Monthly Archives: November 2011
“They don’t know where they are going, where they want to be or how they are going to get there.”
- Ed Westfall on MSG during the 2nd period of Ed Westfall Night
Last night’s loss at home to the Boston Bruins was a “statement loss.” It’s the kind of game, even at this time of the season, that begs for a move, or moves, to be made. It begs for blame to be placed somewhere, anywhere. The fourth shutout of the season on only November 19th – all four coming at home, no less – is absolutely unacceptable. To do it in such a lackluster fashion, leaving an unlucky prospect to take a beating in net at the end of the game is about as low as it gets.
The Islanders have now lost 11 of 13 games. Statistically, they’re not eliminated from anything this season. But watching the past few weeks worth of games has been akin to watching someone sick with the flu go through the motions – there are bad days and there are days that are a little better than bad.
The offense still has not found any rhythm and has the fewest goals of any team in the entire league. There is little attack that amounts to much of anything many nights. Tonight, the Islanders had no chase when they dumped the puck in the Bruins’ zone and were pushed off it when they carried in. There also is not much forecheck by the forwards, something we got all too used to seeing with Scott Gordon’s Islanders.
Worst of all with the offense, not much has been done to address any of this aside from scratching Kyle Okposo and one shuffling of lines. How Okposo responds when returned to the lineup – likely Monday – should be interesting. If he shows no fire, then the coach’s stern and eye-opening message to one of his ‘should be performing’ players will have been completely lost.
Then there’s the back half of the team. The defense is what we know it to be – slow and small – and they got burned in all the same ways they did on that Monday night in Boston. Doing them no favors was Rick DiPietro, who started behind them in net. He has made an admirable effort to try and return to form but right now, and potentially never again, he isn’t there. Most unfortunate was the turnover he gifted to Nathan Horton, proving that he still hasn’t significantly improved his puck handling despite all the talk about how many assists he has. The save percentage has dipped below .890 and, if Al Montoya isn’t ready, there’s the unreal possibility of Anders Nilsson starting Monday in Pittsburgh.
All of this is bad and it only stands to get worse. No one thinks that this team should have come out and won big tonight against the defending Champions. After a nice pre-game ceremony put on by the Islanders and MSG for legend Ed Westfall, a solid effort was really all that was needed to stem some of the negative tide.
In the post game, Coach Capuano laid into the team again for a lack of effort. It should be noted, this was the angriest we have seen him and rightfully so. It’s the same song he has sung after previous losses albeit with much, much more fire. He needs to light a fire in his troops and is doing what he can. He is curently sitting an assistant captain in the press box for three games. He has messed with the lines. He yanked the “franchise” goaltender for an emergency call-up rookie after one period tonight. The coach is running out of options. The coach has done what he can with the pieces he has in front of him.
The players as a whole are not responding. They are also at fault. They have not come to play on a regular basis and many have not performed up to expectations. The coach, in turn, has not been able to motivate his players on a nightly basis and has pulled a lot of the tricks out of his bag. And, in turn, the General Manager did not make any moves over the summer nor in the last few weeks to awaken the roster or improve the team that the coach was given.
It’s hard to pick one specific person or a specific aspect of the team that bares the load of the responsibility for where this team is now: 29th in the NHL, 35 goals in 17 games and one win better than the Columbus Blue Jackets whose trials and tribulations have been highly publicized. It’s not a stretch to think that by next week’s end the Islanders will have the worst record in the league.
On the statsheet, this is a team that is no better than it was last year. The team is no better than the year before that or the year before that even though there should be some signs of improvement. The responsibility falls on the GM for not improving the product. It also falls on a coach who cannot motivate his team and a team that cannot motivate itself and has not vastly improved, save for a few players. It’s been almost like a cascading power outage so far this season. One minute the problem is the offense, the next it’s the defense too, then the whole team and the blame quickly works its way up through the chain of command.
The hard part of this situation is that no one is entirely at fault, yet all involved share some of it. The players are not wholly at fault. Many of them have been asked to step into roles that are uncomfortable or above their skill level both this year and in years past. More, and in some cases too much, has been expected from them.
