Losering (Yes, More Whiskeytown)

"And, of course, sadly, the Islanders lost to the Los Angeles Kings 2-1."
--Sports update Tuesday morning on WRXP

The Kings weren't built in a year, nor will the Islanders be. But, oh (and woe), the losing. The beginning of a new season has optimism programmed into it, regardless of whether the team finished 3rd or 30th the previous year. Even if you know in your heart that the bottom five is overwhelmingly more likely than the top 16, there is always the hope that things will click this year—that the development of the next generation of Islanders will take a leap forward instead of a step.

And then four games go by without a win.

Suddenly you are awakened from your October honeymoon by the cold reality that if the ship is ever going to be headed in the right direction, it is still hanging around the pier looking for a clear lane.

The Islanders are not in an adjustment period. They are not off to a slow start. They are still dangerously thin on talent. They have shown an ability to compete, but not a sustainable one.

They have not shown a knack for winning when the game is on the line and a win is in reach.

The second half of last year was productive in that it resulted in John Tavares becoming an Islander. It was not, however, enjoyable.

Could it be that, not even at the midpoint Of October, we are already in the position in having to endure a season the way we endured that second half '08-'09?

The thought of it seems insufferable. But it is painfully obvious that the Islanders need another high lottery pick. We want these guys to be good because they're our guys. But most of them are never going to be as good as we want them to be.

For the Islanders to enjoy success in the standings this year, the following would have to happen (forget about Kyle Okposo, John Taveras, and Mark Streit—you know what they are and you can just enjoy them):

• Trent Hunter would need to go 25-25-50.
• Josh Bailey would need to go 15-25-40.
• Frans Nielsen would need to 15-30-45.
• Doug Weight would need to stay healthy and perform at the same level he did when healthy last year.
• The team would have to get its goals against per game under 2.90, at least.
• A defenseman other than Streit would need to score double-digit goals.

How many of those things are likely to happen?

Streit had 16 goals last year. Do you know how many goals the other six defenseman on the Islanders' roster had last year? 16. Granted neither Andy Sutton nor Freddy Meyer played in as many as 30 games. But Streit cannot be the only offensive threat from the blue line.

Hunter is already missing several weeks of games due to a pec injury. Weight has been in and out of the lineup with a groislander injury (did you already do that one, Dom?). And Bailey has looked nothing like a player who's going to sniff 15 goals or 40 points.

So my optimism bubble has burst early this year. The good thing is that they have virtually an entire season to prove me wrong, or get the difference-maker draft pick they have to have again.

But right now I don't care for the pain and the drudgery of another season with little to cheer about. I have losing fatigue. I'm actually thinking about steering my son toward the Yankees. Or, you know, Civil War battle re-enactments. Those plans always turn out exactly how they built 'em.

Red Hot Hockey Returns

Following the resounding success that was Red Hot Hockey on November 24, 2007, I'm pleased to report that Cornell University and Boston University have booked a return engagement at Madison Square Garden for November 28, 2009.

Yesterday I was privileged to purchase pre-sale tickets to this special event. Tickets are on sale to the general public beginning today.

If you live in the New York area and you've never had the chance to see an NCAA hockey game, you should not pass up the opportunity to see two of the most storied programs, and current powers, go at it in front of 18,000+ fanatics. Last time it was truly remarkable to watch the thousands of current students and alumni from both institutions stream into the Garden on Thanksgiving weekend, armed with spirit that's normally associated with a Big Ten football rivalry.

Need an Islanders angle? Watch the program that produced Mike Iggulden (the defensive version—not the 5-points-in-4-games version) face off against the program that produced Freddy Meyer and Rick DiPietro (a little bit).

Past connections not good enough? You never know what will happen between now and then, but Islanders 2008 2nd round draft pick Corey Trivino should be in the lineup for the Terriers.

What's that? Matt Gilroy also plays for BU? What could that possibly have to do with the Islanders?

By the way, if you do decide to attend, try to get tickets in the Cornell section. It's the most fun you'll ever have at a hockey game outside of Lynah Rink.

