Hamonic Out Two Weeks, New York Notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 2/05/2012 03:47:00 PM |


Injury reality is setting in again for the 2011-12 New York Islanders.

The depth on defense was thin, but holding. That has again changed.

Travis Hamonic is out two weeks (perhaps longer) with a broken nose/surgery, so Jack Capuano has to replace a defender who has not missed a game since joining the club over a year ago.

Hamonic's ability is not replaceable. 

Jurcina's elbow laceration if unable to return, puts them in a place where either Ty Wishart, Matt Donovan or Aaron Ness come up or the team has to make a trade to acquire a player.

According to Brent Thompson, Mark Katic is two weeks away from being cleared for contact, closer than Calvin deHaan to returning from his shoulder injury.

Obviously Katic/deHaan past shoulder injuries mandate the club be even more prudent before clearing them.

New York has seven games in the next eleven days. 

Notables:
Nothing needs to be added to twitter comments on Buffalo game beyond John Tavares is not going to produce as first star every month or carry the offense to the degree he did in January. (with Moulson/PP).

The special teams are also overdue for some struggles which have carried the club.

New York lost a 3-1 lead (and a point) in a game they were outplayed badly, where the goals all came from secondary scoring/special teams. Now we see what happens with a defense missing a very important player, where Stave Staios will have to be extended (which makes games tougher for Mark Streit as his partner) with goaltending that was shaky with Montoya against Buffalo.

It's a very impressive and notable accomplishment for this club to go up/down from five/six games under five hundred several times to finally one under, unfortunately unless it leads to a playoff spot and something absolutely built to last, it cannot be looked at as it was a year ago.

Looking ahead, this defense requires changes, the fourth line has questions. Nielsen-Parenteau pending UFA are huge issues. The secondary scoring has not been there.

Garth Snow being " bullish " on his goaltending still means someone has to emerge as a # 1.