The coach is also not entirely to be faulted. He was a welcome breath of fresh air last year and helped relax a team that was tight and wound up. During this season, he has tried different solutions to try and reach the team he has been presented with. In his press conference tonight, he was asked what needs to be done. He responded, “I know what I would do,” implying that there are changes he wants made that are not getting done.
That leads us to the general manager, whom many believe to be totally at fault. While it’s true that more moves could have been made in the off-season, he believed in his players and – to an extent we are not totally sure of – cannot spend money the way many other teams do. Building through the draft has proven long and arduous thus far, however some of his best selections may still be in the pipeline. To allow him to build this team and bring in these players for years but not allow him to try and correct a 17-game skid when expectations are ratcheted up and effort is missing would not be doing his tenure justice.
So let’s bring this full circle.
Tonight was a “statement loss” as I said in the opening. In the short life span of NHL coaches, it was the kind of loss that you often see firings made after. It’s the kind of loss that results in trades just for the sake of shaking up the rosters and keeping the players on edge. To single out one person for what has transpired doesn’t really tell the whole story. More importantly, it doesn’t fix things.
One player getting dealt would be a side note in a few weeks.
One coach getting fired allows for another one to be brought in, and tuned out by, the same players.
There need to be multiple changes and multiple examples of accountability. That is generally the kind of change that happens when a new General Manager is put at the helm. They’ll bring in ‘their guys’ and swap a lot of people out.
In my opinion, that’s not what needs to happen yet. Garth Snow should be allowed the due diligence to see what he can do to right the ship. He has made long-term decisions for years and there’s nothing wrong with playing long-term. Now, the question is what decisions or moves can he make to fix things in the short-term? Let’s see what his solution is.
Now don’t get me wrong — I’m not advocating for a restart on the rebuild or to empty the locker room. But multiple changes need to happen. There’s no one coach coming in that will solve this situation. There’s no one player to acquire that would be a saving grace and there’s not one singular person in Bridgeport that will help. There’s no one player to get rid of that’s destroying the locker room. I don’t believe that one move would send the appropriate message – and I hope I’m wrong because that would make things a lot simpler and easier.
I believe that multiple moves will solve the message. Maybe the coach and a young ‘core’ player need to go to wake everyone else up. Maybe a few players, youth and veteran need to go. It may be time to cut ties with Josh Bailey. Maybe sending Brian Rolston to Bridgeport (where his salary would still count against the cap) sends the appropriate message. There are a multitude of options and under performing players from which to choose. Whomever you want to make walk the plank — and there are an awful lot of people to choose from — let them walk and then, after we see the effects of what the GM has done to remedy the situation, we can talk bigger picture.
What’s clear is that the ship is seriously sinking and it’s going down fast (but I guess to say that would imply that there was ground to be lost in the first place). The time for talk of small sample size and early season slumps are now over. It’s not a matter of points in the standings but attitudes in the locker room and on the ice. This team found an identity and a kinship after they went punch-for-punch with the Penguins last season. Now, we don’t know who they are. There’s a majority of the roster not putting in a serious effort most nights. Losing because you’re over matched is one thing. Losing because you don’t come to play game in and game out is a whole different and much more serious story.
I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this one and it’s going to take a bit for me to put them all together and polish the post up. I’ll start another post when the editing process is complete. In the meantime, here’s Capuano’s post-game.
So things haven’t gone very well so far tonight for the Islanders. After one period against the Bruins they got out shot 13-2 and out scored 3-0. One of those goals came off of Nathan Horton’s stick. The play started when Isles goalie Rick DiPietro went behind his net to play the puck. DiPietro did what every defenseman is taught not to do from birth and cleared it straight up the middle of the ice. It went right onto the tape of Horton’s stick and into the net. In the intermission, MSG’s Peter Ruttgaizer interviewed Horton and asked him to walk the audience through his goal. In the end, the two end up cracking up on camera. Yikes.
Stick tap to Keith Quinn on the video.
Update, 10:30am: Nabokov placed on IR, Nilsson up from BP.
Rick DiPietro is the lone Islanders goaltender healthy enough to play in tonight’s game at the Coliseum against the Bruins. For a moment, take in that statement in all it’s glory.
