The Islanders are set to take on the Boston Bruins tonight on their second of seven games on home ice. This home ice is in an arena once dubbed “Fort Never-Lose”, but these days it’s the quite opposite “Fort Never-Win” brandishing a 2-7-0 record at home.
Hopefully, Team A shows up, as this game is nationally broadcast.
It’s a sad state of affairs as I mentioned the other day, as you never know which team may show up, game by game and even period to period. That’s just what we saw against the Hurricanes on Sunday night. The Islanders looked good for the first twenty, ok for part of the second period and lost in the third. Capuano struggles to find answers and a remedy for the varied play, going so far as to call out his team in the media claiming (paraphrasing) “Individualistic play belongs in golf and tennis” and also “No emotion in the room.” I don’t want to make excuses about it being a back to back game, as the Hurricanes were in the same position. Perhaps the energy of Nabokov’s well earned shutout in Buffalo took everything out of them – no idea.
It’s a shame that the team only managed a solid 20 minutes in front of Poulin, I thought he played well but he obviously needs some time to get up to NHL speed. It’s been a hot minute since he was last up with the Islanders, and that ended in injury.
Keys to success tonight, limiting the Bruins big guys travel through the neutral zone, blocking (ouch-Chara) shots and clogging every shooting lane possible. Support Nabokov, play smart defensively. Easier said than done, I know.
DiPietro Reports
I have yet to post my opinion on this DiPietro mess that has finally come to head, but he’s reported to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL. Not that I expected anything else, but the second stage of his wayward journey is under way.
Look for more on this in the coming days.
