Panthers 4, Islanders 3: Missed opportunity after Tavares hat trick

Given the Colorado fan infatuation with the topic, should I have added:

Tavares > Duchene

Admittedly, I didn’t see much of the game, but I need to ask…how much of andefensive problem do have when Rollie is playing? Looks like we either can clear the zone or can handle the pressure when the other team is in our zone. Seriously, if I see that jackass lead one more rush on the PK and swat the puck!!! We don’t need a shakeup, we need Bailey back and to play our real #1 keeper more often. It’s shameful that he only has 3 starts.

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. And after getting off to a hot start, Comeau is once again playing the invisible man (although he did get an assist tonight) since Bailey went down. I still have my doubts about how good Comeau is and how much of his hot start was Bailey playing beyond belief.

The theme here seems to be knocking DP….or Garth and Coach Gordon for playing him instead of Roly. Garth has to know whether DP can handle being a #1 without his knee going on him. He needs to know if DP is the future or if we should start looking at Koskinnen, Poulin, and Nilsson. That may mean starting DP in more games than he deserves vs Roly. The team is good enough this year—even with injuries—that it can win even when the netminding is subpar.

Nino is playing well enough that he deserves a roster spot. That would be true even if we didn’t have Okposo and Schremp out and JT, Bailey, Hunter and Comeau missing at various times. With a depleted lineup such as we have, I don’t see how Garth can even consider sending Nino back to the Hawks. And if he did, who would he replace him with?

Only a moment to jot this in before I hop off to a cyclocross race-

+: JT! 1st career NHL hat trick, carried the offense, showed why he was a 1 overall. You the man, JT.
+: PAP: 9 points? 9 points? Plus, he was giving and taking some hits tonight.
-: RDP: Ill-advised puck-handling. Ugh. =/
-: Officiating Consistency: There was none. Konopka’s non-interference penalty, and then the non-penalty on interference within a few minutes at our end? Not cool, zebras.

/scoots out door with his tail afire

+ JT …. Noticeably stronger and faster…great start for the kid. I have to be honest, very nervous when his EL deal runs out. We need to lock this kid up.
+ PA .. Starting to turn me around. Never going to be a 1st line player but…
+ Sim .. good tough game stirring stuff up like he usually does. Worked hard all night.
+ Nino … keep him here please. Smarter each game.

- HUNTER … he really does accomplish nothing out there. Cant keep up with the game.
- DIP … not your best game, but still rounding into shape. Rebound was not entirely your fault, shot was deflected on the way in.
- COMEAU … looks lost the last 3 games. Cant be just Bailey, can it?

Rocky start cost us in this game, power play continues to be real good. Solid 2nd and 3rd periods. Lost in the faceoff circle, 34-29. Ridiculous call on Konopka and even though the PA penalty was called by the ‘book’, I have rarely seen that call made on the team down a goal in the final minute. But, at the end of the season, I believe that calls for and against tend to even out.

Nice break up ahead of the Montreal game. Josh and Rollie expected in the lineup, we get back to winning!

SV % .882 (42nd in league)
GA 17 (9th in league)
GAA 3.31 (38th in league)
OTL 2 (1st in league)
In 5 games, has given up 4 goals to DAL, PIT and FLA.

Do we expect the team to score 5 goals in these games, esp given our slow 1st period performances? The defense is fine. The 1A goaltending is not there yet, Roli should be guarding the pipes while we’re near the top of the division/conference.

Roli in 3 games (vs WSH, COL, TOR) :
SV % .942 (6th in league)
GA 5 (41st in league)
GAA 1.65 (6th in league)
Roli seems to have less of a problem with our upgraded defense.

As mentioned late in game thread, Flats was directly answering a question from Duguay about strong 2-way players. He didn’t sugarcoat his answer like most analysts but I didn’t take it as a (harsh) criticism – just an honest answer.
Sorry for the misplaced "reply" – when I get the black comment update box while typing it seems to drop my response 10 comments down when posting so it appears out of sync.

I agree that Roloson is gone after this season. You cant count on Komy yet or anyone else in the system for that matter. It is vital to get DiPietro back in shape and playing well.

You guys are so quick to forget that in 4 healthy seasons pre injury, his save percentage was .908 while facing 6754 shots! Our defense those years, in case you need to be reminded. was abysmal.

For the Islanders injury woes, DiP and everyone else……

George W Bush

LOL

I wanted to see the Panthers ceremony too…

Just poor defensive performance from the team. There were not as aggresive defensively as they were in Tampa.

This game reminded me of a song near the end.
“Where ever you go, whatever you do, I will be right there waiting for you… Whatever it takes, or how my heart breaks, I will be right there waiting for you”

I love Rollie the Goalie and wanted him in tonight. But low and behold DP was in crease tonight. Nothing against DP, but Rollie is a beast while DP plays like an old man with bad knees.

