You may have noticed that I did not post any thoughts on the clunker the Islanders put up on Thursday. I will go into things a bit today, I have had enough time to decompress and really analyze where I wanted to take the discussion.

The sky is not falling, the bottom has not fallen out and there is no need to start a Tavares watch! These three common message board themes are a ridiculous line of thinking. It’s to the point where I visit message boards less and less because it’s the same rhetoric repeated over and over. Look, the team is not playing great - but we are only 6 games into the season - SIX! Six games is not an adequate cross section to determine the overall season outcome.

Things take time, they do. You cannot throw together a team with a new coach and EXPECT instant success - sure we can all hope, but I hope I run into $10-million dollars today.

Islanders fans have been calling for a rebuild for a long time, this is part of the process. Players like Okposo, Tambellini, Gervais, Campoli, Hillen, Pock and Nielsen are not going to be overnight successes. For the most part this is the first REAL chance any of them have had under any head coach the Isles have had. Everyone needs to learn the system, stick to the system and have it be second nature to play the system in order for it to be successful.

I saw glimpses of positive things during the Dallas game, that’s even without the rose colored glasses. Bill Guerin went to the front of the net - AND scored. Mark Streit scored a pretty back door goal on the power play. Jon Sim - well he FINALLY scored, maybe that monkey is off his back. The veterans called a team meeting - something that needed to be done. That shows me that this team cares - losing is not acceptable and neither is tanking regardless of any amount of first round draft picks. I also noticed the forecheck becoming increasingly effective. Less dump and chasing and more puck control along the boards is giving them offensive zone control often enough that they should be looking at more scoring chances.

With the positives, there are also negatives.

Brendan Witt lost to injury, although everyone around the organization is quiet about it. I saw him on the receiving end of a nasty knee-on-knee collision and knew it wouldn’t be good. He was grimacing and had a problem putting weight on it. In his place - Jack Hillen, although Andy Sutton is about a week away from returning. Witt was chased down on the way to room Six by Greg Logan - although Witt wasn’t very chatty.

Bad defensive breakdowns lead to too many virtual empty goals.

Penalties - they need to stay out of the penalty box at all costs.

Power Play, 5 shots and 5 posts on one power play…..close - but no cigar.

Positioning without the puck, I am fairly certain the reason why Gordon had no voice during his press conference was because he was giving his team a stern talking to about this subject. The Islanders were HORRIBLE without the puck. Bad positioning causes bad turnovers, bad defensive support and almost zero chance of a pass landing on the tape. Last but not least - you will have plenty of trouble with a breakout if you can’t find an open man.

Lastly, taking a bench minor while on the power play. That just cannot happen, especially on a two man advantage.

I can tell that the team is coming around, but I just hope that injuries do not destroy whatever forward momentum the team has accomplished - however small it may be.

You may or may not have noticed that I said I would post some final thoughts when I got home from the game on Saturday. I sort of lied, but unintentionally. When I got home, I completely fell asleep on my couch - been working my tail off lately.

Here are some of the notes that I jotted down during the game:

Freddy Meyer lands a beautiful submarine check early in the first period! Great to see FMIV has the same timing as last season!

The team looks like it has an identity and also sticks up for one another. While the team last year all stood up for each other, unlikely players are getting involved; Tambellini and Gervais for example.

Defensive pressure in the first period was great, the team lined up across the blueline and forced the Blues to dump and chase. Later in the game, they stopped doing the same things and the Blues were able to put more pressure on the Islanders.

When the pressure was on, the Isles forced the Blues to take 3 consecutive icings - without the tv timeouts, the line for the Blues was absolutely shot.

Joey MacDonald didn’t look like a back up goaltender, he was playing like a true number one and was standing on his head. One of the biggest highlights was stopping Keith Tkachuk on a breakaway, another when a nifty move made room by one of the Blues forwards with a cross slot pass. MacDonald had a point blank save and covered the puck.

Overall, I felt the Islanders played one heck of a game - they are really starting to excel at Gordon’s brand of hockey. Hopefully as time moves on, the little areas that need adjustment will be addressed and the Isles will play hockey like the first period for a full 60 minutes. Scott Gordon is likely looking at his first victory game puck, and thinking the exact thing.

Photos

Here are some quick photos of Seven Mary Three and Kevin Connolly dropping the puck! You can see more in the gallery.

I started this post yesterday, never had the chance to get it posted. I know it’s almost irrelevant now that it’s two days old! Here it is anyway.

