Rangers 4, New York 1

New York Islander Fan Central | 3/07/2008 05:01:00 AM | |
Islanders website: Has the recap of Thursday's 4-1 loss to the Rangers where Bill Guerin said the powerplay is awful, Ted Nolan felt the Isles were outworked in the first period and Dubielewicz played well.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It's a very tough loss and a big hit in the standings but they did play a team that had not lost in regulation in eleven games and it's not going to be easy when you get outworked to start the game and the defense falls asleep on the opening goal on a delayed penalty and then falls behind 2-0 on another play where someone is left open.

Islansders could not get a few past Lunqvist in the second beyond Bergenheim and as usual after a poor start they woke up.

Hard to put anything on Dubie here, he made a lot of big saves and robbed Jagr with his glove. No second guess here from me on the coaches decision, you score one goal it's not going to happen most night's and that's the bottom line. Isles dominated the second, Bergenheim got a shot from a high quality area to give the Isles their goal but Bill Guerin hit the nail on the head when he called the powerplay awful and you have to wonder why the kids see less minutes than these veterans.

You got a powerplay that cannot score on a five on three or work to generate quality chance combined with all the shorthanded goals you are not going to be a winning hockey team on a consistent basis or get games to overtime to add to the point total. It goes beyond one individual.

Gomez deflection goal and the Rangers trap in the third does what it does best and the Isles could not fight through that, Isles defense had the penalty killed and the puck cleared but not all the way down the ice. Islanders got a little lax and that allowed the Rangers to get a shot which led to the 3-1 goal.

All the Islanders can do is move on to Philadelphia very disappointed with a split and hope the return of DiPietro can make a difference. I almost think Ted Nolan had this in mind when he started Dubie to ride the hot goaltender and if it does not work can put in his number one goalie.

One thing for sure is Islanders are running out of games, points and the clubs behind them are right behind them. We'll see what happens with Brendan Witt but you do get to a point where you have to look out for the players future.