IT'S BEEN A WHILE

<p>While I was planning a "maybe" I was wrong theme to this blog in celebration of the ISLES finally climbing back to the .500 mark, I was quickly reminded that either the early hole this team dug does not allow any miss steps, or rather the reality that this team is simply not built nor talented enough toi9 overcome half hearted efforts or poor goaltending. Against Philly, the team was basically reminded they have a long way to go and need to bring in some size (ahem Garth snow) even if it means overpaying. Yet Nabakov stood on his head and stole a game for us that got is back to that elusive mark of mediocrity. But this mark is welcome considering there were 30 games left and our goaltending has been stellar as of late. Considering JT, MM, P.A., and now KO have been bringing it every shift, and Hamonic &amp; Amac have been playing good d most of the season. M Streit has found his pp scoring touch. THE pK has been excellent which seems to be the the saving grace niche for former 1st round bust JB. The isles have found enough overall scoring and team d to coincide with Nabbys stellar play since Al went down to put together a respectable winning stretch that finally dug us out of the Oct/Nov hole and back to the start over point. And before I had a chance to get logged into my blog site, They play another stinker and Nabby couldn't save em thus time.&#160; For the life of me, why wasn't this team super pumped and energized they got over that hump and now have a shot at chasing realistically the playoffs. WHY DOESN'T COACH have them focused finally to get over their bad early play, bad goaltending carousel that forced DP into the nets and cost the team directly 5-8 points, bad misfortune with injuries, and some aweful penalty calls against them that cost this team points. Not to mention the aweful goalie pulling with 4 minutes left to play. And as I keep going here, I answer my own questions. True a coach can't go out and skate with the team, he has to get his message to them and then do what he can to make sure they are at least trying to follow his message. At the heart of this teams basic problems since day 1 become ever clearer.&#160; This coach is not the man to coach this team.&#160; I'm sure he's a nice guy, and I'm sure he's teaching them well, and most importantly he tells them they have to fight and battle every game, every shift, every hit. THEY SIMPLY DON'T LISTEN. Snow will point out his record. Supporters will praise him turning the team around again.&#160; THIS IS FLAWED, because this doesn't in anyway excuse the disaster this team was in late October and most of November. And now that there are some stars emerging, SOME NHL caliber goaltending, The other half of this team simply don't fight&#160; every night or every shift. AND THAT IS WHY until this team decides to battle 65 minutes per game, its all just a big tease.&#160; Can coach finally get this teams ear or more importantly hold their assess to the fire.&#160; To be honest, I want a playoff run. It's not that far off, a simple 7-2-1 10 game stretch puts them right back&#160; in the thick if it. But thats not possibly IF THE WHOLE TEAM DOESN'T FIGHT AND BATTLE EVERY SHIFT LIKE&#160; THE JT LINE, LIKE P.A. HAS DONE ALL YEAR AND AMAC &amp; HAMONIC DO ON Defensd. LIKE JOSH and Grabs fight on the PK. IT remains to be seen if coach can&#160; finaly get this message across and if not, benching these premodonas to make a stand. I don't see it, not yet, Coach Caps doesn't have this team, and its too late to get them back. Can they finnaly go on that hot streak regardless of the coaches imput? Absolutely. Is it likly Nope! CAN they play well down the stretch to assist the 6 players I've already mentioned? Can Streit play some responsible defense or at least carry the puck up ice once in a while instead of lazy passes at the blue line. I CAN'T help but wonder if this team right now is ready for a MILLBURY type or better yet Mike Keenen.&#160; I firmly believe a.little chair throwing, a little fire and brimstone, a lot of benching the finesse guys when they don't compete. (Sorry frans, u have Ur niche in the shutout and at times show offensive talent) . After watching your line circle and Chase the other team around in your defensive zone gets tiring and boring and leads to lack of offense.&#160;&#160;&#160; That stuff has to stop.&#160; Plain and simple.</p>
<p>NOW, enough about that, Id like to give a few stars out to the guys who have brought it since day one.</p>
<p>1.John Tavares.....his draft was a no brainer. His production was well in line with his age and teams ineptitude so year 1 was considered a success.&#160; Year two was the 1st annual great disaster. So it took until November to start playing like a top scoring threat in league.&#160; Barely missed 30 goals but had 67 points. Very good. Afterall he wasn't did the kid being drafted.&#160; Year 3. Who was that guy, that power foward wearing JTs jersey. Fighting off checks while carrying the puck w one hand. Out muscleing the defense and creating offensive chances.&#160; And the determination to stay with it almost to a fault as often JT is being dragged down by 2 or 3 players. This is where the other plays have to wake up. Matt Moulsin doesn't. He's been stellar here and his hard work should also be the benchmark on which the rest of this team should strove to achieve.&#160; Pa has had a breakout season even though we saw his game improving. He shines.on the top line.&#160; He's playing well well the second Line too.&#160; Marty Martin, loves to hit yet sometimes his game is blatantly absent.&#160; Frans neilson?&#160; An interesting extension. Someone praised his prowess on the shootot, and he's been brilliant on the pk w john Bailey????&#160; I know contract alone helps solves cap&#160; floor issue.&#160; Amac and hamonic have been quiet.&#160; That's a beautiful statement. That's hidden praise. And finale the goalie.....well I was wrong sort of. Al won the job and played 3 straight, he.played well but bad 3rd game.&#160; Benched, in comes Nabby lose...in comes Nabby loss...in comes al??? No. It's DP???&#160; WHAT?&#160;&#160;&#160; So the next 14 games are split between Nabby and dp. (Unnamed sources claim the playing of nabakov was to raise his trade value)&nbsp; And playing dp because he wasmistakenly thought to be healthy at that moment. It's no joke. I can live.w the unfair benching of.al montoya for Nabby if he was playing well.&nbsp; Early on he wasn't.&nbsp; Al came back and restored some sanity in the nets and stopped the rotation and oh my, got the team winning. But then, the laws of the islanders lost man games situation started to pounce. Top goalie Out w concussion. A little hickup w Nabby and the kids. But now. Nabby has put it together(sans last game) and we rode him back to .500 Montreal game rained on my parade, do we snap right back? Who do we play today? Oh the Kings. Id say not easy but if coach gets them focused????  Ugh.  If Nabby or al play well, the.JT line can take these games over. Now.if the other 4 d-man can stop the turovers, and perhaps some points.from the grabner, neilson, the pa lines. Heaven forbid a multigoal game form J Bailey. And perhaps ill Nino gets any real minutes and is allowed to play w scorers.  Maybe we get back to .500.  Then we got 28 games to rise........  Would.be.nice.  

