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| Courtesy Zimbio.com |
It's about time the Isles faithful had something good to talk about, but sadly, not even their announcer has anything good to say either.
Finally, after about a month of absolute depressing efforts by the Isles, they finally got their act together defensively and snapped a 14-game winless streak with a 2-0 shutout against the New Jersey Devils. I remember a few years ago when the Flyers had a 10-game winless streak and it felt like forever. Tack on four more games, and that's just scary.
Who's to blame?
Josh Bailey, one of their (few) promising players, and first round draft picks, was sent back down to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL. The Islanders really are a bunch of kids. But they're not the sort of kids like Edmonton has--real studs. You can look at first overall pick John Tavares and young Kyle Okposo (who is injured) as your top scorers and look to the oft-injured Rick DiPietro as a solid netminder. But as far as the supporting cast goes, there's not much there.
Mark Streit (also injured) is a huge part of that team too, but he's only around for a couple years, and the Isles won't be competitive by then. James Wisniewski, a very capable defender, is only on that team for a year. He's helping, but not exactly advancing his career. Defensively, they're just as young and terrible as up front.
Time, as much as the Islanders have waited a fair amount of it, may be the only solution for the team. There's not much there, and they still have to get rid of the Alexei Yashin and Brendan Witt buyouts, which still have five and two years remaining, respectively.
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| Courtesy Zimbio.com |
This team was hot, hot, hot, to start the season. It looked like the young Finnish goaltending tandem of Pekka Rinne (left) and Anders Lindback were going to be enough to catapult the usually underwhelming Nashville Predators to another stunningly great season.
However, after this hot start, the Predators have hit a huge pothole, with their latest loss a bad one against the Minnesota Wild. Rinne only made six saves and ended up getting yanked for Lindback, who didn't fare much better.
The epitome of this meltdown by the Preds was a horrific loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Nashville exploded to a huge 4-1 lead until the Leafs absolutely stormed back and took the game 5-4 with several power play goals. Coach Barry Trotz called out his defense, calling it one of the worst defensive games he had ever seen from his team. Pretty remarkable.
Statistically speaking, Nashville needs to start scoring. Their goal differential is down to -8, and their leading goal scorer, Steve Sullivan, only has six. Patric Hornqvist and Marcel Goc are tied in second with five. Their leading point getter is Cal O'Reilly with 13. Something has got to give with this offense, unless they want to rely on Ryan Suter and Shea Weber's cannons from the point forever.
And that may be where the turnaround for the Preds lies. No doubt about it, they are playing in a tough Central Division with the Western Conference leading Detroit Red Wings, upstart Columbus Blue Jackets, resurgent St. Louis Blues and defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks (ugh), but they need to find a way, and fast, if they're to turn this season around.
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