Nothing; all around after one
When I mean nothing, I mean NOTHING!
No penalties, no flow, no pressure other than the Panthers being in our zone for what seemed like the entire period. The Isles had 4 or 5 shots on net which is absolutely unacceptable.
Something that I can’t seem to get a grasp on (and I am sure I am not alone), is how a professional hockey player can continue to be more of a spectator than a participant. If I were playing and not moving my legs trying to get open for my linemates – I wouldn’t hear the end of it from my coach. To keep this going, why are the players collapsing to one side? I didn’t see that much defensive pressure from Florida to warrant such a collapse to one side. At one point, Sillinger and Hunter practically ran into each other trying to get into the zone. Why haven’t these issues been addressed?
During the pre-game interview of head coach Ted Nolan, he mentioned that even the Fathers in attendance noted the lack of presence in front of the net – and I really hope after watching their sons grow up playing hockey, that they voiced these other issues as well.
To steal a bit from Billy Jaffe, here are some keys to the game:
- Passing – long home run type passes do not work. You need to move your feet and work to get open in order to receive a pass. If you aren’t moving, you are making the job of the opposing defenders easy as it is predictable where you will pass. They close the passing lanes and they can intercept passes at will. Sound familiar?
- Traffic in front – once you put a body or two in front of the net, you take away any chance of an easy save for the opposing goalie. If he can’t see a shot coming in, he can only make a reaction type save – which leads to rebounds. Garbage type goals come from hard work depositing rebounds in front of the net. The Islanders do not have anyone willing to do the dirty work in front. This also helps on the power play as you cannot always have the perfect passing play to get the goalie moving. See Hunter’s goal from Wednesday night.
- Skate Skate Skate – the Islanders cannot continue to play the roll of spectator. Forecheck, Backcheck and skate through the neutral zone. These 3 things lead to turning the puck over – something the Isles have fallen victim to more then they have had go in their favor.
Hopefully as we go into the Second period, the Isles can get a bit of momentum and flow in their favor. Otherwise, it will be a very boring game. It’s unfair to have DiPietro bear the brunt of the workload as much as he does.
Second Period
8:41 PM Penalty shot awarded – wrong call THAT WAS ALL PUCK FIRST
Thank god Rick saved it
8:43 PM Wow, scary play. Guerin drove a Panther into the wall awkwardly. Could’ve been worse – they called Boarding.
8:45 PM Power Play goal Weiss. Panthers lead 1-0
8:53 PM Down a man again – Hooking
8:55 PM Down 2 men for 20 Seconds
9:01 PM Guerin and Allen come to blows – not really any kind of decision.
9:02 PM Islanders Power Play!
9:07 PM Gervais takes a penalty late in the period, it will carry over into the 3rd
Overall – a better effort, but not good enough. Continue to generate shots, but they need to stay out of the box.
2-0 Panthers in 3rd
9:29 PM One penalty set to expire, the Isles take another.
9:32 PM Power Play goal Panthers.
I just want to yell FREEZE, like a coach would at practice – to show them where they are positionally. They had all 4 guys down low on that play.
9:41 PM GOLDEN opportunity here on the Power Play
9:44 PM Opportunity wasted – not even a shot on goal
9:48 PM Another Power Play – get some shots
10:00 PM Empty net goal to ice the cake for the Panthers
Nothing good came out of this one. I don’t have anything else to say that I haven’t already said. DiPietro did all he could – the rest of the team completely let him down and they better come out with some fire tommorow. Whatever momentum they had at the start of the season, has all but completely left this team. A shell of it’s former self if you will.
Have a good night everyone – I’m gonna go relax.
5 minutes into the 2nd period and still only 8 shots on goal versus 16 for FLA.
How has Tambellini been looking?
Great save by DiPi on the power play. He’s been real solid tonight…thus far.
Tambellini looks great so far, had a good chance in front earlier.
There IS nothing really to say other than if they don’t right the ship quickly, as in THIS WEEK, they can all start booking early April Tee times. And some of our one year contractors can call for moving vans. Ok.. I’m just a tad angry.