Fifteen Games/Thirty Days/Struggling Defense: Does Capuano Survive?

I absolutely see this becoming a 3-12 season ending month, the problems on defense are beyond coaching.

When a general manager is not satisfied, coaches do lose their jobs so it's problematic, Jack Capuano, survives even if it's not his fault in any way.

The upcoming schedule does not lie, nor do the defensive weaknesses (at both ends of the ice) which cannot be fixed internally within the organization as has been obvious since opening night in Newark.



This team cannot play that 20/25 shot game against where they keep forcing the other team to defend as we saw from that 11-1-2 stretch.  Now it's the exact opposite.

The players are doing all they can which speaks to the coaching. When the unexpected scoring from Nielsen/Okposo dries up with the special teams leveling off the 4-0 losses (likely worse) will begin.  

Tavares/Vanek cannot keep the puck out of their net, they may keep games close for a while if some chemistry develops or the Islanders see some struggling back up goaltenders.

Jack Capuano knows he's in trouble, keeping the mood light around the team will not change what's coming from the opposition, or what he's said about his defense for a while. 

He only has six of them, they have to play better but Radek Martinek, Matt Carkner are not close to the answer at this point in their careers.

Matt Donovan is too young without the help he needs to settle in. Hickey is in his first full year, and Hamonic/MacDonald are over extended, and not offensive defenders hard as they try.   

The struggles were obvious with Brian Strait/Lubomir Visnovsky healthy as teams pushed the play at this group. 

There is also no more hiding for Kevin Poulin, he must play, and give the team a chance to win.  Nabokov's given them a chance most games, he's going to allow soft goals under this kind of pressure.

This team better be prepared to start winning games 6-5. They could not stop the clubs badly struggling from taking the play at them for large portions of recent games. 

Expect the wheels to fall off this team completely in the next thirty days.   

To qualify in this new format requires ninety five points/fifteen games over five hundred.