Pittsburgh 3, New York 2

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/16/2007 03:11:00 AM | | |
Islanders website: Has the recap of tonight's 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins with Mike Sillinger talking about his missed breakaway. Ted Nolan praised how Vasicek has played this season and singled out Bergenheim/Satan clicking as a line, as well as Richard Park's effort.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Outplayed, outworked by a team that lost 8-2 this week which did it all could to give away the game with a five minute powerplay, the Islanders still could barely generate any offense all night. Dany Sabourin did not have to be very good for his win which is old news for teams playing the Islanders.

As usual the Islanders did not show up for the first period despite all the
so-called character talk and played like a group of individuals who had no chemistry at all. Bergeron made the mistake he spoke about that should make him a healthy scratch on any team whether he complains about it or not for the opening goal.

Teams win, teams lose, I look for trends. This team cannot score and is outworked for large parts of games. They deserve to be in last place and they deserve to lose with their collective efforts. It does go on the coach and leadership of the team for how poorly they come out at the beginning of games.

Without DiPietro they could have lost huge. He got a bad break on Witt's deflection and Bergeron's turnover, but again faced forty shots with many high quality chances in front of the goalie with the defense starting to set into a trend of allowing forty shots against.

Cannot score early, teams take forty shots against. No club wins often under those circumstances.

Bad teams don't make their breaks or get many powerplays, you have to work hard to get calls and of course Crosby is going to get that call when Witt pushes him. It's fair to be critical of the officials for this but of course it's the latest Islander excuse on a team that only needs one.

The Islanders had almost half a game to come back from it and had no answers, that's what teams that cannot score do, they fall behind, they cannot comeback often because they cannot finish.

Of course the coach likely had to let his club have it in the lockeroom after the first period, it seems to be why they came out in second period and woke up which is another trend for this high maintenance team, no doubt it's getting old.

It almost seemed like the pressure was off after they went down shorthanded for five minutes as if the game were over because they got more chances than they did after they killed the penalty when the pressure was back on. It's not last year and of course Sillinger is not going to finish.

Sure the usual suspects had good individual efforts starting with DiPietro, Witt, Park, Bergenheim, Vasieck and a few others. The skilled play that led to Vasicek's goal was great to watch and the fans are starving for that kind of offense.

As hard as Richard Park and Andy Hilbert work those players are not going to win many games with their offense. I know Park scored and was on the powerplay but long
or short term your club cannot win that way.

What words do you want me to waste on Chris Simon?
I listened to his story last year, his comments in SI earlier this year and the talk of his character from players around the league and Ted Nolan. He was not hit in the head or groggy this time, he knew exactly what he was doing and could have caused a career ending injury. It was as selfish as it gets in terms of his club and as disgusting a play as I have seen in a long time, regardless of injury and the official was correct.

It's not team play or leadership, it's not grit or character and there is no defending this on the Islanders or any team. I know Shane Corson got one game for a similar intent because he did this in the playoffs, and Dan Cloutier did this to Tim Connolly and got only four games, but enough is enough.

I hope long suspension or not, the Islanders send Chris Simon's idea of character packing as soon as possible because there is no call for that kind of conduct and clearly at this point in his career he cannot control his temper. If Ted Nolan cannot separate his loyalty to Simon from his player actions here he is part of the problem.

This is a club that needs a major shakeup before the deadline on the nineteenth, there is no hiding from the fact this team does not work hard for sixty minutes.

It's time for the hockey committee to make some tough choices because these trends continue they are going to start giving up a lot more goals and are putting a work load on DiPietro that could get him injured or into some poor habits. If this is how they work collectively for a players coach like Nolan, how long before they even quit on him if a few of them have not tuned him out already.