Allow The Win

Isles 4 : Thrashers 1

Let’s celebrate tonight’s win with some Isles trivia…

Tonight’s sellout crowd of 16,234 was the Isle’s __ sellout of the season.

Keeping the Thrashers down to 10 shots on goal was ________.

The Isles scored a total of __ goals during their recent 7 game losing streak, and have scored a total of __ goals in their last three wins.

Tonight’s win puts the Isles within __ points of the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference.

Survey says??

8th, the lowest in Isle’s franchise history, 11 & 13, 3

All great answers so let’s tell the Isles what they’ve won…

The Isles have won breaking Atlanta’s 3 game winning streak with a 3 game winning streak of their own…plus a porcelain guppy figurine valued at $350.00 (the latter prize being a weak attempt to amuse those of you around when contestants on Wheel of Fortune were forced to buy some kooky overpriced stuff with the money left over from buying the more desirable overpriced stuff).

The best part of tonight’s game was when Bryan Berard tackled Garnett Exelby after he excelled (pun intended) at taking some cheap shots on Blake Comeau in the 3rd period.

Berard's approach to the situation was totally called for and just plain awesome. After breaking the commandment ‘thou shalt not mess with my teammate’, Exelby was sent to the locker room and took with him 17 minutes in penalties – 5 minutes for fighting, 2 minutes for slashing and a 10 minute game misconduct. Berard received 2 minutes for roughing and a 10 minute game misconduct. Another highlight of the game was Ruslan Fedotenko’s backhanded goal in the 2nd period (1:30) – a goal executed so swiftly that it took a few seconds for both the majority of fans and whoever flicks on the red light to realize the puck went in the net. Speaking of Fedotenko, tonight he appeared to be directing his body more to play on all levels that gravity will allow – up, down and all around which is similar to what in part contributes to Brendan Witt’s intense style of play. Way to go FEEDOTEEEENKOOOO (that one’s for you Angie). Although it was great to see the Isles racking up so many shots on goal, 49 shots on goal to 4 goals scored is a ratio that…wait…never mind stating the obvious. Take as many shots as you need fellas.

The Isles must have recently sharpened their skates and minds because in these last three games they seem to be skating TOGETHER at a faster, more confident pace and ALLELUYAH! they are rushing in on the net and following through instead of slowing down. As an added bonus, in tonight’s game the Isles looked as fresh in the 3rd period as they did in the 1st and 2nd. It was a well played game and a most deserving win because being able to point out a break in the flow of the Isle’s concentration and skill set became hard to impossible to do. Mindset-wise the Isles appear to have said NEY! to apathy and instead have dug down in their frustration and pulled out the ability to re-build momentum. It is a welcomed relief to see the fellas talking it up on the bench - it once again looks lively in there. Even Ted Nolan jumped up and lunged towards the ice in reaction to something that has escaped my memory of why.

Overall the Isles now appear to be exerting what I call an ‘affected’ playing style (which some may mistakenly refer to as desperation due to the recent losing streak) – meaning they are playing in response to being affected by the process of forming, storming, norming and performing (Tuckman, 1965) that all groups, in this case teams go through (and the Isle’s fan base too!). In going forward from here a psychological strategy for the Isles would be to make sure they effectively utilize the ‘data’ from the first three stages to transition into the performance stage and then enforce all of it on the ice like they did tonight. That strategy can be summed up in a newly suggested Isle’s mantra - ALLOW THE WIN.

LET’S GO ISLANDERS!

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399.