"We talked to the guys this morning and reminded them that the first few weeks we had the top power play in the league," said assistant coach Gerard Gallant. "We have to work hard, get pucks to the net and just get back to basics."
"There are so many talented guys on the ice," said Campoli, who along with the rest of the team faces Boston again tonight. "I want to try and get the puck to these guys, but it's clear that we have to just start shooting. That's what we did when the power play was working. The points would throw pucks to the net and the forwards would crash the net for rebounds. We're just not getting enough shots on goal."
"Once we couldn't get anything going the first 20 seconds, we started to force passes that weren't there," said Campoli about the two-man advantage. "One thing that surprised Bryan and me was the amount of pressure the high guy was putting on us. Axelsson stayed lower in the zone, but Sturm prevented us from passing back and forth on the point. That threw us off, but we're prepared for it tonight."
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Sounds good but it sounded good before a lot of recent games. Islanders need a breakout offensive game at even strength, with the man advantage, from the first period. Any win will be acceptable but to get on track they need a big offensive night from so many players struggling. Right now it seems they have no interest in scoring in the first period of games.
Boston did not play a good game either the other day, they will be hungry for a sweep here.
Newsday: Greg Logan's articles here & here were on the loss to Boston, the offensive struggles by Guerin and Hilbert, the pp struggles and Marc Andre Bergeron not in favor of being a winger on the fourth line with the coach asked about callups from Bridgeport.
We have to do something to shake it up a wee bit," coach Ted Nolan said, stopping short of promising changes. "The vast majority of the time, we're playing strong games, but offensively, we're a little bit bitten right now."
Newsday: Mark Herrmann has a blog Saturday afternoon about a team meeting, Bates back from conditioning stint but not going to play and possible changes to the powerplay.
AHL.com: Reports Sound Tigers after losing against Hartford Friday trail Albany
4-1 at the end of the first peirod tonight.