Jack Capuano's implied threat of changes or line shuffling after the frustrating 3-0 home loss to Winnipeg was followed by an everyone-wears-orange practice Friday. (I kind of wish I could tell my employees what to wear when they show up in the morning.)
However, with music blasting -- gets players to shout for the puck, ya know -- no specific line changes were evident yet. Expect a tinker today to have lines stirred, not shaken.
[Update: Yeah, um, about that mere "tinkering:" Not so much.]
What panicking fans don't want to hear, but what is worth mulling: "they tossed 34 shots at Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec, and by Capuano’s count they had 18 scoring chances against the Jets’ eight. 'Can’t read into stats too much,' Capuano said, 'but we’re getting our chances ...'"
In what became a now-six-game winless streak, Thursday was the wrong time to outchance an opponent and come up empty. A line stir, even if largely cosmetic or psychological, hopefully changes the feel without cutting down on scoring chances against one of the East's beasts.
Islanders Links
Everybody has something on yesterday's practice:
- The Post's Brett Cyrgalis has the story and Capuano scoring chance quote linked above.
- He also had a piece yesterday about Steve Staios' contribution so far. Mark Streit sounds like a fan.
- Newsday's Arthur Staple has the story with angles including a Mark Streit team meeting and Frans Nielsen on breaking up FNGO: "If he does it, I definitely understand ... We haven't done enough lately."
- The official site has various quotes in the game preview, as well as a report on that practice.
- Also: Former Capital Milan Jurcina's road to the Coliseum.
- Tonight is annual Military Appreciation Night, with a bunch of initiatives beginning at 5:30 p.m.
FIG Picks: Leave your First Islanders Goal picks in this thread.
Other Bits of Fancy
- So what do you make of the latest Devils headed for bankruptcy reports? Ownership squabbling, or something is rotten in Newark? {softball served up...}
- Wonder if anyone bid on Bryan McCabe this offseason, or if he simply told suitors, "Nah, I'm good. Florida's nice."
- And why not: Photo: Rangers Photoshop Avery Banner Out Of FanCam | SNYRangersBlog.com
- For musing: Around the League in 33 Bands | November
- For thinking: Hockey Prospectus | The Blue Line: Why Scoring Is Down
- For drinking: Drink it up: Puck Daddy’s NHL Beer Cost Index for 2011-12 - Puck Daddy
- For remembering old pals: Newly acquired Nokelainen sparks Canadiens - Yahoo! Sports
- For schadenfreude: Keith phrased this fight link, "Kind of nice to see Gregory Campbell get smacked around")
- Another fight link with KQ phrasing: "Joel Rechlicz has become a pretty entertaining fighter"
- I don't know the context, but the Jeff Skinner hissy fit gif is lovely.
More later. Game tonight. I explained Movember to Mrs. Lighthouse yesterday. Her response? "That's not happening."