ALMOST OVER FOR 2009-10 NY ISLANDERS

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/22/2009 10:50:00 AM |
Simply put it's almost over for the 2009-10 New York Islanders.

They returned home after surviving fourteen out of seventeen on the road in mediocre shape (but in playoff contention) with a lot of beatable, struggling clubs on the schedule. The scoring they did earlier should have given them the collective confidence to produce goals and some wins or a unbeaten in regulation streak.

The hard work has been there, it has not happened.

Back on December 17th I did a twitter update and wrote my concerns about the goals per game and how the Isles went from a club that scored 3-4-5-3-0-1-6-4-4-4-4 from 10/28-11/16 which was excellent to now a point where they have scored 2-1-4-1-3-1-4-0-2-2-3-1-2-2-0-2 in all the games since which is a non-stater most nights to get many games to overtime much less sustain a winning streak.

In short that is twelve out of sixteen games with two or less goals.

Combine that with a club that has no back to back wins since early November and we find the New York Islanders six points out of a playoff spot (technically seven counting wins as a tie-breaker) and five teams separating them from the 8th seed on this day.

Not happy writing it, I hope I'm wrong but unless this team very quickly solves it's scoring and special teams problems the competitive part of the 2009-10 season will be over in a very short time.

CROSSROADS FOR 09-10 NY ISLANDERS

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/15/2009 02:21:00 PM |
So now we find out what the 2009-10 New York Islanders are made of, it does not matter if they play the Rangers, Montreal Canadians, Abbotsford Heat, Hartford Wolf Pack or any other team in the upcoming games.

Only time is for this teams best game, nothing else.

Another crossroads for the 09-10 NY Islanders, no more hiding from wins they have to have.

BIG PICTURE FOR 09-10 NY ISLANDERS

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/06/2009 05:48:00 PM |
The big picture has not really changed since our last blog entry a week ago.

That is a good news/bad news thing for the 2009-10 New York Islanders.

The good news is a lot of younger players up front are still carrying the club playing fourteen of seventeen on the road leading the league in back to back games that defeated a red hot, high-scoring Atlanta team. In others ways it is frustrating because you are going to get ups and downs that come with development which we saw in Tampa on Saturday.

The bad news is the record unfortunately goes hand and hand with this which means a team at five hundred which in the NHL is a non-starter for playoffs but keeps them in contention for now.

Statistically the team that was in the middle of the pack scoring about a week ago when we did the last update is now having some games in hand made up by other clubs and went from around fourteen-sixteen to near the bottom five which is in line with the struggling powerplay.

However the expectations are higher, that's always something you strive for and the club continues to play very competitive hockey.

Let's look at the big picture.