Nobody has written on our blog since Thursday, when Bryan typed about optimistically venturing the following day into Newark to drink beer and boo Zach Parise.
It is now technically Monday morning (although I will still consider it Sunday until I go to bed or see the sun). I almost posted on Friday that if the Islanders beat the Devils, then the Ottawa Senators would be the worst team in the East.
Since then, the Rangers technically showed up for a game in Ottawa, although I don't know how much of a presence really they had if they were outshot 14-0 for the first 13 minutes of the game. Yes. 14-0. Although I guess it is hard to generate shots off the rush when you are shorthanded 3 times in the first 6 minutes. To be honest, they never stood a chance in the game, and it's not because this is the same Ottawa team that used to pick apart the Rangers and Islanders in years past. The Rangers never stood a chance because they took themselves out of the game by taking lazy penalties, not hustling, not getting traffic to the net, and not caring.
Since then, the Islanders lost ground in the Hummer Metro Ice challenge, aka the battle-of-the-backup-goaltenders when Scott Clemmensen beat Joey Mac. In Backup Bowl II, they happened to beat Patrick Lalime and his Buffalo Sabres. Brian Boucher, Johan "The Moose" Hedberg, and Ty Conklin were watching intently.
Since the Islanders won Saturday, I have no good way to end this post. If they lost, I would've said, "Let's hope next weekend's recap isn't as half-hearted and depressing as our collective heroes were this weekend." Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. (Does that make sense?)
Yea, i agree with what your saying about the islanders, but you have to give credit to joey Mac for really playing out of his skates.... Ive been an islanders fan for a while, just have nothing to be happy about, but i don't know how you guys feel but im really really excited with the youth movement the isles are going through..... okposo, nelson, baily, fritz ( even though he can't skate) and hilbert....do you see the islanders quietly building a championship caliber team in the nest 2-3 years?
ReplyDeleteAlso how good would the isles be with everyone healthy? players that have been hurt and force to miss work.... WITT, Campoli, martinek, meyer, Sutton, Sillinger, and now nelson....
The youth movement on the Island is only going so-so. Okposo and Bailey are good players, but Neilsen, Tambellini, and Fritz aren't people to build a team around.
ReplyDeleteWith everyone healthy, they would be like they were last year - tough to play most nights and barely under .500 for most of the year. They would definitely be better than they are, but they don't have superstars out, they have role players injured. Except Sutton, he can be a game-breaker.
Well done. Even though the Islanders won Saturday, the whole weekend was dampened by the Frans Nielsen thing and the NHL's lack of discipline for Mike Mottau. It was also hard to focus on hockey when the whole state was worried mainly about Jets-Titans on Sunday. But the Isles have done well of late, rebounding from Friday night to win on Saturday. I won't say they won tonight as much as Montreal gift-wrapped the game for the Islanders as an early Boxing Day present. And hey, the Rangers won tonight, so it's a happy Monday in New York after all.
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