Washington 5, New York 4 OT

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/16/2008 08:51:00 PM |
NHL.com: Recaps the Islanders 5-4 overtime loss to Washington on Tuesday.

AP: Recaps tonight's game.


NYI Fan Central Comments:

Funny watching the versus in-studio preview and Brian Engblom saying how Mike Sillinger on faceoffs will be a key tonight.

Not like Sillinger was a late scratch.

Washington did not play very well nor did they have to be very good. Islanders to their credit worked for some bounces and produced a third period comeback of their own to force overtime.

What can I write folks that I have not been writing almost every game?

Youth movements and rebuilding do not start with Andy Hilbert, Richard Park in prime scoring roles or on a line with Trent Hunter. They give all they have but scoring is just not something they can do on a regular basis.

Tonight was more the exception than the rule and still it was not enough.

I know Park scored and was in front for the latest deflection goal (Tom Poti) by a Doug Weight shot and even had a third period breakaway but at even strength what did Brent Johnson have to do for two periods besides Weight intercepting a pass for a chance and a few scrambles in front of Johnson?

Career scoring records do not lie, if you expect Park, Hilbert or Tim Jackman to produce enough to carry your offense the team is not going to score enough goals to win many games.

I wish one (or both) of Park-Hilbert would become what Jason Blake was on offense and that changes but I do not see it happening. Park was everywhere tonight and it still took a third period penalty with the man advantage and got crunched in overtime.

If those are the key players on offense vs the opposition (Ovechkin, Semin) for the Caps (but insert any teams star player on a given night) the percentages of winning many games are not very good.

Jon Sim has a better chance to score than both in a key moment but at this point you have to wonder why he is on a powerplay? He found something to feel good about and needed it.

Shifting Blake Comeau from left wing to right wing (for Sim) and back is not going to make him an effective player from shift to shift. Aside from a third period chance he deflected in a goal against and had little impact but what does the coach expect from him when he moves him around?

Did he not learn this lesson when he moved Okposo to the left and he struggled? After what he did against Atlanta and in Philadelphia just send him out on left wing and play him with the offensive forwards.

Meanwhile Ben Walter saw more key moments to produce offense than Comeau, Bergenheim and was on for the overtime goal, he struggled on faceoffs.

Bailey was not very visible for his minutes, he seems to be playing with a lot of different wingers. Comeau should not be on his right side, even the announcer on versus noted Comeau is a left wing but playing mostly the right side tonight.

Tough time seeing what Scott Gordon is trying to accomplish here besides make Comeau a confused player with a poor plus/minus.

Bill Guerin needed to hit the net on that second period chance.

Joey MacDonald made some good saves but let up two goals that were killers and was slow to react a few times. Defense was not pressed a lot by the Caps but one time they did Witt and Meyer were eaten alive. Overall Islander defense did not let up a ton of great chances but again, Washington was not skating well.

Witt's misconduct led to the first goal.

Sutton had a nice deflection goal off a Washington player.

Give the Islanders some credit for skating hard and getting the bounces to tie the game against a team that did not play very well with a very beatable goaltender in Brent Johnson. Crowd got behind the club when they tied the game with the loudest cheering in a while at a home game.

Earlier in the year a point out of this would have been a good thing, at this point it's virtually worthless.

One play short of a shootout. Ovechkin was quiet but in ot hit the post and never should have been where he was in the winner, at that point you take a penalty if necessary but cannot let him shoot from there.

Of course you have to catch him.

Next up Marian Gaborik is ready to return for Minnesota. Will Okposo be in Minnesota?

I thought that was Mitch Fritz, I really did but never saw him after that one time for the person who e-mailed.

Not exactly Michael Peca dressing against the Blues and going off in 2002-03 for motivation.









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