Berard, Where Are You??

Islanders 2 : Flyers 3

Captain Bill Guerin sat this one out with an eye injury and is day-to-day, and his presence was seemingly missed, as some bad breaks led to two goals by Scotty Upshall and a shortie by Mike Richards, and the Isles fell to the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2, at the Wachovia Center. The Flyers remain undefeated against the Isles in their home arena, and goaltender Martin Biron remains hot in his 15th start of the season.

Perhaps the biggest pitfall to this game was the play of Marc-Andre Bergeron, whose bad decision to pinch led to the game-winner on the Isles power play- by the Flyers. Ruslan Fedotenko also had a strangely unsound game. The Isles weren't as strong offensively as they had been against other teams this year, and overall the game wasn't exactly pretty, though the advantage was even throughout. You can't win them all, however, although it would have been nice to get at least a point out of this one.

Two players who stood out to me are Richard Park and Radek Martinek. Martinek, who has had a great year so far, is nearly always positioned well and a terrific shot blocker as well. He's not the biggest guy on the ice, but he's very smart with the puck. Also, Richard Park is developing into the kind of player the Isles can always depend on- smart, hardworking, and always moving. I was very impressed with his game last night, and I believe he is one of the unsung heroes as of late.

One player other than Guerin who we missed last night was definitely Bryan Berard, on the PP. The Flyers PK, unlike other PKs I've noticed, seems to constantly move and pressure the PP, and quite a few times the Isles got flustered and let the puck drift into the neutral zone. Also, there was too much handling the puck and not enough passing. In a good power play, you want to pass quickly and shoot, and there wasn't enough of that. I can hardly wait for Berard to get back so that our PP can get going again.