Headaches Abound, and Not Just Because of the Result

Islanders 0 : Oilers 4

Some teams have their streaky scorers. Some may even have lines that have their moments. However, for the Islanders, they can maybe say they have a streaky offense, period.

Miro Satan. Ruslan Fedotenko. Bill Guerin. Mike Comrie. Josef Vasicek. Richard Park. Trent Hunter. Need I say more? Granted, the latter two aren't expected to get the bulk of the scoring job done for us, but even so, they looked to be getting something done a few games ago. The offense as a whole had seemed to be clicking during their hot streak, the power play in particular.

However, now, the offense is colder than the heater in my bedroom, having scored one goal in two games, the latest one being a debacle against Edmonton, losing 4-0. Four former Oilers- Guerin (one shot, -2), Satan, Comrie, and Marc-Andre Bergeron (four shots, 19 minutes ice time)- played last night, and none of them were extremely effective before the hostile crowd that especially spurned Comrie (six shots, -2), booing at him every time he touched the puck. Ales Hemsky started the scoring with a softie 1:11 into the second period, and then fed a terrific play to Shawn Horcoff five minutes later to make it 2-0, Horcoff's 100th NHL goal. Six minutes after, Marty Reasoner made it 3-0. In the third they would add an insurance goal on the power-play to seal the deal for the Isles, who honestly didn't need any help burying themselves, as far as I could tell over two and a half periods (I turned off the TV finally at 11:15 p.m. last night and turned in due to a terrific headache, both because of the game and the fact that I like putting my hair up way too tight).

Rick DiPietro made 29 saves, but it wouldn't be enough, as not enough high-quality shots (though plenty of them in general) were being thrown at his Edmonton counterpart, Mathieu Garon (34 saves, approx.) to make up the difference. Two fights between Tim Jackman and two different Oilers (one of them captain Ethan Moreau) couldn't bring life to the Isles, who have now dropped three straight, this being their first in regulation in a while. This game wasn't very undisciplined from what I saw of it, although we of course took more penalties than the Oilers (or perhaps they did, but we couldn't capitalize- I wouldn't rule it out in the last eight minutes that I missed of the game). Overall, last night= forgettable experience. On to Vancouver.

Interesting side note going with the usual overblown goaltending matchup between Roberto Luongo and Rick DiPietro: Luongo, though of course one of the elite, has only a 4-9-2 record in 15 games against the Isles (those coming as goaltender for the Panthers), thought his save percentage is a .920. When asked about meeting his old team again, he said: "I've played them a bunch of times already so that feeling is gone." So perhaps that won't be so much of a storyline after all. This will, however, be a big game for the Islanders, who, after two clunkers in the West, have a chance to rebound and prove themselves against one of the best teams in the Western Conference. Can they get their lines woken up, and get offense clicking and defense physical once again by tonight? Time will tell.