Evgeni Nabokov was injured on Thursday night against Montreal, leaving during the first period with a groin strain. The team announced on Friday that Nabokov was out indefinitely, which could open a roster spot up by putting him on IR. Call up a forward or defender, maybe?
In a curious move, the Islanders announced at 10:30pm on Friday night that Al Montoya was day-to-day with a strained hamstring (what, did it happen at Applebees’ happy hour?). It was speculated on twitter that the injury initially occurred last Thursday against Colorado, which would beg the question as to why Montoya was the backup on Tuesday against the Rangers. The injury could certainly be something that was re-aggravated in practice Friday. It’s all very murky but the main bullet point of the presentation is that Montoya will not be ready to go tonight.
All of this leaves Rick DiPietro as the Islanders only healthy goalie at the moment. Anders Nilsson or Kevin Poulin will be called up sometime later today to backup DiPietro at the Coliseum tonight. Poulin is likely the favorite for the call up, however he played Friday night for the Sound Tigers and faced 45(!) shots as the CT Whale took them to overtime. If you’ve got to go to a backup, it might be best to go to one that didn’t work major overtime the night before.
In the span of a week the Islanders goaltending corps shrink from six to three and, man, the twists and turns in net for this team never cease to amaze. Hopefully Montoya will be ready to go next week as the Islanders now play five games in eight days. The team has been careful with DiPietro and even if he wasn’t fragile, you still couldn’t expect him to play all those games. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out over the next week.
OUR WESTFALL VIDEO IS 100% SPAM FREE
The Islanders will (finally) honor Islanders great Ed Westfall prior to tonight’s game. A neat part of the night should also be Jiggs McDonald and Westfall reuniting in the broadcast booth to call the second period. Last October, Chris Botta caught up with the Isles’ Original Captain for the video you see below:
SNY PRACTICE REPORT: CAPUANO AND MOULSON
A week ago in Colorado, the Islanders jumped all over a struggling Avalanche team only to fall flat in the third period and surrender a three goal lead. Tonight at the Coliseum there were a lot of parallels to that game but the end result was certainly different. The Islanders found a way to hang on despite some great, then iffy, then great once more, play in the third period.
For two periods the Islanders had more jump than their opponents and took advantage of a few of the opportunities that they were given on a silver platter (and certainly had some excellent goals as well). Leading 3-0 halfway through the second and dictating the play to their opponents, the Habs found some energy putting the Isles back on their heels. Two goals would follow, spurring memories of blown leads from the past. This time — and they badly needed it — the story would end differently.
37 seconds after Erik Cole brought Montreal within one late in period two, Capuano sent the top line to the ice and they answered the call in a big way. John Tavares broke into the Habs zone, flipped a sweet little pass back between his legs to Matt Moulson. Moulson sent what looked like it may have been a pass to Michael Grabner heading towards the crease but it never reached Grabs, knocking off PK Subban and past Peter Budaj to put the Islanders up two.
The third period was full of stops and starts for the Islanders but what was certainly clear for much of the period was that the Habs didn’t have their legs. Not until Steve Staios took a bad boarding penalty with about four minutes to go was the pressure really applied. On the ensuring power play, Brian Gionta would slam home a goal to bring it within one. DiPietro and the Islanders withstood some serious pressure in the closing minutes but hung on for the win. DiPietro wasn’t totally solid in relief of Nabokov (injured in the first), but came up with big saves when the defense couldn’t find the puck to clear it in the final minute. After the game, DiPietro played it humble when asked about his stellar saves at the end saying, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.”
DP OR MONTOYA ON SATURDAY?
Nabokov, who started this one in net, is day-to-day with a groin injury. He left in the first after stretching across to make a save. Capuano said that he will be re-evaluated tomorrow morning. Each goalie has their cheerleaders in the fanbase and we’ll likely see the rotation move again on Saturday night.
MOTTAU BENCHED IN THE THIRD
To put it nicely coach Capuano said the team “went with a short bench in the third period.” Two of the Habs goals came square in front of Mottau who did his best to project the spirit of Bruno Gervais. You have to believe Mark Eaton will come out of the sky box on Saturday night after Mottau’s performance. Mottau was the weakest link on a night when some of the Islanders weak links clicked and the Habs’ poor play helped hide others.
