The nice thing about these Islanders from a writer's perspective is that you don't even have to wait for the game to be over to start your piece. That's because every game is exactly the same.
Islanders play some team with 30 or so more points than them. Islanders play hungry; other team barely shows up. Islanders come out and get an early lead. Other team starts to wake up. Islanders win a fight and hold down the fort in the second period. Other team fully wakes up. Islanders get victimized by dumb mistakes, bad officiating or both. Other team catches lucky break to take the lead. Islanders rally late, but can't score. Other team wins.
Howie Rose just said that the Islanders' games of late have been fun. I guess. That is, if you enjoy coming so close to winning every game, yet ending up on the losing end every night. Sure, the team is maturing before our very eyes. Sure, it's better to watch a competitive game than a blowout. But man, it's hard to watch the Islanders compete so hard, but lose.
If you've watched any of the NCAA Tournament, you might be able to relate to this. Big-name school faces plucky underdog school with a losing record. Somehow, the underdog keeps it competitive throughout, but inevitably craps out down the stretch. When the big team wins, it celebrates like it actually achieved something, as opposed to barely beating a team it was supposed to beat by 40 points. Don't you just want to smack everybody on that team? How could you be happy after a game like that?
That's what watching these Islanders is like. You get sucked in by their tenacious play. You feel such pride for them that they're staying with the big dogs. Then, the bottom falls out, and the Islanders lose. Tonight was a perfect example. After the Capitals tied the game at 3, Josh Bailey scored to make it 4-3... only thing is, Tim Jackman fell into Jose Theodore and got called for goaltender interference. Of course, Mike Green scored less than a minute later to put the Caps ahead for good. Funny how Jackman gets called for that, yet when Erik Cole bulldozed over Peter Mannino two weeks ago in Carolina, the ref turns a blind eye and Carolina gets the easy goal.
When the Islanders lost to Buffalo in the first round two years ago, I remarked that it was in the best possible way. The Isles lost, but they could point to controversial calls in Games 3 and 4 as reasons why they lost. This way, Islanders fans didn't have to think about the fact that they would have lost the series anyway. The last few weeks of Islanders hockey remind me of that same sentiment. We can point to bad calls, we can point to unlucky bounces... the truth is, the Islanders aren't good enough yet.
The great thing is, they're not all that far off. The Isles are making serious progress and can make teams pay for taking them lightly. Which leads me to my next point - so many teams are taking the Islanders lightly despite their (relatively) great play in the second half. Next year, if these same teams keep continue to underestimate what will be a much better Islanders team, they will certainly pay the price. And the road to respectability for the Islanders will be much smoother.
They say the good teams get lucky and get the good breaks. Regardless, if they were better they wouldn't be beaten solely by bad calls. Make sense?
ReplyDeleteThat Red Wings game though, man, that was a good game. Very encouraging for you guys.