If an New York Islanders fan had come up to you and said that the team would be 10th in five-on-five goals in the league, eighth on the power play, three points out of the playoffs and floating around fourth in the Atlantic division, I think most would jump on that opportunity.
As a whole, the Islanders have played much better than last season. The defense was upgraded, the scoring has come from more than just the first line (most of the time), Rick DiPietro was finally demoted for Kevin Poulin, and Nabokov has been a little hit-or-miss, with some off-performances followed up by some excellent play. Perhaps most importantly, he has given them a chance to win every night, providing they score some goals upfront.
So wherein lies the issue with the team?
To start with, the defense has been better than last year but are still suffering from inconsistency. They are lacking a true first-pairing set of defensemen, and an overabundance of puck-moving forwards.
Any team would take the combo of Mark Streit and L'ubomir Visnovsky, two of the top-scoring defensemen in the league, but there's a catch. While Viznovsky and Streit will earn ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Mike Blazowski
The Mystery of the New York Islanders Season so Far
March 12th, 2013 by Mike Blazowski Leave a reply »
Advertisement