Becoming An Isle of Frustration??

Islanders 2 : Stars 3 (OT)

There is more to this game than just a point lost. Or won, however you look at the proverbial water glass. It's focusing on some key problems for the Isles, particularly in last night's game at the Coliseum.

There are three, named Fedotenko, Comrie, and Guerin.

In the last nine games (including this one), these three have been -6, -6, and -3, respectively, and after our captain looked to get going earlier, he has had zero points in those nine games. As for Feds and Comrie, they have had a combined 5 points between them. However, they have been invisible as of late (and Guerin took three penalties last night, in a game with sub-par officiating as it was, although IMO two of the three were accurate). The Isles also have the least amount of goals scored in the league with 51, a statistic that can hardly be believed when you look at their record (12-8-1). No doubt the Isles have to wake up their big guns and get them to crash the net way more often than they are now. Leadership begins with leading by example. You can talk yourself into a hole or a corner, but until you start doing something, who is going to listen?

As for last night, the PK for the Isles was perfect, completely taking away the Stars' potent PP (2nd in the league but 0-for-4 last night). The PP also got going for a goal by Miro Satan late in the third to tie it at 2 (4-for-47), and take it to overtime. But then it only took less than a minute for Dallas to capitalize, as a save on Robidas by Rick DiPietro resulted in a rebound carom to Mike Modano, who Rick couldn't stop on the glove side as Witt and a Dallas player screened him. Thus, the Stars get the extra two points and get the hell out of Dodge to play the Devils next, on the wings of their offense.

Offense, IMO, is really what helped the Stars- Marty Turco obviously didn't, despite making some good saves (including a ridiculous sprawling stop on a Mike Comrie shot in the first). The puckhandling goalie took quite a few gambles, one of which resulted in a Richard Park goal to open up the scoring, and others which were not as lucky, simply because the rest of the offense (or lack of it) couldn't get it into the net. Dallas was very lucky that: A. their defense was solid; B. their offense was red-hot and C. ours was not. And offensive machine Mike Modano certainly made a difference; his two goals (one of which was the game winner) were his 514th and 515th career goals. Jeff Halpern also scored his 100th career goal which put the Stars up 2-1 in the 3rd period.

Now for something else in the NHL that happened last night, during the Flyers-Bruins game. These two teams already with a rift between them because of the Randy Jones hit on Patrice Bergeron last month, it was deepened even more last night when Scott Hartnell of the Flyers rammed Andrew Alberts into the boards while Alberts was on his knees near the blueline. His head connected with the dasher, and he went down hard. The hit was a terrible one, and incredibly unnecessary and irresponsible on Hartnell's part- what business do you have finishing a check on a guy who is already down on his knees, pretty much out of the play? Flyers coach Jon Stevens has got to keep on his players to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen- after the Boulerice incident, after the hit on Bergeron, you're STILL going to allow this to go on? It's reached a ridiculous point, and I hope that now the NHL will look into disciplining Stevens and the Flyers more severely.