Hockey was definately back last night, but the Devils were certainly the better team - shutting out the Isles in typical NJ fashion.

In all fairness, the Devils roster featured marquee players with names like Brodeur, Elias, Zubrus, and the always ON Zach Parise, compared to lesser knowns Skinner, Fritz, Sugden, Hillen, MacLean, Colliton, Jackman, and MacDonald for the Islanders. It felt like the Isles would be doomed from the start.

It was slow going at first, not much flow - even the shot clock wasn’t working as it was clearly preseason for everyone in the arena. The ice girls were also shaking off the rust, the linesmen requested a shovel three times to clean up their mess after they did their thing. Once the teams began to open things up, the officials started the preseason crackdown on obstruction calling Streit twice, sandwiched around one by Witt. The Isles were finally given a powerplay of their own, only to give up a shorthanded goal to Parise. Not a great start to what is supposed to be a vastly improved powerplay. To steal a term from Ken Dick of Okposo Net, it was SOI or Same Old Islanders.

There were glimpses of good things to come - Tambellini looked great, as did his entire line including Nielsen and Hunter. Comrie was all over the place, although I commented to Tony of Islesnation that he still skates like he has a brick in his pants. Just my witty observation, but he was flying - even for Mike Comrie. Kyle Okposo continued to shine, being really strong on the puck and being flat out dominant in the corners. At one point he was leveled, naturally the enforcers wouldn’t accept those types of liberties on the younger players, so we saw three first period bouts.

Brandon Sugden continued to make his case for a roster spot, throwing a series of devastating rights at New Jersey’s Bryce Salvadore - where we saw what all the internet buzz on Brandon was all about. Tim Jackman challenged Sheldon Brookbank, they took a few moments to situate themselves but Jackman was eventually wrestled to the ground. Eight seconds later, the Islanders giant - Mitch Fritz threw down with the Devils Michael Rupp. Fritz landed several enormous right hands to Rupp’s face that made his legs wobble and the fight ended as the officials stepped in. Fritz triumphantly headed off the ice as the period was drawing to a close, to the cheers if the Islanders faithful.

The second period was OK, yes - just OK. More hitting, better passing and some offensive chances. Same as the third period - nothing really going offensively. The one thing that stuck out during both periods was the movement of the puck back to the blue line. The defense seemed very poised with the puck - although there wasn’t enough shooting. Shooting and the lack-there-of was a common theme throughout the game.

During Gordon’s post game interview he seemed very relaxed being it was only a pre-season game. He came into the room sans jacked and tie, something Ted Nolan never did. You could see the beads of sweat on Gordon’s forehead - almost as if he was flailing his arms during his post game speech. When asked what he thought, Gordon replied:

“I saw a lot of good things, because there are a lot of things that we can talk about tomorrow,” said Gordon. “This exhibition season’s for getting everyone on the same page so there’s a lot of things we cover in practice that game situations don’t bring up. The good part is that we want to make the mistakes now and we want to show the guys on tape that this is why we weren’t efficient in what we needed to do. For me, that’s an important part of the process. I thought we played tentative tonight, where we were supposed to have patience. It was very inconsistent from that side.”

He them quipped about there being “three different zones” to worry about in hockey, laughed and said “We have stuff to work on in each zone” - to the enjoyment of everyone in Room Six. Thankfully, there is ample opportunity before the season starts to fine tune the way the team works as a unit with the new system.

Never really seeing this “overspeed” system in person, I can tell that it will be effective when everyone is in position and doing their part. Lots of quick short passes on the rush, it seemed as if New Jersey couldn’t quite tell when and where plays would occur, the only thing was - the Islanders would misplay the puck because the passed would be a bit off or get snarled up in traffic. All the things a team shaking the rust off and learning a new system would experience.

During the interviews in the locker room, something stuck me as absolutely amazing. The maturity that Kyle Okposo gained from last year up until this season was astounding. Not only that, but his ability to deal with the press seemed better this year, as if the spotlight didn’t really bother him as it did last season. He answered Logan’s questions with ease - but the best part was how he answered them. He knows what he needs to do (likely in part because of Gordon and the veterans in the locker room), to me - I know Kyle will be successful in this league. He is going to have a great rookie season, even if the team doesn’t have as good of a season.

Good evening - in case anyone was wondering what was going on with my gallery today, there was a bit of a hiccup after my host updated the server. I had narrowed down the problem and my host made the necessary changes to get it back online. Anyways, just wanted to talk a bit about the game last night.