Islanders Top Canucks, Stick It to Vancouver Press

I would have posted this regardless of the outcome of tonight's game, but I admit it's a lot more fun after the Islanders defeated the Canucks 2-1 in a shootout.

A lot was made on tonight's television broadcast of the hatchet job done on the Islanders leading up to the game by members of the Vancouver press. Columnists, bloggers, and TV hosts everywhere have been taking cheap shots at the Isles since the first season previews began to appear, but lately these criticisms are really starting to miss the mark to hilarious effect.

I first became aware of Gordon McIntyre's piece in The Vancouver Province during a visit to New York Islander Fan Central prior to today's game. Let's do a little more call and response...

General manager Garth Snow has put together a pretty good squad -- if it was the 2001-02 season.

But Mike Comrie, Bill Guerin, Doug Weight and Mike Sillinger are all past their best-by date.

All right. But let's just do this for fun:

Doug Weight—18 GP, 4 G, 12 A, 16 pts
Henrik Sedin—18 GP, 3 G, 12 A, 15 pts

Bill Guerin—18 GP, 6 G, 6 A, 12 pts
Daniel Sedin—18 GP, 6 G, 8 A 14 pts

I don't know. They still look fresh enough to me.

And, yikes, is that Richard Park wearing an 'A' and logging up to 19 1/2 minutes?

Yes, that is the highly respected veteran, loved by players and coaches alike, wearing an 'A' in the absence of injured teammates Sillinger and Brendan Witt. And while Park may have hit 19 1/2 minutes here and there, he's averaging around 15 minutes per game. Actually, now that I look it up, Park has only hit 19 1/2 minutes once, 18+ minutes once, and 17+ minutes twice. He's played as few as 12+ minutes four times.

This once-proud franchise has long been a joke and owner Charles Wang is hinting he will leave town or sell the team if the decrepit Nassau Coliseum, long past the glory years of Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy, isn't replaced.

Actually, he's not hinting that. The media and the commissioner are hinting that.

The Isles will be missing defenceman Thomas Pock, suspended for five games after getting a major and being tossed from Thursday's game for elbowing former Canuck Ryan Shannon in the head in his debut with the Senators.

They would also be missing Witt and Freddy Meyer, who have played very little this season and, no offense to Pock, are much more significant losses.

I don't want to get in the habit of doing this (unless it proves to be endlessly fun), but sometimes they just make it too easy.

Meyer Re-Ups, Campoli Down and Out

At least now we know that the dour expression on Chris Campoli's face in the locker room Saturday night wasn't simply the result of watching his mates blow a two-goal lead. Still, it was quite a shock to get home from work, turn the computer on, and find that Campoli's step-forward season has come to a premature end due. Just as surprising was the announcement that the contract of Freddy Meyer has been extended two years. How closely the two events are related is hard to say.

It's possible that the extension for Meyer was rushed into being in order to instill confidence in him as his role suddenly becomes that much more secure. However, I tend to doubt that Meyer really needed such a boost. His overall play over the last 20 games likely had more to do with Garth Snow being convinced that it was time to give Meyer more security. Let's not forget that despite being demoted, scratched, and bounced around the country this year, Meyer was always a well-regarded prospect, and he now seems to be fulfilling his potential. Certainly Meyer is at least as deserving of the two-year deal as Brent Sopel was of the three-year pact he just got from the Hawks.

To me, the key factor as far as Campoli is concerned is the loss of continuity in his development. The season-ending surgery surely leaves a hole in the roster, but it's not one that the rest of the corps can't come together to cover up. Campoli took a step forward this year, not a giant leap. Defensively, he has been physically stronger, more positionally sound, and generally a responsible, reliable blueliner. Offensively, he was just barely on pace to match his rookie-season numbers. No, he didn't have Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Semin to play with the way Mike Green does. But at some point, the Islanders need a quarterback whose presence in the lineup is not subject to his defensive shortcomings. It's disappointing that we'll have to wait until 2008-09 to see if Campoli can be that guy.


