Do you ever have those days where despite how many times you change the radio station you keep finding that one song that drives you insane? That’s how I feel writing about this hockey team as every game it seems to be the same song and dance. The Islanders were outclassed and outmuscled by the Toronto Maple Leafs last night. Despite entering the third period only trailing by a goal the Isles were no match and fell by a score of 5-2.
After the game Islanders’ head Coach Jack Capuano gave his normal kool-aid “team played fine… answers but it has gotten to the point where nobody is buying it anymore. The team defense on the Islanders is abysmal. From the defenseman, to the forwards every mistake ends up in the back of the net. Poor line changes, gap control, defensive zone coverage, lack of back checking it’s all there. The frustrating part is for long stretches the Islanders can carry the play and work hard and scrap and claw only to have it blow up in their face by putrid play in their own zone.
While Kevin Poulin wasn’t great last night he wasn’t terrible either. You can’t leave players with the talent of Phil Kessel alone in those scoring areas and expect to win. What bothers me most about this team is the lack of desperation they are displaying, something is just missing. They obviously miss the play of dman Lubomir Visnovsky but if this team is still this average at the deadline they have to move whatever pieces they don’t deem part of their long term plans for help; especially on the blue line. The coach will ultimately take the fall for the lack of the team’s success but some blame has to be but on General Manager Garth Snow for not having a bridge to get to his young prospects on defense. Nobody can deny the plethora of talented young blueliners in the organization however the placeholders to get to them have failed. It is simply not working. You can change coaches however I don’t know how you can expect different results with the way this team is constructed currently.
Blame has to fall on the players as well. As a coach you can only do so much, they have to execute the system properly. They most disturbing trend however is the hard working, blue collar team that fans fell in love with last year is simply not there. There are certainly players trying and working but collectively as a group something is missing and I honestly don’t know what the answer is. The fan base needs to throw dreams of going to the playoffs out the window right now; I cannot see it happening without changes being made. Until then we will continue to keep hearing that same annoying song that you want so badly to get out of your head.