Right from the drop of the puck, the Islanders were able to keep the pressure on the Flyers - whom seemed a bit snake bitten having lost to NJ the night prior. The Islanders were able to take a 1-0 lead after the puck to a ridiculously funny bounce and caught Nittymaki out of position. Richard Park corralled the rebound and put the puck (and himself) into the net. After a brief review the goal was determined as good and we were on our way.

Second period the Isles came out and the Park, Okposo, Comeau line looked great (as they have the past several games) and Okposo would show strong puck possession and Comeau would make the score 2-0. Goals by Brier and Lupul would tie the game, and eventually Franz Nielsen playing in his first game after missing several - would get the go ahead tally (and secure the crowd with FREE Wendy’s Chili!). The lead wouldn’t last however, as the Flyers would storm back and tie the game again on a goal by Richards. Overtime would be pretty uneventful, despite a carry over power play for the Islanders for virtually the entire 2 minutes, and then being awarded a late over time power play - they couldn’t convert.

Into the shootout, Ken Rosenblatt of Islanders Outsider and I were discussing who the probable first three shooters for the Islanders would be - we collectively nailed all three; Nielsen, Okposo and Park. However, the outcome of each we did not guess - as they all failed to put their club on the board. Daniel Briere would be the sole scorer in the shootout for the Flyers - and would earn the extra (and much needed) point.

Wade Dublielewicz would make 51 stellar saves in his performance, but it wouldn’t be enough in the end. The “taxi-squad” as they have been affectionately named in the media - continues to shine. Okposo, Bergenheim, Neilsen, Spiller, Colliton, and Reiger are all making their case for full time work or at least an extended look next season. With the Flyers getting points in their last several games - it should make the games later next week against the Devils and Rangers very, very exciting. The Rangers are likely to find themselves in a must-win situation - and it will be ever so exciting to watch.

Okposo Watch - Game 6

As I have been doing in Kyle’s time up with the big club, here are his stats from the game against the Flyers:

Total Shifts: 19
Time on Ice: 17:40
Power Play Time: 1:12
Penalty Kill Time: :00
Average Shift: :55
Shots: 3
Blocked Shots: 1
Missed Shots: 2
Assists: 1
Points: 1
Takeaways: 1
Giveaways: 0
Hits: 1
+/-: +2

It’s been really interesting to watch Okposo’s time on ice increase game after game, he has also been shooting the puck more (although he’s been having a problem actually getting them on net) but his confidence will get there. He continues to play a well rounded game and show poise on the puck, much like Comeau. One thing about Okposo, you know when you see that Isles sweater in front of the net or scoring position - it’s none other than Kyle.

I know I am impressed, as are many of the other fans in my section.

Sorry for the late recap of the Pittsburgh game from Thursday - quite frankly I only saw the first period as I passed out for the rest. Looking at the recap, I didn’t miss anything exciting surrounding the offensive play of the Islanders - but I did notice Miroslav Satan and Sean Bergenheim each getting fighting majors. Something else I noticed - a leagues worst 15th shorthanded goal against, this team really needs special teams help in a bad way next season.

It seems moving to the center position has really sparked some sort of edge to the play of Satan, he can however be looking for a new contract from teams other than the Islanders next season so this doesn’t really surprise me. It does annoy me a little bit, because we really needed this type of play from him down the stretch and he was just a body on the ice at times. He has been great defensively this season, but injuries and bad bounces have really limited his offensive output this year. Satan is the type of guy who can disappear for stretches, as streaky as they come - so it’s nice to see him play gritty hockey, he just needs to find the net and someone will have a great winger.

Sean Bergenheim continues to impress every single game - although it’s not always on the score sheet. His timely hits, his positional play and the way he has become somewhat of an antagonist on the ice has really been a huge positive. He has also shown some toughness and a willingness to drop the gloves when the need arises, which is something this team needs in a bad way. With this season under his belt he should come into training camp next season beaming with confidence and should be able to pot anywhere from 20-25 goals.

Philadelphia comes to town tonight after a tough shootout loss last night to the New Jersey Devils, I expect them to come in and really work for those two points. Word on the street is Franz Nielsen will be back tonight and we should see the return of Bruno Gervais in the next few days.

Okposo Watch - Game 5

So, this is a late update (after game 6 actually) - but here are Kyle’s stats from Thursday:

Total Shifts: 18
Time on Ice: 15:41
Power Play Time: 3:34
Penalty Kill Time: :43
Average Shift: :52
Shots: 3
Blocked Shots: 1
Assists: 0
Points: 0
Takeaways: 0
Giveaways: 0
Hits: 0
+/-: -2

What a complete game tonight!

