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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A few more notes regarding the season so far. This season will be a prime example of the yo-yo effect. We played well against the Devils, very strong vs. the Blues and at times during yesterday's game was wondering if the team knew what sport they were actually playing.
I will let Streit's poor play pass yesterday for a few reasons. 1- Witt got thrown out of the game relatively early (though we were already getting hammered). This caused massive confusion among the d-corp as pairings were mixed and matched. Also Streit has been key in setting up our powerplay's thus far this year. If and when we get on the PP, I have a much better feeling we can set something up as compared to last season.
Another reason for yesterday's horrible showing. Not dressing a back-up goalie who can play in a game if need be. If Rick could not play in either of these two games then why dress him at all. What would have happened if Joey Mac got hurt mid-game and DP had to play. It is clear management is taking things slowly and cautiously with Rick which I am fine with. While I believe Rick is close to returning to full time action, I am assumming he has had some set back after his 1 and only preseason game. That being said, what good is it to dress DP if they won't put him in to play when needed as a backup.
Also I am not sure why Gordon decided to change the lines from the previous game. The lines of Hilbert - Park - Comrie and Bergs - Neilson - Okposo played very well against the Blues, so why fix it if it wasn't broke.
For this team to have any chance of success this year, we must learn to stay out of the penalty box. I was sure it couldn't get worse this year then last season but we will see.
Relax it's one game and it won't be the last time this team gets blown out. But consider this;
The number one goalie has yet to play a game.
Exactly one half of the starting defense is not playing.
Learning a new system and attempting to mold players into a cohesive team does not happen in 3 games. It's going to take some time.
Both Neilsen and Tambellini just need to relax and get the monkey off thier backs. Once they pop in a few goals they will be fine. They just need so confidence. It will come.
Mark Streit is an excellent player worth every nickle. He is nothing like MAB and his worth will be proved out over the year.
Pay attention to me. I won the Cup contest, not you!!LOL LOL...Bill
Yes, it is only 3 games into the season. However, it is impossible to deny the Islanders have a tremendous amount of problems. In fact they have so many problems I don't know where to begin. The most important problem is the health of DP. This is a goalie who signed a 15 year 67.5 million dollar contract. The fact that his health is unclear at this point is a colossal problem. Next Martinek one of the Islanders best Defenseman is out for 4-6 weeks. A team with very little talent cant afford its franchise goalie and top Defenseman to be injured. Another gargantuan problem that has plagued the Islanders for years is the lack of a true superstar forward. The islanders don't have anyone close to a superstar. All the forwards are AHL caliber (Tambellini, Thompson,Nielsen) or washed up NHL Veterans like Sillinger, Weight, Guerin. The Islanders simply can't and won't score goals or wins with this roster. You simply cant compete night in and night out when you have a team of 3rd line forwards at best. I hope that I am wrong but I have a bad feeling about DPs health and think the Islanders are hiding something more serious then people expect. The islanders are a team mostly composed to non NHL players in the NHL. That formula will only lead to a long season (which all of us Islanders fans have grown custom to year in and year out )
That's why we love Bill...the forever optimist.
While the defense is all banged up, defense has hardly been the problem nor do I foresee the defense being the problem. The team is going to be starved for goals all season long. And their worst defenseman thus far is a regular defenseman and the most expensive one.
Your point about Gordon's system is a good one and it is well taken. What do you think is a time frame for that?
Then there's Geoff the forever pessimist....you're right in that the DP contract is looking sort of shaky. The Isles desperately need a superstar forward and that's why I was stunned and appalled when Snow passed on the chance to land Filatov in this past year's draft. That doesn't mean Filatov is necessarily going to be a superstar and Bailey isn't, but Snow took a chance that I'm not sure made too much sense.
If you look at both of the surgeries that DP had performed during the offseason, it is not surprising at all that he has yet to play. In fact I believe Snow and to a lesser degree Gordon are actually putting DP at more risk by having serve as back-up to joey mac. It is clear DP isn't 100% yet and he is not ready for game action. Why not have him focus completely on getting ready - maybe have simulated games at Iceworks - and have a fully capable goalie to back up Joey. Who would have 100% been pulled if DP was 100% healthy sitting on the bench.
Gordons system is based on Bufflalo's system of firecheck first.
You all saw how beautiful it is to see against the Isles and Rangers.
It will take at least the first half of the season for the entire team to be on board.
