Ottawa 5, New York 2

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/27/2007 10:02:00 PM | | |
Islanders website: Has the recap of tonight's 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

"We can't afford penalty trouble and missed assignments," said head coach Ted Nolan. "Our special teams weren't very good. I thought we played well in the first but then we took too many penalties. Giving up so many shorthanded goals is a concern. We keep doing the same thing over and over again. We can't do that again. It's one thing if our power play is not scoring, but giving up a shorthanded goal is another."


NYI Fan Central Comments:
Self-inflicted loss.

Dubielewicz was outstanding and gave the Islanders the kind of goaltending that was good enough to win most nights. He should have sued for lack of support in the end.

This powerplay from the point is a nightmare. It's to the point Berard is almost unplayable which really was the play that decided the hockey game. You could see the shorthanded goal coming and clearly so did the Senators who read Berard's pass and got behind him. Islanders could not even clear the rebound after Dubie made his save or the shot hit the post.

All due respect to the Ottawa but when you give up five quality chances and a goal against with your powerplay combined with being pushed into a bad penalty like Bergenheim's at the end of the first period, you do not deserve to win.

Ottawa skated well but for the most part the Islanders stayed with them or kept the chances to the side, I don't know where Howie Rose or Billy Jaffe were calling the game from but the first period was not that one-sided in terms of quality chances.

Gervais stepped up and when he did not score Ottawa had a great three on one counter that Dubie bailed them out of. Vasicek did not finish his chance. Campoli got a penalty for charging Gerber late.

Ottawa did not create one goal that was not off a big Islander mistake or change outside of the high stick goal. You almost get the impression Howie Rose expected the five on three goal when he brought up the Sens did not have one all season.

The 2-0 goal was off a bad line change at the end of that powerplay, the 3-0 goal was a Berard disaster where Ottawa almost scored before that, the fourth goal was a lucky high stick batted in and the fifth goal Freddy Meyer and Sutton fell asleep.

No excuse for such poor plays and decision making which killed any momentum after Guerin made it 3-1 and then almost made it 3-2. Islanders had some jump on offense and skated well enough, but they could not draw any powerplays or get any second shots.

Self inflicted all the way and a very expensive night in the standings. Guerin's shot seems to be coming around, that last shot was his best one of the season.

Add Fedotenko with a hand injury to the day to day injury list. The way Tambellini is producing he's earned another callup. I love Comeau's game, who should be getting more ice time, he threw a hit in the first that rocked a Senator player.