Islanders website: Has the recap of tonight's 3-0 loss to the Florida Panthers.
"If you don't get to the net and get traffic, you can't score," said head coach Ted Nolan. "We have to find a way and take it upon ourselves. We have to give more. It's not rocket science. Rick keeps us in every game. We have to support Ricky and we have to generate offense and give him a chance. You have to use your intelligence to counter speed. The bottom line is we have to work harder. We have to find the solution from within. If you don't work, you won't get enough."
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Not much to write about this game that Ted Nolan did not say. Florida is struggling but can do one thing and that's score on it's powerplay, this was the difference.
Islanders got outworked top to bottom, had problems with Florida's speed all night and unlike many games DiPietro had to be very good to give the Islanders any chance or it would have been over early. Nice to see Guerin try and spark his club with a fight. Too bad Bergenheim's goal did not count but it was kicked or Berard's shot did not find the net. Vokoun did not have to be very good for his shutout and that's a terrible sign because Florida was outshot in ten of eleven games going into tonight's game.
Ted Nolan can keep talking about the club having to work harder and that's true but it's clear they cannot produce enough on offense and it goes well beyond one player at this point. Every possible line combination has been used, Tambellini has been called up. The speed, skill and scoring are not there, if the hard work is not there this team will not win.
We'll see what happens tomorrow in Tampa who will no doubt use the same gameplan Florida did and had Friday off. Islanders shutout Tampa 4-0 which was the last time this club scored four goals in a game.
That was over a month ago.
AHL.com: Has the summary of Bridgeport's 7-4 win at Springfield Friday night.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has a post game blog on the win and reported Kenny Morrow was behind the Sound Tigers bench.