Bump in the road or reality check?

Not too long ago, we Islander fans were faced with hockey armhegedden. Elimination in mid November. Then something so simple happened. Islandersfi management was forced to start Al Montoya basically everyday. And his play (up until tonight yet its not his fault entirly) has been stellar. And his stellar play alone can be attributted to the turnaround. Unfortunately, when you fall so far behind, and you can't win in OT or shootouts, 1 loss brings it all back to reality. 13th in the east. Too many turnovers. Sloppy play in the defensive zone. No big defensive stoppers on the blueline. The fact that we cant battle night after night against the Eastern division because the team is too small and too soft. Would a 1.5 mil cap hit for claiming character tough guy Sean Avery really be too much too ask. He would have helped. He is exactly what this team is missing. A semi talented, Tough, heart on his sleeve type player. all due respect to Matt Martin, hes no Avery. At least not yet. While i think the team will continue to battle and win almost half its games, this roster is not playoff caliber. And that is the goal after 4 years nada. Whats next? Do they shrug this off and continue to battle every night? Winning at least half of the time? Is that even satisfactory.Evan if we compete and find ourselves in the same conference position come february, it only means snow will certainly trade al montoya for a garbage draft pick. Its almost a better bet to hope the team returns to losing so perhaps after another year with lost revenues, Wang finnaly decides to change managment. But i fear this team is talented and prideful enough that come march, they will be near the .500 mark and that will justify another Dianetics believe speech from wang, another lost year, another lost draft, and another rookie non nhl coach, and ultimatly another lost season for us fans

Il Nino mystery, Garth Snow FA falacy

Short and sweet.....
1.IL Nino, the 2010 5th overall draft pick, who Islanders mngt have indicated (they never said, they never say anything) will be a part of the team this year has sat in the pressbox now for 4+ games in a row. Hes neither hurt nor is he going back down to Bridgeport (according to the cryptic Garth), so he becomes a highly drafted "example" of what not saving the team will lead to under the Snow/Capuano regime. ok thats not the truth either. THE TRUTH IS THEY ARE HOLDING HIM OUT TO PREVENT HIM FROM REACHING PERFORMANCE BONUSES. IN FACT, BEING ON THE ACTIVE ROSTER COUNTS TOWARDS THE SALARY FLOOR(SNOWS GENIUS) WHILE PAYING HIM AS LITTLE AS CONTRACTUALLY POSSIBLE. THIS IS BORDERLINE CRIMINAL, THE NHL OR THE NHLPA NEEDS TO STEP IN HERE. THE ISLES ARE MAKING A MOCKERY OF THE CBA AND RUINING THE POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF ONE OF SNOWS PRIZE DRAFT PICKS.

