Carolina 6, New York 2

New York Islander Fan Central | 2/19/2009 09:43:00 PM |
Sportsnetwork.com: Recaps New York's 6-2 loss to Carolina on Thursday with Associated Press.


NYI Fan Central Comments:

Last week I did a blog entry about how teams in 30th place should not be this competitive in games as I went back to November and ran through the schedule/results.

Tonight the New York Islanders played like a 30th place team and they did it against a Carolina team that looked very beatable on defense and in goal.

All teams have poor performances over eighty two games, this seemed more about what the Islanders failed to do tonight vs Carolina's play. Islanders skated well enough tonight to earn two points.

Okposo does not pass up his great early chance maybe it changes things but defensive play/reads, decision making was spotty and they had breakdowns. MacDonald made the saves he should not have made but allowed goals on shots you expect him to stop, his play was uneven in goal and pucks hit players for goals against.

Bergenheim again a good effort and some energy, Jackman stood up for MacDonald getting run. Apparently Scott Gordon replaced Park on the powerplay with Brendan Witt which made me wonder despite Hunter's powerplay time was his role cut coming off injury. Nielsen got over five minutes of powerplay time on right wing also so he was part of the answer too.

Kyle Okposo, the teams best prospect on right wing actually playing right wing on this teams powerplay? Nope.

Tambellini, Sim or Bergenheim total powerplay minutes= zero powerplay time.
Tim Jackman who would have been a better alternative than Witt? Zero powerplay time.

Ward looked like he was ready to give up a few goals if the Islanders could have generated a quality chance/rebound which they simply could not do again.

Sim had his late breakaway and a nice goal with Guerin and Comrie but combined they were a minus eight and did not pull their collective weight with very few impact shifts again. No doubt the kids are outworking the outproducing the veterans which is a very bad sign.

Comeau was very quiet in this game, Bailey had one early shot but was not visible in this game like he was the night before with close in chances.

Gervais had his third post/crossbar in a week with some other chances and was solid on defense. Martinek had a chance but some turnovers, one bounced off him for a goal. Witt was physical and skated well but when breakdowns came he did nothing to prevent a goal. The late goal off Hillen's clear looked like it hit the boards high and went right to a Canes player.

I like to see the other team earn it a little more in a bad loss, no knock on the Canes but this was more the self-inflicted kind of loss.

If not for Martinek's skate Monday that a Penguin somehow hit with a wide open net Islanders would likely be 0-3 this week.





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