Islanders chatter

TIME FOR A RUN!!

Well the Islanders made it interesting on Friday night, but in the end they got the "W". D.P. got his first win of the season and despite a couple of starting defenseman out hurt (Campoli and Bouchard) they played fairly well against the defending stanley cup champions. The offense is starting to click and the team seems to be slowly getting Nolan's system down. I think the Islanders ending the Sabres win streak on Thursday would be an excellent way to tell the hockey world they are for real. Buffalo is trying to match the all time best start of 10-0 in that game. It would be great to slam the door on that record.
Poti got the game winner just into overtime on Saturday night. He has been playing much better the last couple of games on defense, and it is nice to see him chip in on the offensive side. I am still concerned about him giving up the puck in a crucial spot of a big game, but so far he is doing very well. They always have him paired up with a stay home guy which helps. We still seem to be struggling on the penalty kill and that needs to be addressed if the "run" is going to happen. The new guys seem to be clicking and Yashin having all this talent around him is helping him get off to the best start for him as an Islander. Sillinger is not only putting the puck in the net; he is winning almost 60% of his face-offs. That is up there with the best of the league (he was ranked 3rd the last I checked). Like I said in my first Blog ... This is a very solid team...now they have too prove it.

sidenote: Bobby Clarke finally resigned as the GM for the Flyers. Is anyone a bigger Moron then Bobby Clarke? The guy has lost more cups for this franchise as a GM then he won as a player. On his way out instead of just saying I did not do a good job etc.... he blames it on others??

"I felt strongly from the end of last season on, I don't know if the right word is burnt out or tired, but the decisions that had to be made, I was not willing to make them," Clarke said. "I was letting other people make them. I know I didn't do the right jobfor this organization."

What decisions Bobby? How about getting a friggin goalie when u had the best team in the league for almost a decade. Lindros would be hailed as one of the greatest players ever if he had a friggin goalie. Let's see if we can win a cup with Hextall when he is 40 or Garth Snow... unreal. I HATED the Flyers back then b/c they were easily the best team in Hockey. Their only weakness was Goalie and B.C. would never get a top notch net minder.... then on his way out he blames his failures on phantom "other people"... what a total load of B.S.

3 games - 5 points... If you build it..

Islanders lost a tough game in a shoot out last night. While it would appear to be a set back we have to look at who they were playing and again understand that this team has only had 6 games together. Wait till 10 games before you start to get upset.
Nashville is not the same team they were last year. This team is STACKED with talent. Paul Kariya, Sullivan, Arnott, JP Dumont (remember him? We draft him and when he gets good trade him.), lehtonon, Sullivan, Suter, Hordichuk, Timonen, etc. This is a Very solid team with an unbelievable goalie in Vokoun. I am happy with 1 point. The Islanders had many chances, but could not get the puck in the net. They were skating well most of the game and crashed the net often. Isles had 2 goals taken away because the net was off its moorings (the net was off the moorings about 10 times last night and We never got a power play out of it). I will point out that any player with the last name Tootoo who decides to make his number 22 deserves to be creamed everytime he steps on the ice….. There is no cutsie in hockey!!

The defense: Poti actually had a very solid game...I was pleasantly surprised. This is his type of game that stressed speed more then anything else. Radek Martinek is really becoming a very talented defensemen. He skates like Kenny Johnson and he hits. Hill played well again. Witt had his worst game as an Islander. He seemed to be struggling to keep up the speed and had very few hits. He also had another penalty.

Offense: I was happy to see Sillinger score again. I think he is going to be a 35+ goal scorer for the Isles this year. We really need Satan and Hunter to get it going as well. The good thing is we have a lot of guys who can put some pucks in the net. Sillinger, Yashin, Kozlov, York, Satan, Blake, Bates, and Hunter are all capable of scoring 20 goals or more. We also could still see a young gun in the system like Ryan O’Marra or Tambollini come up and get in the mix. They just need to have a couple of guys clicking at all times. This team is very well balanced. They do not need points to come just from the first or second line. They have Talent on all 4 lines.

Goalie: Dunham had another great game. He stopped over 30 shots and robbed a couple of Predators on shots they thought were clearly in the net. The best thing about Snow being the GM is the Islanders got to look at a few talented goalies in their system and choose the best as DP back up. I will add that before the shootout Dunham took a very hard slap shot in the face that had him down on the ice for about 5 minutes. He finished the game and OT, but did not do very well in the shootout. Sullivan and Kariya both beat him on a one timer over the glove hand. Vokoun on the other hand was very sharp the whole game including the shootout. He stopped Satan shot after a move that I thought clearly had him beat.

Overall I am still happy with the play of the team... just need to keep the energy to the level it was the last few games for all 3 periods.

sidenote: Renney was asked before he played the Devils if he was hoping to get revenge for last years loss in the first round of the playoffs. He said he did not even think about the playoff loss till he read the paper in the morning. Does anyone believe this? Do you really think that the Rangers did not circle every game they play against the team that swept them in the first round of the playoffs and put their superstar on the IR. I remember when Isles lost to Toronto in 7 games. I was circling games the day the schedule came out. Don't kid yourself Renney everyone knows your dying to beat the Devils ...no matter what you say to the press.

Isles get 2 points

The Islanders finally picked up a couple of points last night. It took OT and penalty shots to finally get it done, but they are on the board. I am relatively pleased with the performance of this team thus far even though the result is a 1-3 record. This team has all the pieces that are needed to make a very good TEAM. The toughness added with the off season pick ups will help this team a lot as the season progresses. I like seeing MANY guys sticking up for Yashin and blake when an opponent takes a shot at them. This team will take some time to gel, but the overall make up is a VERY solid team.
Brendan Witt has taken what seems to be a million penalties in the first 4 games (granted many of them were ridiculous calls). The team actually had 5 of their 6 penalties in the Anaheim game in the 3rd period which allowed the Ducks (don't call them mighty) back in the game. That said my initial thought of Bredan Witt is I love this guy. The Isles have needed a big time physical defensemen and he and Hill are filling that need very well. I am very excited about the depth at defense. The only addition I am unhappy about is Poti. He is a decent point man on the power play, but he continues to give the puck away 3 to 4 times a game. He did this a lot on the Rangers. Martinek, Campoli, Gervais, and a helathey Zhitnik is one heck of a defensive squad (not even mentioning Bouchard who is hurt right now.. he was the best defenseman for the Isles last year). I am very happy with the defense as a whole.
The new and improved offense looks pretty good. They will struggle for a little while getting to know each other, but I like the players. If nothing else we do not have the guys who will forget how to skate when they are in the defensive zone (Kvasha..enough said). They have some great character guys with the new additions which they desperately needed. The Isles getting a 4th goal past Guigerre to tie it up las night was very good sign. Giggy was averaging a Goals against of about 1 coming into this game. The fact that Isles got 5 including the shoot out is a very good sign. Kozlov getting the shootout goal was nice to see because you heard a lot about how He was one of the best in the league. I think all the fans on the Island will be pleasantly surprised by Christmas. Nolan said it would take at least 10 games for these players to get to know each other... so give them a little time.