Now about the supposed lack of money for free agents. the islanders were mandated to reach the salary floor as per league rules, well at one point this summer, Snow had 9+millions to try to fix the teams shortcomings. his answers......paying an additional 3 mil per for aged Brian Rolston who coincidently came highly recomended from retired D Weight. regaurdless of what a 5-mil a year player should bring to the table. Jay Pandalfo and Steve Staios... while both can at bargain prices(what else is new) and attempted at filling needs, other options were available all summer (Colin White, Brian McCabe, Ian White, etc) Yes they would have had to overpay for them, but at least they could have helped the team and not just fill floor space. Tyler Myers??? what about, god forbid an offer sheet to Drew Doughty??? He would have been the top defensmen for years to come. Dont tell me he wouldnt come, TRY!!! OFFER a big contract and let him think about it.

The goalie mess-While its evident the team plays better for Montoya(which is something both caps and snow completely overlooked) didnt seem to hurt the team the first 15 games although they let the best goalie on the team sit and rot (MONTOYA) WHILE FORCE FEEDING NABOKOV to get a draft pick out of him blew up in garths face. Then playing DP simply because of the albatross contract again instead of Montoya has now cost us points and games. As bad as the record is, a few wins instead of losses would have the team alot closer to contention. Dont give me the MONTOYA INJURY EITHER, maybe if he had regular practice and warmups, he wouldnt have tweeked it. And whats with the damn secretcy on everything???? we are not the PATRIOTS. You dont get that right until you prove you can win games.YOU OWE IT TO THE LOYAL PAYING FANS/CUSTOMERS TO LET US KNOW SOMETHING. TREATING US LIKE IDIOTS SIMPLY SELLS LESS TICKETS AND MERCHANDISE.

Well thats almost it, the last point is this. My boys are 6 & 8, They cant wait to go to an Islander game on x-mas break. Well i absolutly refuse to spend a penny on this team right now. I am aware of stubhub and tickets are as low as 6 bucks. but im not paying for parking (when the entire fields around the coleseum are undeveloped) and should be free when they cant attract flies to the games. And i refuse to spend a penny on a pretzel, a beer, a tee shirt, etc, until this owner/mngt changes its ways. SO at the risk of my boys becoming Devil fans, i bought tickets to the ROCK.

Dead last in THE NHL!

well all the debate about not blaming capuano, its snows duly, well don't name snow, he's drafted great talent and is doing his best for an aweful ownership. Don't blame Wang hes lost millions and we should be thankful he's keeping the team in long island. Well its finally clear now. Took a while to understand how a gm who's missed the playoffs for 4 years in a row- wait who hasn't contended in 3 and his new fresh your coaching choices and his 1000 draft picks would change "THE CULTURE OF LOSING" CAN possibly still have a job. Why the best goalie on the team gets 6 starts in 20 games. Why the laughing stock of professional sports has no accountability by any of its management or coaching staff.

So why? Because its clear Charles Wang not only blames nasal county and the dilapidated building for his teams losing, he is now gonna do absolutely nothing as a statement to long island as his protest that the no vote on a new building and lack of any financial support is the reason the team stinks. The only reason they added aging horrible contract like rolston and paid a complete bust like Bailey and don't buy out DIPETRO AWEFUL CONTRACT is becaUSE the nhl mandates a salary floor. If any one remembers MAJOR LEAGUE the movie, the new gm wanted to lose enough to move the team. Well Wang doesn't want to move, he will let the team rot until he gets his gift wrapped building.

It's clear a move to Quebec city and a new owner is the only hope left. It's really sad. I raised 2 new islanders fans. My boys, ages 6 & 8, and although I can get tickets on any game for 6 bucks on starhub, I bought tickets for 2 devils games. I refuse to pay 1 cent on this team.

