Too Early to Panic? Maybe Not.
Islander fans across the country knew that the 2008-2009 season was going to be a learning process, but most did not expect the shellacking the Isles got from the Sabers yesterday to come so early on in the season. The Isles would be playing on extra adrenaline through at least the first two home games, right? Wrong. The Isles got their butts beat on the ice, on the scoreboard, and pretty much everywhere else they keep score. Sadly, I think this is a sign in what is to be a very long season. Accordingly, here is my list of what has gone wrong thus far.
1. NHL-unready players – It is hard to be consistently competitive when you dress so many AHL’ers on a nightly basis. Franz Nielsen is clearly not NHL ready. As I watched yesterday’s game, I saw one major flaw in Nielsen’s game: the guy cannot complete a pass when moving at a high speed. The guys I play with at open ice hockey at 12AM have the same problem, but those guys aren’t being paid NHL dollars. At least three times yesterday, I saw Nielsen leading an attack that was only thwarted because his attempted pass was behind Tambellini or in Hunter’s skates. Why is this guy centering two guys who are being counted on to score a ton of goals this season? I would play Comeau in Nielsen’s spot—Comeau showed last year that he has the poise to hold onto the puck and to make a strong pass to one of his linemates. Although he’s not a center by trade, Comeau would help that line way more than Nielsen ever could.
Tambellini has also done little to prove he belongs on an NHL roster. He was invisible throughout the first two games, but managed to at least force Howie Rose to recite his name a few times yesterday. Tambellini seems too afraid to handle the puck (NHL players are big and scary) and so he always finds himself coasting around the offensive zone where he will either (1) find an open puck and take a quick shot, or (2) take an offensive zone penalty due to boredom. So far, the latter has happened more than the former.
I like Okposo, but if he were on any other team, he would probably be playing in Minnesota. The Isles rushed his development, but thus far, he is the only thing to get excited about on Long Island. In that regard, it was the right decision to move his progress along, and I hope he finds the confidence this year to carry the offensive burden on an offensively challenged team. On the other hand, I have constantly ripped on Hilbert throughout his tenure on Long Island for being unworthy of an NHL sweater. For now, I will subside. He is one of the few players in the league who gives a complete effort on every shift and does all that he can to make sure that his line is not scored upon. But all in all, when you dress more than one NHL-unready player, you’re asking for trouble.
2. The DP situation – It has been a major coaching blunder to keep DP on the bench if Gordon is not prepared and willing to play him. On Saturday, he got away with it, as Joey Mac was stellar in helping steal a game the Isles probably would not have won with out him. However, yesterday that same decision came back to bite the Isles. There are quite a few reasons Gordon botched this up, and you can take your pick: (1) The Isles did not have a backup to possibly change the momentum of yesterday’s game, (2) The Isles could not save Joey Mac from giving up an embarrassing 7 goals when his team failed to show up in front of him, (3) The Isles did not have a goalie to put in if Joey Mac got hurt. For a coach who is a former goalie, he does not seem to know too much about how to handle netminders thus far. However, all is well, because if any other teams’ coach and GM challenged the Isles coach and GM to a Goalie Duel, I’m pretty confident that Gordo and Snowy would reign supreme.
3. The Atmosphere – I was at yesterday’s contest, and let me tell you all it was a joke. They actually decided to have kids/mascot day on the 2nd home game of the season. What a nightmare. The Islanders were coming off a strong win in their home opener, and instead of coming into a serious hockey building trying to get to 2-1 on the season, they found themselves in a crazy circus filled with giant cartoon headed mascots running frantically around the ice and throughout the building. The Isles were down 4-0 and all anyone in my section cared about was whether Stanley C. Panther was heading our way. Actually the highlight was when they showed a dance contest between N.J Devil, the Sabers’ mascot, and Sparky the Dragon, whereafter the Devil mascot and Saber mascot beat the hell out of Sparky on the jumbotron. Hey at least they are inculcating in all the kids’ heads that we are in for a beating this year right from the start.
4. Marc Andre, ahemmmmm, I mean Marc Streit. It’s rather unusual when your highest paid skater is also your worst skater. Wait, no it’s not the Isles endured 5 seasons under the Yashin tenure. I was always an avid MAB supporter and I was often ridiculed for it. But what do the Isles do in the off season? They go sign a guy who makes 4x as much as MAB with about the same upside. Streit was turnover central yesterday and I have not seen anything that would make me believe he is anything more than an MAB-type defenseman. Sure Streit made that nice backhand pass to Hilbert on Saturday, but even MAB was good for a highlight goal every few games. I’m waiting for the Streit bashing to begin so I can finally believe MAB was not unfairly singled out.
I’m not ready to completely throw in the towel of course. It’s a long season and even last year’s team was shellacked by the Maple Leafs in the first week of the season. But the Isles have even less offense than they did a year ago and less experience, grit, and toughness. They looked like an AHL team yesterday, and I just hope that’s not a sign of things to come this season. I guess we will know soon enough.
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