10.20.13: Updated 6:15pm. Brock Nelson was recalled to New York after playing one game for Bridgeport.
There are simply too many holes. Visnovsky's likely extended loss to injury just created another big one. Nabokov has been very solid.
What I see is a team doing it's absolutely best, not a question of effort.
The goals from Nielsen/Okposo are not likely to continue, Tavares will have his slumps, Nabokov will allow his soft goals. Carolina
did not even play well, but their size, speed, skill created chances
this offense simply has yet to show capable of this season win or lose.
I get that scoring three goals a game is good in this league no matter how you score them, but how they are scoring them (mostly against weak teams) is not sustainable.
The Islanders are working hard producing two forty shot plus shot games, the quality of most of them is another story.
Expect things to get much worse.
When the 2013-14 New York Islanders score it is almost always a deflected puck, a broken play, a poor goaltending/defensive error by the opposition, or a bouncing puck. Some ugly goals are fine, but it's not reliable production.
The goalies on the other team are not being asked to steal games. Edmonton's goalie was good, he was not facing chances that had him scrambling like the kind Justin Schulz created on the Oilers first goal.
I wrote a few days ago Jack Capuano is desperate, his line combinations scream he's looking for some balanced scoring or to get anything out of Regin, Bouchard, Clutterbuck, who simply are not players who produce much offense, and not enough to take Brock Nelson out of the lineup, who is back in Bridgeport.
Hitting is an important part of hockey, but the scoring has to support this.
Powerplays that produce goals off broken plays are also not reliable, especially when you see Regin, Martin, and no offensive defenders as part of it.
Moulson keeps moving around, he keeps getting his numbers, how long does that continue?
Matt Carkner should have been all three stars for Carolina, that's his career trend which saw him be a twenty game healthy scratch in Ottawa when he's unplayable. He'll likely be staying in the lineup, even with no choice but to let Donovan develop by playing.
For a coach who's career trend is to always dress the same lineup after a win, putting Donovan in the stands for Carkner was a very uncharacteristic decision for Jack Capuano, even if Carkner won the game for this team.
Donovan had a very poor first game for Bridgeport last season, and was scratched by Scott Pellerin. He played every single game afterward. (74)
Ok, now we see if Garth Snow makes the safe play in resigning a skating defender in Martinek, who's not going to produce or trust someone in Bridgeport whether it be comparable skaters to Visnovsky in deHaan/Ness, or make a trade.
Make no mistake now, the schedule is going to get much tougher, what's being exploited in games now will only get worse.
That's why I expect a free fall.