This is always the toughest time to blog about a specific team – it’s one thing when you can’t ever seem to find the time to keep things as updated as you like, it’s a completely different thing when nothing seems to be going right for the team. What is there to say that hasn’t been already said about this slide? Slides are SUPPOSED to be fun….
Eight games now, eight.
Last week when the Islanders made the trip to Ottawa, I addressed the lack of offense (and defense) by throwing some scary statistics out there. Well, that’s only gotten worse in the games following my post.
During the first five games of the losing streak there have been 10 goals for, 25 against.
In the next three losses, the Islanders have scored 2 goals and given up 7. For those following along at home – allow me to clarify; that is 12 goals FOR the Islanders, while ALLOWING 32.
The last two games were definitely a better effort, but in the game in Anaheim last night the Islanders appeared unable to hit the broad side of a barn. I know that’s a bit of a cliche, but come on.
I have a really neat app for my iPad (NHL Game Center Premium) that allows me to view the shots recorded for each period. This is something that has bothered me for quite some time now – if you look at the game last night in Anaheim, they are almost all perimeter shots or from crazy angles (low percentage shots, I will see if I can post screen shot).
Luckily for the Islanders, their opponent tonight – the San Jose Sharks, are also struggling offensively so if there was a time and place that the skid was likely to stop it would be tonight. One stat that is in the Islanders favor, they have outscored the Sharks 87-78 over the series 24 game history.
Perhaps this skid will never, ever, see nine.