Happy Birthday to Mike Bossy, born on this date in 1957.

Tenacious O

And the D was nothing to sneeze at either.

First, let’s get this out of the way. I don’t care so much about Ottawa having played Detroit the night before. Back-to-back games are part of the schedule, and when there’s a game to be played, you come to play. I’ll line up the Isles’ 6,467 miles of travel against the Senators’ two games in two nights and call it somewhere near let’s-just-drop-the-puck-and-stop-worrying-about-this even. I won’t, however, discount the Senators playing without Dany Heatley and mostly without Jason Spezza. With the TV broadcast affirming that the Senators have lacked secondary scoring lately, you can’t lose that kind of firepower and expect to carry on as though nothing has changed. But the injuries to Heatley and Spezza made up only one of several storylines that competed for the headline of last night’s 3-1 win by the Islanders over the Senators.

So before anyone accuses me of raining on the parade, here's the bottom line: another game in Ottawa is off the schedule and two more points are on the board. And it was hard-nosed play from Freddy Meyer that left the Sens with only 2.67 slices in their pizza.

My biggest concern during this game was that the story would be how the Islanders frittered away a generous and potentially game-changing serving of power play opportunities. As the chances piled up and they only capitalized on one of the first seven, I figured it was only a matter of time before the disparate totals for the two teams began to even up in the 1-1 game. Marc-Andre Bergeron then showed that his long game is every bit as good as his short game by blasting home his second power-play marker of the game for the lead on the Isles' eighth opportunity with the man advantage.

They finished 2-for-9, which translates to a healthy 22% rate of success. It was remarkable to see the Islanders get the long end of the stick on power play chances against a team like Ottawa. The Islanders received only 11 chances in the first four games of the trip (one of those lasted only 18 seconds). As pointed out by Billy Jaffe on the first Bergeron goal, the Isles finally started taking advantage of actually outnumbering the penalty killers. And it was the players' tenacity on the puck and on the check that created those opportunities. As Ted Nolan told reporters after the game, "Give them full marks."

Miscellany
Mike Comrie: Creating the quality and quantity of scoring chances that the team needs from its #1 center.
Rick DiPietro: Will get that elusive empty-net goal.
Scheduling oddity: The Islanders play only four more Saturday home games this season, and three of them are against the Flyers. Five games remain with Philly, three of them on Saturdays in March.
Versus: Tomorrow's game against Montreal is on Versus at the usual 7 PM start time.

Stand Up and Take a Bow

It's the first day of 2008, and I feel like handing out some accolades...

To the Islander players, for finishing 2007 with a strong 5 wins in 6 games, including a convincing one-off road-trip victory in Carolina on New Year's Eve. The only team out of reach at the moment is Ottawa. It's going to be a wild second half.

To Ted Nolan, for instilling in his team the belief that a squad without a top-tier offensive player can reach the top tier of the league.

To Richard Park, for running away with the opportunity to break free of labels and stereotypes that limited the roles he had been given throughout his NHL career. Maybe he won't finish the year on a scoring line, but he continues to prove that he can be one of those guys.

To Wade Dubielewicz, for answering the call and those who doubted his ability to do so (myself included).

To Rick DiPietro, for transforming himself into a leader with presence, deserving of high praise.

To Jeff Tambellini, for being named AHL Player of the Week and making it difficult for people to forget about him.

To John Hynes, Kyle Okposo, Rhett Rakhshani, Tyler Rueggsegger, James vanRiemsdyk, and the rest of the U.S. National Junior Team, for advancing impressively through the preliminary round of the WJC and earning a bye into the semis. Isles prospects Okposo and Rakhshani have been overshadowed on the scoring leaderboard by vanRiemsdyk, Colin Wilson, and Jordan Schroeder (not to mention Isles propsect Robin Figren playing for Sweden) but their line has been recognized numerous times for dominating play and they made significant scoring contributions to Team USA's 4-0 start.

To Brendan Witt, for being the kind of warrior that every good team needs.

To Freddy Meyer and Blake Comeau, for making Aaron Johnson's return to the active roster a very interesting story.