1 – DiPietro should get a $10,000 fine every time he handles the puck – there’s no way he should start more than half the games – he and Roloson should rotate for now and let the better goalie play 60% of the games after a month of that

DiPietro is not the goalie of the future – that’s Koskinen/Poulin/Eriksson – those guys aren’t far away

let’s not give away any more games this year

2 – Hamonic should be called up immediately – he can’t learn anything playing with scrubs in the A – bring him up

3 – Keep Nino on the squad

One more game for Nino before The Decision. I must say with each game he looks more adept at handling NHL assignments. The whole ELC-slide thing is one concern; in terms of this year’s Islanders, right now he helps.

I don’t know about that – does he really help right now? I think he plays reasonably well for an 18-year old, certainly not worse than one could realistically expect, and he shows that he’d have a few tools already to do some damage (his shot in particular). But his overall game struggles still quite a bit, and that’s only natural. It’s impossible to figure out everything in just a few games. But the bottom line is that he much rather hurts this team right now he helps. Again, that’s what rookies do and not enough of a reason to send him down – I could still see them keeping him, as they’ll do what they think will help him most long-term, but I’m quite sure they know he’s a relatively big liability out there for now.

Although I’m honestly not sure the scoring chances tell much more than Corsi, it’s pretty cool a whole bunch of guys does track scoring chances this season, and that way you get a pretty good impression of the results for the Islanders, too. The four games tracked thus far this season (Rangers, Capitals, Leafs, Panthers) don’t look very good for Nino. He’s gone 6-22 at even-strength in these four games, worst on the team, and from Corsi numbers it looks like at least three other games (Tampa is the exception) would probably have yielded about similar results. Only Jon Sim (4-11) has fewer chances for, and only Martinek (14-23) and Moulson (14-24) have given up more chances than Nino, but of course have got more ice-time generally and in much more difficult situations. Nino’s number is obviously awful by itself, but considering he’s got by far the most favourable zonestarts on the team (even ranks very high in the league), and he’s rarely played against tough comeptition, the results certainly make you wonder if it makes sense up here for him as well as for the team.

Not saying that these numbers will be key in the decision and certainly not that they’d remain on this level if they kept him, but I don’t think the areas he needs to improve on are that easily to figure out in just the next 10-20 games or so. The confidence would obviously grow, though, I’m not sure he feels quite comfortable in this kind of tryout-situation. But still, I don’t think you could expect him to really help this team anytime soon.

When his handling backfires, it reminds me of that outfielder with the cannon arm who constantly skips his cutoff man, sometimes ending in a highlight-reel putout and sometimes ending in a two-base error.

DiPietro is FRANCOEUR

I missed the last couple of games before Saturday nights game, but it seemed like the team was lacking the effort as a whole. Florida was beating us to the puck and really outplayed us, it seemed they controlled play a little better. I thought Bailey had been a big reason the Isles played in the O zone in the 1st couple fo games, and his absence was a big reason for the lack of O zone time

What is with all the hatin’ on Ricky and Bruno?? You would think that either A) they are the worst goalie and defenseman in NHL history; or B) they play for the Rags. Try to remember back, if you can, to those wonderful days in the mid 2000’s when we were not all that good and Ricky still put up decent numbers. he did not get a lot of help back then, and still won more games than he lost. In 2003-4 he posted 2.36 GAA and .911 SP; in 2005-6 we were 25th out of 30 in GF; in 2006-7 we were 12th and Ricky posted a 2.58 GAA and a .919 SP. And now everyone acts as though Ricky is single-handedly costing us a playoff spot after only 8 games. Can’t we chill a bit, and give him a chance. I don’t know about anyone else, but Rollie does not stop 2 of the 4 goals Florida scored due to screens in front. And can anyone be so sure that that big , juicy rebound would not have been there if Rollie was in goal?? I love Rollie too, but he cannot play every game, folks, so you should get behind the WHOLE team and stop the hatin’.

but you still don’t know if a juicy rebound would have been left by Rollie do you?? and who says it is Rick’s decision not to go to Bridgeport?? I really think we have gotten a little ahead of ourselves expecting playoffs at this point. Would you have Rollie start EVERY game?? And who backs up while Ricky is in Bridgeport BTW? And who says Ricky isn’t healthy he looks pretty healthy to me.

Does any one know that Roloson, in 13 NHL seasons, has only had 4 winning seasons?? His lifetime record is 192-217-74. These are not exactly HOF numbers we’re talking about here. Last year he was 23-18-7 with a GA of 3.00 (not great) and a SP of .907 (near the bottom among goalies with 50+ games). While I admit the Islanders were not a great team last year, these are still very pedestrian numbers. And i suggest that Ricky’s numbers compare VERY favorbly to Rollie’s best seasons. Again, I love rollie too, but this does not change the fact that he is not Superman.