FanPost

Its The Goals Against..........Again!

Frank Frisch, the famous baseball player for the Cardinals said it best along time ago "Oh- those bases on balls". Although the analogous situation doesn't pertain in hockey, for the sake of the following commentary what I derive from the comparative situation in hockey are the small avoidable mistakes in a game that lead to scores.

Once again the Islanders are experiencing another unsatisfactory season. Some may point out how well the first line is doing. Others will point to our bright crop of developing prospects a year or two or three away from the NHL. In any case it appears that the rebuild will require at least another year or two to bear play-off position fruit. The importance of getting to the postseason to help foster the building of a new arena with the ultimate goal of keeping the team on the Island and in the NY area has been commented upon extensively, and is not the focus of this article.

The Goals against ratio besides actual Wins and Loses and points is the best measure of of the strength and balance of a hockey team. Once again we are on the road to failure in this department. At the All Star break our negative number [the difference between goals scored and allowed is at -28. Carolina -29, Buffalo -30, have similar numbers and pathetic Columbus is at -48 all are at the bottom of their respective divisions.] It does not take much logic or higher math to see why we have again reached a very negative number

These are the areas which have led to this problem

1. Lack of scoring by our 2nd - 4th lines.

2. The Forwards lack of sufficient fore checking in the offensive zone and back checking in the deffensive zone.

3. Insufficient defense - hitting, clearing the crease and clearing the zone. by the Defense.

4. Low scoring by the defense from the point.

5 Average over all goal tending.

Clearly something needs to be done! Do we stay with the patient rebuild and wait for our prospects to mature? - Or do we trade away some assets and or obtain some FAs at Defense, Forward, and possibly Goal to make a run next season? 2015 is approaching.

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