What can I really say that hasn't already been said by everyone else in the sports blogosphere?
Very little, to be honest. But I'll have to try. After all, this is what I want to do, and it's something I have to work at if I want to be any good at it. Of course, missing three straight games and two periods of another one isn't the way to go, but when you're a poor college student still living at home and you need a few nickels to rub together, you have to make your sacrifices.
All of that aside, it has been an incredibly rough week for both me and my team. After taking a mental health day on Monday (one of those days when you wake up and just cannot deal with the world...), I went to my two classes on Tuesday and then straight to work until a quarter to ten at night, completely missing every awful period of the Rangers-Isles game. Maybe it was for my own good. Then I worked again on Thursday until 9:45, missing Habs-Isles. Unfortunately, that was the only win this week.
And that brings us to last night's complete crapshow. 6-0. DiPietro pulled after three goals. Anders Nilsson, fresh from a callup after Al Montoya was placed on IR, suffering three GA. And a complete lack of effort, from the looks of the highlights.
So let's recap.
The Isles were able to get two of eight potential points this week. They were outscored 14-3 during their three losses. After 17 games, Mark Streit has two goals and is a team-worst -12 (though he's third on the team with 11 points). Blake Comeau and Marty Reasoner trail him with -11 each. Kyle Okposo has a whopping three points (all assists). John Tavares has had zero goals in at least his last five games (yet still leads the team with 16 points). Blake Comeau has zero POINTS. Josh Bailey, only three.
Here's the issue with this team. They have been relying on goaltending and Tavares for far too long. We all know this. And now, with Montoya AND Nabokov on IR, and Rick DiPietro (ironically) our only healthy goalie, everyone on this team must step it up. Majorly. Tavares cannot, cannot, do it all on his own. While his skating has markedly improved, and he covers the ice very well, he needs support. And Comeau and Bailey, whom I feel the Isles were very generous with in giving them chances to stay at least one or two more seasons apiece, have done very little. Flashes of brilliance, yes, but with Bailey on the bubble and Comeau coming off of a 24-goal season (he really had that many?!), neither can afford to take much more time off from scoring. Bailey's been working hard at least in games I've seen, but he loves to hold onto the puck just a bit too long and do the cutesy thing, and you cannot do that and expect to score. Same with Comeau- I can't tell you how many times I've watched him coast around the net and try the wraparound goal. Sometimes it works, but many times it doesn't.
As for Kyle... I don't know. He's just off. He's as hardworking as ever, but his shots are just missing. And he's been in the minus region for a while. However, considering some players (like Comeau) are in worse shape than he is statistically brings a bit of a question mark to the idea that he's been benched for the last three games. True, he's been a bit invisible after committing for five years to the Island and receiving an A- and we need our leaders to be examples on the ice. I still can't help but wonder if there's something in Jack Capuano's usage of Okposo that is hurting his play, though. After all, under Scott Gordon, he had his first 50-point season and scored 18 and 19 goals in two seasons. Going from a close-to-20-goalscorer (and projected above that) to jack squat in less than a year? Injury or no injury, that's concerning.
But it's more than just him. It's the entire team. There's no consistency, and after the first few names on the stat chart, it's just a big batch of zeros. What's going on, I have no idea... but it's scary. With the talent and the supposed veteran savvy we're supposed to have, I bet no one thought it'd take this long for the Isles to get settled with each other. Perhaps the issue is more than just on-ice chemistry... but that's something for another blog post.
With everything considered, it'd be nice for Cappy to take a few more chances and shake up the roster more frequently. Something's got to click with this team. And perhaps tomorrow night, against the Penguins, is a prime opportunity. The big story? Sidney Crosby's return. Of course, it couldn't be more perfect- against a team he lights up on a regular basis, who has a freshly renewed rivalry after last February (or so some say). This is a great opportunity for the Isles to wake up and bring their best to Consol Energy Center; after all, look what they did to Ovie and the Caps. At any rate, I'd like to see them do something positive. I'm trying my absolute best to remain positive for them, but now it's up to them to change their stars, as it were.
It starts now.
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