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Lack of Discipline Leads to 6-2 Loss

November 5, 2013, 10:46 PM ET [24 Comments]
Dee Karl
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Jack Capuano decided not to build off of Kevin Poulin’s excellent performance, but to go with Nabokov and his excellent history against the Washington Capitals. We will never know if it was the wrong move. All we know is the Islanders lost to the caps 6 - 2. It was the most goals the Isles have let up so far this season. It’s a long road trip. This stat may not live long.

The story is always special teams, and tonight the Isles power play unit went 0 for 5 while the Capitals scored four power play goals on five chances. Which means the Isles penalty kill wasn’t exactly spectacular either.

The Isles did manage to put 36 shots on net, so they were shooting, but they weren’t quality shots. The Caps put 39 shots on Nabokov, so it wasn’t really a shooting gallery. Thomas Vanek has seven of those shots for the Islanders while four Capitals had four shots each, including Tom Wilson who scored his first NHL goal with an assist by the Great Eight. So while the Isles will be looking to forget this game, for one 19-year-old, he will never forget it.

Oddly for me, Jack Capuano told Peter Ruttgaizer , “I don’t think we played poorly. It was 2 - 2 there, it was great D zone coverage. But it comes down to special teams.” He admitted it was the details that got away from the. “We didn’t get it done tonight. You can break it down any way you want. The difference was 4 power play goals.” I wasn’t sure if he was getting a little defensive or not. “Some guys could have played better, but it was the power play goals.”

Jack made no bones about his feelings on “The Nielson line didn’t generate anything tonight. John’s line played well, generated some chances.” He mentioned he may make changes to his lines.

Art Staple of Newsday tweeted out a personal view from the locker room saying that Casey Cizikas spent a long time at his stall looking frustrated and angry. He was on the ice for three of the Caps four power play goals. That was interesting since he was only on the ice for 1:56 while the Isles were on the PK.

When the cameras were focused on Evgeni Nabokov in the locker room, without Stan Fischler to sit next to him and make him comfortable, it almost seemed as if he made his accent even thicker.

“… the consistency is not there defensively. And discipline consistency. We can have it one period and we can have it 10 minutes. On positive, we have 30-35 minutes of hockey we played well, but they capitalized on their chances.”

Matt Martin was far more eloquent, but equally as frustrated. “Obviously we had a turnover and Carlson gets a quick one. Our PK didn’t do a very good job. It’s just not good enough,. We‘re not going to win games if we’re going to give up that many goals.” He was asked why he thought this game got away from them. “Sometimes we get away from our game plan. First period we were good, and then the second, we started to panic a little bit. We have the talent, but we’re the best when were outworking the other team.”

Both Jack Capuano and Matt Martin were asked about facing the Hurricanes, who are having their own problems winning games. Jack mentioned that desperate teams are dangerous teams and the Isles have to play just as desperate. Martin said they couldn’t dwell on this loss for too long. “We’re obviously all upset in here, but we have to refocus and get ready for Carolina.”

Besides playing desperate, they have to play with confidence. But right now, confidence may be elusive.









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