ALMOST OVER FOR 2009-10 NY ISLANDERS

Simply put it's almost over for the 2009-10 New York Islanders.

They returned home after surviving fourteen out of seventeen on the road in mediocre shape (but in playoff contention) with a lot of beatable, struggling clubs on the schedule. The scoring they did earlier should have given them the collective confidence to produce goals and some wins or a unbeaten in regulation streak.

The hard work has been there, it has not happened.

Back on December 17th I did a twitter update and wrote my concerns about the goals per game and how the Isles went from a club that scored 3-4-5-3-0-1-6-4-4-4-4 from 10/28-11/16 which was excellent to now a point where they have scored 2-1-4-1-3-1-4-0-2-2-3-1-2-2-0-2 in all the games since which is a non-stater most nights to get many games to overtime much less sustain a winning streak.

In short that is twelve out of sixteen games with two or less goals.

Combine that with a club that has no back to back wins since early November and we find the New York Islanders six points out of a playoff spot (technically seven counting wins as a tie-breaker) and five teams separating them from the 8th seed on this day.

Not happy writing it, I hope I'm wrong but unless this team very quickly solves it's scoring and special teams problems the competitive part of the 2009-10 season will be over in a very short time.