Philadelphia 4, New York 1: New York Eliminated

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New York was eliminated from playoff contention Saturday night with Buffalo win combined with Islanders loss.

I can repeat some of the blog entry from Atlanta game, even though effort was better, with shot disparity, this team keeps fading for big portions of games.

A few different players had good individual games (Comeau beyond his goal) but you can see New York is a team that simply is out of sync.

The chemistry the pp had going is just gone, the opposition usually waits for mistakes and gets quality chances, and you can see them pressing with five forwards or Jurcina-Hillen.

The Flyers did not even play very well. A bounce off end-boards, the redirection on fourth goal, and mostly on cruise control in third. DiPietro cannot be faulted on second goal with rebound chances, he was a little out of control, but for time he has been off, was solid enough.

It's not happening for Okposo with Nielsen as his center, Moulson did everything but finish, still overall the level of skating, passing has dropped.

Sometimes it's hard to explain, the Devils are now going through the same thing once the bubble broke for them, but they have more veterans. I saw Jacques Lemaire's press conference and he was all over his team for their play.

Jack Capuano should feel the same about his team.

Bottom line this is what the gm is going to remember last when deciding to bring back the interim coach/players.
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Aaron Ness has his first professional goal in Bridgeport's 5-1 win Saturday with Nate Lawson in goal.

NYIFC Comments:
Bridgeport is finishing up as you would want the Islanders to do. Ullstrom, Colliton, Rakhshani and others have been very good with many ATO players.

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Atlanta 2, New York 1: Not liking this teams effort for six straight games

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Atlanta Journal Constitution: Has game recap of New York's 2-1 loss to Thrashers.
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The New York Islanders are not mathematically eliminated, they had a lot of days off in Florida before coming home to play tonight.

They have not come close to a sixty minute effort or an A game for a while.

I know over eighty two games, teams have clunkers, what happened against Atlanta tonight goes back to previous five games where you could see the skating, passing and play drop significantly, despite the wins/shootout/overtime games.

I also understand they had a few pp goals on the road, they also showed a lot of the poor trends with the man advantage Atlanta handily exploited tonight, dominating the puck and pinning the Islanders in their own end.

Only Atlanta being frankly a struggling team themselves, with Montoya's goaltending kept this from being 5-1 or worse. Sure Montoya turned his pad into the net on Schremp's goal which was brutal and the same goal he allowed in his Buffalo debut.

There is winning ugly, and playing to build something that's a formula for long term success. Beating the struggling Lightning, Panthers with sporadic good moments is not the team we were watching earlier.

If the Islanders played like the team that defeated Boston, St Louis, took forty shots and had pressure all over Atlanta and lost 2-1, credit the other goalie.

In the context of one game, tonight is no problem.

Six games in a row something's missing.

Some individuals had some good moments against Atlanta, especially fourth line, however shots against reflected game/skating/effort tonight. Atlanta was a team with four days rest, coming off an 8-2 still with playoff hopes, two points ahead of New York going into tonight.

Where was the Islanders playoff desperation tonight, or really for the last six games? Jack Caupauno can talk about long road trips but it was three games on road with a lot of days off.

The 6-1 losses are going to be happening soon via Flyers, Devils & Rangers if this team does not raise their game significantly. If I were deciding on players or the interim head coach status this is where I want to see if this team how hard this team is willing to compete down to game eighty two.

Clunkers? Sure, all teams have them.

Six games of ok to fair/poor efforts is not convincing me.

Easy from a keyboard to coach, tonight was the night to see Capuano do a little line juggling in my estimation to shake up some players.

Buffalo's number to eliminate New York stands at three/Sabres have games in hands and wins tie-breaker.

Streit not to return this season, draft pick Brian Day in Bridgeport on ATO, along with several other players per Ct Post.

NYIFC Comments:
Bridgeport was eliminated last Saturday, Day is a prospect who has to be signed upon graduation. From what I'm reading Anders Nilsson's team is in playoffs (Nilsson and team doing very well) so he likely will not be making a cameo on an ATO as we saw with Kevin Poulin or others.

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New York 5, Tampa Bay 2

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Last time the New York Islanders were only four games under five hundred was November 6th.

This team was twelve games under five hundred on January 26th. The season low was thirteen games under December 13th at 5-18.

Four points in the Bermuda Triangle for the New York Islanders, long time since that has happened. No, it was hardly a classic tonight.

Nice rush by Hillen, you knew he would get the puck past MA Bergeron, Martin made a perfect shot to beat Roloson, who has to stop Nielsen's short-handed slapshot.

Roloson was solid enough, he defended the 2-0 break perfect, but the Islanders made some good plays for goals. Strange game when two Jurcina shots lead to goals, but any night Okposo-Bailey score is key. Bailey a rebound, Okposo a very nice deflection.

No big complaints besides officiating which seemed to find a lot to call so Tampa had every chance to get back in the game on the pp in the third, before finally giving Bergenheim his usual offensive-zone penalty as Guy Boucher looked like many Islander coaches when Bergenheim got overzealous. A dive on Hillen for touching stick while falling? Four minutes to Martinek?

A 5-2 win almost any way you get it is a solid win and the Islanders did some very good things tonight but they are not at that high skating/crisp level they were at on the homestand when they were just dominating. Tampa has been struggling and it's easy to see the Bolts are out of sync, even with the thirty plus shots they had.

On defense, it seemed Tampa's forecheck from fourth line caught MacDonald off guard one shift, Martinek was more aggressive tonight, and overall the team played well enough on defense.

Still, if Montoya is not sharp the Islanders do not win this game, more than a few times Tampa was buzzing it seemed they did everything but finish.

I'm more impressed with Grabner's back-checking then his offense, he skates hard both ways.

Nate Thompson looks like a much faster and skilled player for Tampa. LeCavalier was getting frustrated and he brushed Montoya's crease.

Buffalo wins again, the number to be eliminated stands at five/with tie-breaker favoring Sabres so number really is four. New Jersey's historic run is over, they stand two points ahead of the Islanders after another loss.

Now we see what happens at home against Atlanta/Flyers.



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