However, you will see flashes of it by the 20 game mark. If it is going to work here, look for it at the quarter pole.........Bill
Justin,
I don't consider my self a pessimist. But, I don't consider myself an optimist.(I am a realist) For example when talking about the Yankees I am very confident because they have good players and are they are always good. When talking about the Islanders year after year it's hard to find positives. Tonight, I can thankfully say Joey MAC has been awesome.
Well, I may have to re-estimate my prediction that Hunter will pot 20 goals this year. 4 goals in 4 games?
I'm upping my guess: 82 goals in 82 games. What do you guys think?
He's benefiting a whole lot from having the speedy guys doing the forecheck, and not being forced to do the grind work himself in the corners. He's using that same strength in front of the net (see Weight's goal tonight), and using the hands we saw his rookie season to get off some quality shots.
I'm not too worried about the season just yet- not giving up hope yet. I think Joey Mac has done just fine, and I'm actually really happy to see him having to play so much. I'm just hoping that whenever DP is back, we continue to see Mac every few games. DP needs an "easy" season to let everything heal completely. He's 1/2 machine these days, and needs to ease off the throttle to re-acclimate to being a professional athlete and not a 82 year old man.
(To those who have played goalie- what do you think about Mac? I think he's got great skills, but he does get caught playing deep in the net very often. That seems very coachable)
Also, I believe having 1/2 of the defense out (again) is a deeper hole to climb out of than some might think. The buffalo game hopefully was a learning experience- the team seemed to abandon the "system" the minute the sabres started controlling the game, and things spiraled terribly from there.
Either way, I'm happy to see ALL the guys sticking up for each other- even if it costs us a whole game's worth of penalties. It's a welcome change from last year, when the only person I remember fighting was Comrie.
HMMM.... Who was the biggest Hunter booster here last year???
All he needed was a change of linemates to get him back to where he belongs.
J. Mac is average. No one expected him to play more than 12-15 games here. If he keeps you in the game then he has done his job.
If I'm Gordon I let DP open on the road and have the rest of the week to see how the knee responds. If he plays Sat. he doesn't play again until Thursday. That gives him plenty of time to recover and have some hard practices.
Unless he is really hurt, look for DP in goal against the Panthers.....Bill
Nyisles,
As a goaltender I can definitely say you're right on the money in noticing Jmac sitting back in his crease. He's not very big, so in order to make himself bigger in goal he really needs to come way out and challenge shooters. I think he has done an outstanding job in that capacity. His problem is his footwork. If you've noticed, he's prone to giving up goals during scrambles around the crease, shots from behind the net, etc. And that stuff takes work but is definitely coachable.
Also everyone was claiming the world would come to an end when Dubie was not resigned, where I said Jmac would be fine. Bill you definitely get props on Hunter, but I think I should get the same on Jmac, no?
Tambellini finally had a good game and so did Nielson. Although did anyone else notice that Thompson got more ice time than Okposo?
Just noticed something. Looking at conference standings a handful of games into the season, the East looks pretty much as I predict it will at the end of the season, with the exception of Ottawa. Isles will be fighting for the 8 spot, and the order of teams above us looks just about right to me. Philly will move up, but they're definitely not a lock for the play-offs again.
I guess not terribly interesting...but figured I'd share and help you also avoid work.
2-2 after four games without Rick in net? Ill take it. I think JMac, although only 4 games, has proved himself as an NHL caliber goalie worthy of the contract Snow gave him as well as settled our doubts about letting Doobie leave.
In terms of ice time, I think Gordon has done a good job of balancing the ice time early in the games and then begins to lean on these veterans as the games have gone on. When looking back at the four games though, when the Isles have played their best hockey it when we were rolling all 4 lines. That being said, I don't think we can blame Gordon for doing this at this point in the season. If you were looking to luck up your first wins as a rookie coach(3rd period with a lead), I know that I myself would lean on my vets over my rookies especially early in the season.
Another reason for Gordon's decision to play the vet forward's more has been our injured defense corp. With Martinek, Sutton and to a lesser degree Campoli, we are already using dipping deep into our defensive depth, which we expected to happen at some point, therefore forcing to use Sim, Weight, Guerin, Hunter, Park and our favorite Hilbert more so due to their defensive attributies.
Starting the 4th line again...after they had a terrible first shift 2 games in a row....now they get scored on....wake up Gordon.
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