they don’t need a ton of offense, but they do need a few 20-goal scorers and the defense to play tight. So far, the defense has been eh. Late in games, they look a bit suspect and I’d like to see guys like Bruno Gervais and Andy Sutton be a little more proactive with the puck and a little bit more physical. This team doesn’t have an enforcer and because of that, they need every guy to play like their testicles are on fire. Otherwise, the bigger teams in the league, like the LA Kings, are going to skate all over them late in games. That didn’t happen on Monday luckily, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t.

It’s still early, but I still feel this team could have used another goal scorer from the free agent market, just to make themselves a little more competitive. The goal scoring hasn’t been great thus far and we’ll see how far off I am on that one by the All-Star break. Butch Goring sees Tavares as a 40-goal scorer, but I think him and Okposo will have around 25-30. At any rate however, it’s still not enough for this team to make the playoffs, making it pretty obvious this team has to continue to grow leaps and bounds before they’re ready for the prime time.

Nevertheless, it’ll be a fun process to watch. And watch we will.

Posted under 2009-10