I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The Bruins had just embarrassed the Maple Leafs with a score of 7 - 0 to put the defending Stanley Cup champions back in the headlines. They weren’t going to back down. They didn’t.
Did the Isles have a morning skate? I can’t tell by Art Staple’s Tweets from yesterday. (You’re slacking Art!) But maybe they’re not being worked hard enough. Maybe there’s a reason why, as Jack put it in the post game “We were lazy going back for pucks, all five guys, and we had no execution of breaking the puck out of our own end.”
@StapeNewsday tweeted out this gem from Capuano’s post game report: : "We just had some guys that didn't show up. I was real disappointed in some guys' work ethic tonite"
So were we.
Do some on the team not understand the urgency of getting back into the race for points? Sure it’s only November, but at this rate the Isles will be out of any playoff contention by December and the fans that had backed them so far will find other ways of spending their hard earned entertainment dollars.
Face it, the promotions the Isles have had this season are wonderful. But if there is no hope of seeing a winning game, will that be enough to keep them coming in? As Mike Milbury (and every other hockey ops guys says) “Winning cures everything.”
While Evgeni Nabokov has been touted as the Isles “best goaltender” based on his past history, he certainly didn’t look it during the first period. The first goal went into his net at only 1:32 of the first. By 1:35 the gloves dropped and Matt Martin and Adam McQuaid were clawing at each other like bears on skates. Not too many real punches were thrown but there was a lot of trying to rip the helmet off the other in order to have a better target. I was cringing.
Fights are supposed to spark a team into action, perhaps it did. But it was obvious the Bruins wanted it more.
Matt Moulson, sporting a black eye with that new growth above his lip tied the score at one at about the six minute mark of the first -- and there was hope. But with Travis Hamonic in the box for cross checking, the Bruins scored two quick goals by Horton and Sequin and that was it for Nabby for the night.
With Al Montoya in net for the Isles, there seemed to be a little spark and Michael Grabner scored the Isles last goal of the night at 18:36 of the first. He is benefiting from having JT and Moulson as line mates. (He also had an assist on Moulson’s goal)
Now, if indeed that game in Boston was supposed to be a showcase for the disgruntled Russian net minder, it didn’t exactly work out. There were rumblings on the net yesterday that GM Garth Snow has been asking for a second rounder for the experienced goal tender, but after last night’s 14 minute preview, he will have to rethink his asking price.
I didn’t get to hear the much anticipated chatter between Mike Milbury and his co-hosts. The family members in my house decided that checking out ring tones and playing stupid you tube videos was more entertaining. I wanted to kill them.
So how did the Islanders have four more power play chances and not score any power play goals? I’m pretty sure Jack is asking them the same thing.
The only good thing that can be said about last night’s game is -- They stayed out of the box in the second and third period. Unless that also means they played with no passion or as Jack put it, they were lazy.
There are two days off before the Isles face the Avalanche. Should Jack call up anyone from Bridgeport and sit someone else? Mike Mottau has already been a healthy scratch more times than he’d like to admit. Who will be next to sit? Who isn’t doing their job the way it needs to be done?
Right now -- too many to list.
Side note: So even though I was stuck in traffic and so busy at work that I didn’t have time to research anything, the show DID go on and last night’s guests on NHLWeekly were NHL Alumni Gary “The Cobra” Simmons and Tampa Bay beat writer Erik Erlendsson. You can check out the pod cast
here. A little history, a little speculation.
*****
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