BAILEY TO PANDOLFO
We saw it live and in HD tonight, so believe it even if you’re still having trouble doing so. Video of the Lockness Islanders sighting when it’s available… In all seriousness though, the line had a great game, really clicked well and Pandolfo had easily his best game of the year. Kudos to the fourth line on a job well done.
WE KNOW TAVARES IS STRONGER THIS YEAR BUT…
He looked exceptionally strong tonight. In the second, Montreal defender Alexei Emelin got called for holding Tavares. The penalty wasn’t even worth it as Tavares was still able to break through Emelin’s defense and created a great scoring chance.
For the first time in two years, the Montreal Canadiens are going to visit the Coliseum late in the year and there isn’t a blizzard in the forecast. Last year, with a state of emergency declared in Nassau County a brave 3,000 people showed up to watch the two teams. Two years ago, 6,000 fans slogged through a December snowstorm between the same two teams. So what’s a little rain in tonight’s forecast?
On the ice for the Islanders haven’t won since October 15th and things are certainly getting awfully tight around the collar. Effort — which hasn’t been seen a whole lot anyway — is not the only name of the game anymore if the team wants to be playing any meaningful games later in the season. Effort must be coupled with wins for there to be any hope in the season. The current slide is no season killer like last year’s epic fail streak was. Not yet. This isn’t insurmountable. But each loss edges the team closer to that point.
With a pair of four-day breaks to start the year, the Islanders have games-in-hand against every team in the NHL — yes, even the ones that were sent to Europe. They even have four games in hand against Carolina and Ottawa. So there’s time. There are games. But results must now start to appear. 50 and 60 minute efforts must be the standard and they must lead to wins or at least many ‘loser points.’
The turnaround, if it’s going to happen, needs to start to take place before December 1st. But that’s a tall order. Tonight, the Habs come to town and they’re a solid team and 5-3 on the road. The Bruins who ran roughshod up and down the ice against the Isles a week ago are in town on Saturday before the Isles play four divisional games next week. Tough roads ahead.
NEWS AND NOTES
Nabokov will start tonight, backed up by DiPietro. Lines are the same as Tuesday night (so I guess that means Okposo sits again).
Tests on Calvin De Haan came back with good results and he is listed day-to-day. Certainly good news there. (Fornabaio)
Black third jersey debuts on Wednesday against Philly. Here’s your gratutitous ice girls third jersey debut. Maybe the team would play better with sparkles. (Isles Official)
I’ll be in the press box for tonight’s game. For up to the minute updates and to chat during the game, be sure to follow me on Twitter.
With a humble nod to Puck Daddy, we take a look at the Islanders’ new third jerseys that debuted tonight.
The jerseys were probably the worst kept hockey secret on the Internet over the past few weeks. First leaked by someone associated with designing them and then just about as confirmed as you can get without the team acknowledging them; found by Icethetics in a River City Sports catalog. Tonight, we have official confirmation from the team at their ‘Winter Wonderland’ gala that the black and blue jerseys are, in fact, the team’s new thirds for the year.
The black third jerseys follow a trend across the league where teams are adopting black jerseys with Carolina and Boston coming to mind. Although black seems logical and well-intentioned to stick with the current trend around the league, it usually doesn’t get paired with blue. I believe that’s a fashion faux pas but I’d have to ask Sean Avery for more about fashion.
Like them or not though, any perceived failure of these jerseys by the fanbase will likely be magnified by the team’s on-ice struggles. That can’t be ignored because third jerseys are, for all intents and purposes, cash grabs. Doesn’t matter what team or league we’re talking about, in the business of sports that is what they are. For a team that could probably use the cash, any perceived or actual missed revenue due to the design itself is unfortunate.
Image Credit: Icethetics
So, it is only a jersey but with the team’s er, history with jerseys it’s certainly a topic that will be a polarizing one in Islander Country. I leave it to you, fans. What do you think of the third jersey? Will you buy it? Let your voice be heard in the poll below and in comments.
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