After the way the Islanders lost to the Rangers Thursday night, it was only a matter of time before head coach Ted Nolan would tinker with his lineup. The Islanders have not scored more then 2 goals for 11 straight games, and almost all of those have been decided by 1 goal. Luckily for the Islanders, the defense and goaltending has been strong enough to gain points in many of them.
In today’s Newsday, Greg Logan reports that Nolan has decided to shake up his power play unit by moving Satan to the first unit with Comrie and Fedotenko. The second unit would feature forwards Bill Guerin, Mike Sillinger and Trent Hunter. He claims he will “work with what he’s got” for now – which hints at either the possibility of a trade or call-up from the Islanders’ AHL affiliate Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Per Greg Logan’s Newsday article,
But he admitted that he’s considering the possibility of recalling forward Jeff Tambellini from Bridgeport, although it won’t be for Saturday night’s game against Atlanta at Nassau Coliseum.
The lack of scoring has really begun to worry me, because we cannot continue to score one and two goals a game – that’s not what wins a hockey game. As it has already been said, they need to score a goal or two with their special teams, to give them that extra lift. How much longer will GM Garth Snow sit by and not do something about the struggling offense? One never knows – but we do know he is more than capable of pulling the trigger on a surprise trade.
I think Garth is working the phones behind the scenes to pull something off. We need a scorer and someone who can do it consistently.
Sparadiso8116
NYISLANDERCOUNTRY.COM
I’m just getting back into the Isles so I’m still very new to all the players, BUT WHY IS GUERIN ON THE SECOND LINE? Isn’t he the captain and their biggest signing in the off-season?
Shouldn’t Guerin be on the first line?
Guerin hasn’t been hot at all, but we don’t really have a clear first or second line. It’s more of line 1a and 1b.