Islanders win!!!!!!! well hang on

A win is a win. so 2 points is more than we have gotten in a while but........lets be honest. Isles played the same game they play most nights.

a.solid and at times spectacular goaltending yet this is hurting team..will explain later
b.top line of tavares, moulson, (pa,grabs,anyone) played very well as usual. john tavares improved strength and skating ability plus his ability to stay with the puck and create/prolong o-zone pressure and scoring chances is almost spectacular. its even more impressive considering the horrible defense and defensive zone play and rediculous amount of careless turnovers by almost everyone who isnt named tavares or moulson. will elaborate more on this later.
c.what many still critisize and i was guilty of this too is becoming more evident that the islanders fowards whom arent the top line are not playing well or hard enough just isnt the case at least 2/3 of the time. the problem again, and its the teams biggest is the poor puck clearing and puck moving skills of the islanders defensemen in their own zone. by the time the puck is cleared or moved up the ice, the only offense the other 8/9 fowards can generate is off the rush. they have no energy left to forecheck. but lets face it, the nhl game is not a speed/pass/pretty play league. most decent d-men and goalies can stop most rushes most of the time. tonight though, the isles scored twice on the rush. while talented fowards like okposo,neilson, and comeau need to shoot more(like the wicked wrister that beat lundquist) , these goals dont come often especially for the isles.
d.garth snow seems hellbent on showcasing nabakov to get that coveted 3rd round pick. seems like garth snows main concern every year is to get draft picks. while i cant say nabakov has hurt the team (except the sharks game) at all, the fact that hes been banged up with a (unbelievably) healthy dp and the the best goalie on the team montoya on the bench/pressbox, i dont see the benefits of forcing nebakov into every game. its eveident at this point that no matter what nabakov does, no one is giving snow what hes holding out for. so trade him or trade montoya. but get rid of the 3 goalie system. again, all 3 have played well, but none have been allowed to get hot and really play great enough to steal games.
e.if trades arent there for better defensive d-men, and the young guys are clearly struggling, time to then do the bridgeport shuttle. hamonic and amac still have a bright future, yet their play in their dzone has been bad. thats generous. there is no physical play that gets teams away from the puck, there is no transition game at all since they turn the puck over almost every shift. and even wwhen theres no pressure on them, they either dont skate(moving the legs)to start rush nor do they make many good passes to get the fowards moving in tandem. so would it really hurt to bring up de haan and wishart. they cant play any worse.
f.can we really expect john tavares to show this much heart and effort every game, every shift if this team doesnt start winning, and get back into the hunt. theres so much losing a guy can take before the effort starts to wain.

well i was breaking down the game but it lead into the usual rant about the teams problems...sorry

now heres the part i get killed for. i agree its wangs cheapness and snows inability to bring in better nhk caliber players, especially on the defensive side that is hurting the team. but honestly, there is one glaring problem and ive mentioned it a hundred times. the teams lacksadasical play in their dzone and rediculous amount of turnovers thats really kept the isles in the cellar. as much as i like coach caps and i know he gets his team to play hard and fight every game.
BUT HOW CAN YOU NOT ADDRESS THE TURNOVERS??? HOW DO YOU NOT EVALUATE UR TEAM AND SIMPLIFY THINGS TO JUST CLEAR THE DAMN PUCK OUT OF THE ZONE? JOSH BAILEYS REDICULOUSLY LAZY AND STUPID FLIP UP THE MIDDLE THAT LEAD TO THE RANGER LOSSS IS INEXCUSABLE. COACH LAVIOLETTE USED TO SAY THIS ALL TIME AND COACH TORTS DOES TOO, WHEN THE TRANSITION GAME ISNT THERE, CHIP IT OUT, OR ICE THE PUCK. DONT GIVE THE DAMN PUCK AWAY IN YOUR ZONE!! IT EXHAUSTS THE FOWARDS, IT DEFLATES THE TEAM, IT HURTS THE GOALIES. IT LEADS TOO LOSSES. TONIGHT WHEN WE TOOK THE 3-0 LEAD, MONTREAL THEN HAD A 4 MINUTE SPAN WHERE THE ISLES SIMPLE NEVER GOT OUT OF THERE ZONE. AND THEY HAD LIKE 6 CHANCES. OFF THE BOARDS, UP TO THE JUMBOTRON, ICE IT, HECK TAKE THE DOG PENALTY. BUT DONT TURN IT OVER. AND THIS IS WHERE COACH CAPS TAKES A HUGE HIT. IF THIS CONTINUES, HE WILL BE FIRED.

all this being said, the team is 3 under 500. and really a hot streak from being back in contention. but that streak wont happen unless the turnovers stop or at least are brought under control. until then, we are doomed.