A Tale of Two Teams

Posted 9:46 AM ET | Comments 1

"I think the most frustrating thing is letting four points slip away this weekend"
- Mike Comrie

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .

There is a line that succinctly embodies a weekend of festivities and games which I had miss seeing in person. Apologies to those who were hoping to meet me there at the Blog Box. My next date there is at Thursday Isles/Rangers tilt.

Instead I vicariously lived it through the TV and through my Blog Box compatriots.

I recommend some reading:

http://islandersoutsider.blogspot.com/
The Islander Outsider and
http://www.thetigertrack.com/
The Tiger Track were there along with others to interview some of those Core of Four players in between the Walk of Champions and the ceremony.

http://www.islesblogger.com/
IslesBlogger took some great shots of the Islanders Hall of Fame Plaques.

http://www.7thwoman.blogspot.com/
Unique perspectives from 7th Woman always has a great perspective on things this weekend.

From these great blogs you get what a great history we have and the Isles attempt to entwine tradition and bring these players back to celebrate some great times. The Charles Darnay of success that the Dynasty team represents . . .

And then we have our current team. Not a terrible team. Not even a bad team. Just not a very good one who then played, in key games that had everyone's attention and a desperate need to win, poor losses. 1 goal for the entire weekend. From allowing Philly to walk all over them. And then, they weren't done yet. 53 shots for no goals against the Florida backup goaltender.

Hunter led with 7 shots. Park had 6. Hilbert 5. Getting to see a pattern here. None of these guys with so many shots are sure things.

Satan? 2 shots.
Guerin? The same.
Comrie had 3.
Vasicek? 1?

This is not the recipe for a win. If someone will willing to smash his way in front of Anderson, paying a price that the Core of Four seemed to do all the time, this game would not have been a shutout. With all of Hunter and Park's shots, how many players were grinding and taking punishment in front of Anderson creating chaos?

As many as our goals.

0

Kids shrinking minutes:

Tambellini logged 6:39, yet managed 3 shots in such a limited icetime. Tamb had a great chance stonewalled by Anderson.
Comeau, 8:05. Colliton, 6:09. Both had one shot each.

New guy:
Davison logged 20:03.

Good ol' Wade Dubielewicz filled in nicely. No rust in his game. He stopped 29 shots. And it wasn't the defense nor goalie that lost this one.

Bruno Gervais took a hard check by former Isles, Mezei, and is day-to-day with a concussion.

"You can't be too frustrated when your team gives what they have to give."
- Ted Nolan

I beg to differ.

Instead, this team seems to be walking to their own playoff execution like Sydney Carton.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known"

Clearly, Syd was also following the Isles this season.

- BD

Filed Under: Islanders NHL Panthers

Texhorns02

March 3, 2008 10:17 AM ET | Delete
Tha's frustrating stuff. In Guerin's last year in Dallas similar things were happening. He just didn't seem right, and seemed to want to have the puck fed to him at all times rather than working to go get it out of the corner, or play nasty hockey in front of the net. From the sounds of it he's returning to that. Very unfortunate for the Isles if true.

You must be logged in to leave a comment.