To Bill Guerin, for filling the role of captain admirably, and for demonstrating that there's plenty of life left in him.

To my colleagues in the Blog Box (and some outside of it), for their outstanding work, which provides us all with an unprecedented richness of Islanders coverage, and for their spirit of generosity.

This was not meant to be a recap of the 2007 portion of the season. These were simply some people who stood out in my mind recently.

And here's a fun one...The other day I was checking in on Team USA's performance at the WJC via the live updates at onlajny.cz (thanks to Slap Shot). At the top of the page, I noticed the in-progress score of a game in which Skalica was trouncing Trencin 7-0. Remembering that Skalica was Ziggy Palffy's hometown, I clicked on the scoreboard link. Sure enough, there was Ziggy all over the scoresheet with a goal and 3 assists. That one brought a smile to my face.

Ziggy was the first player I can remember being proud of. I remember watching him quickly go from being a young, struggling talent to an NHL-caliber sniper and feeling proud because he became exactly what the Islanders hoped he would be. It's too bad that his 3 consecutive forty-goal seasons didn't coincide with better results for the team. Sadder still, that his time on the Island was cut short by frugal ownership.

Please note that the playoff confidence poll is still open. If you haven't voted yet, please feel free to voice your opinion. Vote "10" if you think the Isles are a lock for the playoffs, "0" if you think they have no shot, or any other degree of confidence in between.

Catching Up on a Busy Day

The Simon Suspension
I suppose thirty games is just about right. It had to be more than the previous, record-setting 25 games that Simon received last year. That punishment obviously did not serve its purpose, which should have been for Simon to examine his actions and take responsibility for his self-control. In reality, it's not the 30-game suspension that will do that either. It will take an honest effort at getting to the source of the loss of emotional control. Still, Colin Campbell had to raise the stakes. I wouldn't have been surprised or bothered if he had suspended Simon for the balance of the season.

I'm not thrilled to hear that Simon is appealing the decision. And at face value, I don't agree with Ted Nolan's assessment of the penalty as excessive. However, I think it's only fair to view things from other people's perspectives. So let's look at it like this: By NHL standards, Simon is not making a mint this year. NHLSCAP.com lists his 2007-2008 compensation at $800,000. I know, nothing to sneeze at, and Simon has cashed in many a sizable paycheck over his career. But although these guys make way more than most of us, often their expenses are in proportion to their income. So imagine what it would be like if someone took away 37% of your salary. You'd fight to get as much back as you could. Anyway, I'm just trying to see the other side of it, and this is one line of reasoning I came up with. Who knows? The motivation for the appeal may not be financial at all.

Okposo Leaves Minnesota to Turn Pro After WJC
Despite hearing rumblings about this yesterday, I was really surprised to see it come to fruition so quickly. I didn't expect to see Okposo playing for the Islanders this year (still not a given he'll be with the big club), but I could have envisioned a jump to Bridgeport after Minnesota's season ended. The move certainly puts a damper on the theory that playing another year at the NCAA level was good for Okposo's development. But things change. Maybe Okposo, the Islanders, or both determined that the situation in Minnesota was no longer his best option for making progress as a player.

I'm still very uncomfortable with the idea of Okposo coming to the Isles as a savior. But with Buffalo having just gone ahead 2-1 with a little over 2 minutes left, it's time to add a skill player by any means possible. What remains to be seen is whether he can elevate the skills he's demonstrated up to this point for competition at the highest level. It's long past time for an Islanders forward prospect to do so.

New Twist on Defense
Tonight, Berard and Bergeron both sat and Freddy Meyer entered the lineup for only the second time since rejoining the team. Why not? I had this notion that Ted Nolan might go back to Bergeron even after his poor performance against Pittsburgh. You know, a reverse shakeup. Silly me. Throw Freddy in there, see what he can do. Apparently it didn't make much of a difference tonight as the power play was blanked in five chances. If Nolan continues to bench Berard and Bergeron, what I'd really like to see is Chris Campoli take ownership of the power play.