"The Jets franchise, who once resided in Atlanta, has 20 wins over the Islanders, and 12 of them coming on Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum ice."
This sentence above comes from Get Real Hockey on Tumblr, and it explains a bit about last night. New jersey, new city, new name, whatever, this team still somehow has a stranglehold over the Islanders when they come to their house. Stats or not, though, it still made for some frustrating-as-hell hockey to watch.
I won't be too harsh. I mean, these guys did play a good game- for 20 minutes, anyway. Actually, I'm more inclined to say those 20 minutes weren't concentrated into one period- they would have flashes of brilliance for about thirty seconds and then lose it completely again. And it was not for lack of trying that they lost, though some could argue that the energy was not there for enough of the game- they did have some good chances that Andrej Pavelec was just up to the task on. (Then again, I'm sure any goalie would be up to the task of stopping a shot directly to his chest or pads instead of around him...) His teammates also stepped up; Randy Jones, Nik Antropov and Jim Slater were all temporarily benched after being blasted by shots they were blocking (and I'm pretty sure at least two of them were thanks to the shot of Mark Streit, which I would not want to get in the way of either).
One sequence comes to mind: The Tavares line was out, and they had crashed the net beautifully, but Pavelec would make one save, then another, then a rebound that missed the net, and then a rebound that went OVER the net. Clear-cut scoring chances that had absolutely no finish whatsoever. That shift in particular made me scream in frustration at my computer, just because it's a recurring theme that NO ONE wants to see again, least of all the players themselves, I know.
It also blows for Rick DiPietro, who got another start tonight and showed up admirably, making 23 saves on 25 shots. (Yeah, the Islanders also outshot the Jets 34-25. What does that say about the finish?) These guys are going to have to do something in front of each of their goalies. This isn't the first time the Isles have had a three-headed monster to deal with in goal, but it doesn't matter; each of them has been playing well, and since Capuano has made clear that he's not choosing any specific one of them to be #1 anytime soon (see end of article), the guys in front are going to have to adjust to whoever is in net for a start. Or perhaps Cappy will have to make some adjustments to his lines.
The only bright spot about this game? No penalties! Save for a fighting major Travis Hamonic served at the end of the first period after dropping the gloves with Evander Kane (who was really annoying me last night- scored a goal, got into a fight after making Hammer lose his stick and then took a penalty shot- thank goodness Ricky stopped him. End rant.). Though it's frustrating that on the most disciplined night of the Isles' young season, they also fail to score goals, maybe it's a good thing that no penalty kills were added to the already mounting headache they had to deal with on the ice.
Other than that, all I have to say is... come on, Isles, get it together. You're playing the Capitals on Sunday, the defending champion Bruins on Monday (I don't care if they're currently in the basement of the Eastern Conference, they're still dangerous), and you'll have to travel a lot more this month. Let's see some goals and some points, huh? Other people may be lamenting over how badly our team sucks right now, but it's still early. As long as the Isles can shake this funk now before it stretches to ten games, we can still focus on that p-word everyone wants to say (but is too scared to... who am I kidding, playoffs).
I still have faith.
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