We had a first period short handed goal by Richard Park - assisted by none other than Kyle Okposo. We had a power play goal by Bergenheim and even two even strength goals by players who need to find the back of the net more - Bill Guerin and Trent Hunter. For whatever reason, the Penguins were not sticking to the game plan that makes them so successful, they were trying to be overly physical and it hurt them. They often found themselves scrambling to get back into position and took more penalties tonight then I have seen them take in the previous match-ups.

Conklin attempted to make up for the lack of offensive power tonight, but the Islanders really peppered him with QUALITY shots. In the previous matchup, the Islanders took shots from the perimeter which any goaltender would love all game long. Tonight the Islanders drove to the net and shot from the slot area - something that was missing during long stretches this season.

I don’t know what Ted Nolan said to the team since their deflating loss to the Flyers last night. So I tried find out - but my question came out like something sounding like gibberish, due to my stuttering and stumbling, so when he answered me all was he said he was that he couldn’t give up all his secrets.

Once in the locker room, PR Guru and “Blog Father” Chris Botta patted me on the back and complimented me on my “great question”. Yea yea, the coach and the rest of the press got a chuckle out of it - but I am human and suffered from a momentary loss of clarity, mind control and apparently - English speaking ability. I happened to be standing next to Greg Logan of Newsday at the time, so I asked him if he heard my “super question”. He told me to “Shake it off, it happens to all of us from time to time”. Jim Baumbach, also of Newsday told me through instant messenger that it’s not anything to worry about, although he can see my concern as a blogger looking to remain as professional as possible. When I told him I intended to poke fun at myself in my blog, he said that was the best part about these situations - self deprecation. So there you have it - it’s out in the open and it feels great?! Maybe not.

Fast forward about 15 minutes later and Dee, Tom and I run into GM Extroidonaire Garth Snow walking to his car. We began to chit chat with him about owning large vehicles and gas prices when I realized I was able to have a conversation with him and not feel entirely short. I was standing on a high part of the grass - so, I mentioned this (for those who don’t know during the trade deadline I had a conversation with him about height and how I was entirely too small for the NHL (a vailed attempt at getting him to offer me a ATO contract ::snickers::)) so with that he steps up on the grass to knock me down a peg or two. Strike two for Mike tonight says Dee. Thanks, it’s just one of those days I guess.

Back to hockey talk (or tawk as we Long Islanders would like to say), the game tonight is one of those that really makes you scratch your head. The style and competitiveness of this team varies from period to period, game to game and even minute to minute sometimes. Much like my line of questioning tonight, it’s really hard to wrap your mind around completely. However, with a lineup chock full of inexperience at the NHL level it is definately a positive sign when confidence is there more often than not - so I will take what I can get.

Okposo Watch - Game 4

Go Kyle Go! I don’t know how many times I said that tonight, as he was SO STRONG on the puck and pulled off some really confident moves through traffic. With each shift, this kid just gets more confident and plays like he has been in the league for years. Between him, Comeau and Bergenheim I really don’t know who to be excited about more next season. They really give fans something to be hopeful for in the future!

Here are Kyle’s stats from tonight’s game:

Total Shifts: 16
Time on Ice: 13:50
Power Play Time: 2:22
Penalty Kill Time: :36
Average Shift: :51
Shots: 1
Blocked Shots: 1
Assists: 1
Points: 1
Takeaways: 1
Giveaways: 0
Hits: 1
+/-: +1

Fairly respectable numbers, although his average shift time decreased from last night’s game - it is due to the decreased special team time. In 4 games with the Islanders, Okposo has 1 goal and 2 assists for 3 points - which is almost exactly the scoring pace he was on down in Bridgeport. So much for those saying Kyle’s game wouldn’t translate well into the NHL! However, having said that, 4 games is 4 games and we will reserve complete judgment until he is allowed to perform at an extended pace next season.

So, 4 points in 3 games isn’t too shabby - especially given we stole the points from division rivals/leaders. I am sure that all the Rangers fans were devout Isles fans tonight - just don’t get too comfy just yet boys - we have 4 points to take from you later on next week. The role of spoiler may not be the best, but it can sure be fun.

For now, I must bid adieu - this bumbling idiot needs to get some much needed rest.

Poll Answer!

For those wondering when I would post the answer to the poll, answer directly below the poll results:

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The answer is: Jeff Tambellini

Scored his first NHL goal on March 14 at New Jersey (Brodeur) with the Islanders