Toronto 8, New York 1

New York Islander Fan Central | 10/11/2007 10:15:00 PM | | |
Islanders Website: Has the ugly recap of tonight's complete no-show by the Islanders.

"They played real well and with a lot of emotion," said Bill Guerin. "And the fact is we didn't. That wasn't acceptable, but we'll be back at it on Saturday."

"There are no excuses to be made," said Mike Comrie. "We need to work a lot harder as a group."


NYI Fan Central Comments:
Maybe the Sound Tigers who have been waiting for a week to play it's second game should have went to Toronto instead because this was one of the worst Islander efforts as a team in a long time, even worse than the 8-6 loss in Toronto a few seasons ago. It's one thing for the club to be outworked and lose but their opposition was as fragile as a team could be going in and looked like a team waiting to lose in the first period. When the Islanders escaped down only 2-1 there was no excuse for them not to come out and start working.

Instead most of the team just gave up and Toronto did not even have to be good, but the Islanders made it a very easy night for a very mediocre club with poor defense and a terrible goalie in Raycroft. Once it was clear the Islanders were not interesting in working hard it only got easier for Toronto who were able to show some confidence.

Hard to put much of this on Dubie, Martinek did not work to clear a Leaf in front on the first goal and the second goal was redirected. After that it seemed the Islanders left Dubie hanging out to dry every way possible. Power plays/shorthanded they just imploded top to bottom. Outside of Witt, Fedotenko, Hunter and Park this was just a no show across the board.

In short this looked like the club the so-called experts predicted them to be. Guerin, Commrie could not get out of their own way. Bergeron was a disaster as was Sutton, Campoli and Gervais were making big mistakes and even a goal went in off Witt. When the Islanders were not watching the Leafs outwork them they were taking penalties and a lot of lazy ones. Pick a player between Bergenheim, Comrie, Tambellini in this department.

Islanders did not even pick a fight until Belak went with Sutton and Belak initiated it.

Were going to see how the club deals with some adversity now. A lot of offensive passengers so far. Simon's suspension is over and it does not seem like this defense should go with seven players.

Either way they lost tonight because they did not show up to play and that is very disturbing against a very mediocre and fragile opposition. Losing and working is one thing, some nights it's not going to happen, but losing and not working is another and in this game Raycroft was barely tested and neither was a very weak defensive team.

I know Islanders are playing a fifth game in seven days, but it's October and between the seven defenders, the forwards who played limited minutes and one trip on a plane, I do not see it as an excuse at this point.