Time to press the panic button?
This is going to be a long post, so bear with me!
Well, after an incredible playoff push last season, the Islanders are not off to the start everyone hoped for, and things keep getting worse as each game passes by. The big question is, will things get better? Is it time to press the panic button yet and switch lines up and do whatever it takes to win?
For me, I think it’s time to panic. After a decent start to the season, the Islanders find themselves in last place in the Metropolitan Division, with a beautiful record of 8-13-3. Yes, there is much hockey left to be played, but the season is already a quarter of the way done, and if they don’t rebound soon, it could get ugly. Now, the next big question is, what is the problem this season? Why are we sitting at the bottom of the pack? And what should be done to bring us back to the top?
There are a few big problems for the Islanders so far. First, the goalie crisis. After last season, and after seeing how solid Evgeni Nabokov was down the stretch (which helped us secure our first playoff birth in 6 years), most of Long Island had faith in Nabby and felt comfortable having him as our starter. However, after putting up a 3.30 GAA and an .892 SV% right off the bat this season, many people, including myself, began to question whether Nabby was the right fit, and whether last season’s success for him was a fluke. Maybe he would rebound from his sloppy start, who knew. Well, any chance of a rebound was lost after he went down to an injury and is now out for a month, or maybe even more. Time to panic? Yes. This means the Islanders have to rely on Kevin Poulin, who was not very solid last season, and only played 5 games because of how much they relied on Nabby. Now we have to put our faith in the inexperienced backup. After Nabby’s injury, Poulin played pretty solid, but he has begun to show signs of weakness. Clearly, the Islanders can’t rely on him to play a solid 60 minutes every single game, so great news: we have the amazing Anders Nilsson to rely on as backup to Poulin! NOT. I’m not saying Nilsson is horrible, but he’s not exactly a great choice as backup, and it certainly isn’t a relief knowing he’s our best option. SO, now the ball is in Garth Snow’s court. He should be on the phones trying to make trades or sign another goalie as backup or even starter, such as Jonas Hiller for the Anaheim Ducks. Snow said he wasn’t going to let games blow by without making changes, and so far he’s stuck to his word (i.e. the Vanek trade), but now is time to act again if we want to regain the solid goaltending we had last season.
The next big problem is our defense. Oh boy, talking about our defense makes me stressed every time. To keep it short, we need better defense. We have too many young, inexperienced guys that just aren’t good. Andrew MacDonald has been playing horrible, Hamonic has been decent, but certainly hasn’t played like I hoped he would be (especially after being signed to such a huge contract this summer), Strait is absolute garbage, Carkner is being Carkner and playing horrible (but does provide good physical presence), and Martinek is playing horrible, and is showing no signs of life at his old age. The only 2 who are playing good are Hickey and Visnovsky, both who are now injured. Time to panic for our defense situation? It’s a no brainer- yes. I expect Hamonic to rebound and play better as the season progresses, but as for the rest, I don’t expect much. Now, once again, Snow needs to make moves and pick up some veteran help or some free agents to strengthen our defense.
Besides the horrible defense and sub-par goaltending, there aren’t really any other huge problems. To me, our offense has been solid so far. Yes, a bunch of guys need to step up their game, but the rest of the guys have played awesome. Guys who need to step up include Bailey (who has really disappointed me and made me lose hope in him becoming the elite player we thought he would be when we drafted him), McDonald, who had such a great end to last season and is having a sloppy start this year, Regin, who is playing so disgusting so far, Grabner, who had such a great start at New Jersey and has been shooting blanks since, and Martin, who proved to be clutch come the end of last season and the playoffs and is playing bad so far. If those guys can step it up, that would be so helpful. Obviously, our amazing captain John Tavares has been playing great so far, and is currently 6th in the league in points, but Nielsen and Okposo have been great so far as well. Vanek has been solid since we traded for him, and after just returning from injury, he has been awesome. There is great chemistry between him and Tavares. I have also been amazed by Brock Nelson, who has played great his past 6 games or so, but got benched the last game! Why the hell did Capuano do that? He would rather have Regin or Bouchard out there, who both suck? I don’t even know. Anyways, the offense has seemed good so far, and if the guys who I mentioned step it up soon, things might get a bit better, and we might start having 4 or 5 goal games more often.
Also, one more thing. Many people are getting tired of Capuano and are asking for him to be fired. People are saying “Oh let’s bring back Peter Laviolette!” or “Let’s put Doug Weight in charge!”, but none of that is going to happen. Let’s be real here, yes he is struggling this year and he thinks we play every game well, despite the blowouts and OT losses, but he has rebuilt and reshaped this team from a pack of 15th place misfits to a playoff bound team. I can see a huge difference the way we have played since he came to Long Island, and he will rebound and help bring our team back to the way we were at the end of last season.
Clearly, there is much work to be done. Much improvement has to be made, some moves have to be made (*cough cough* Snow making moves for some D-men and a goalie), and some sloppiness in our own zone has to be eliminated. If these key problems can be solved by the middle of December the latest, things could turn around. I have faith in them, and despite the pessimism and bashing that most of Long Island is expressing at the moment, I know they have faith too. The Islanders have shown that they are a playoff-caliber team. They have the tools and the scoring to go far, they just need to fill in the missing pieces to that puzzle. To all of my fellow Islanders fans out there, have patience. Things are looking bad right now, and it may seem like we’re already done, but things will get better and we will fight for a playoff spot come the end of the season.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more of my thoughts and any updates regarding the Islanders! New blog will be around every week!
