The wheels have officially re-fallen off.
The Islanders lost another big one tonight in Phoenix by a final score of 5-1. Frans Nielsen scored the lone Islanders goal tonight, but other than that it was all Phoenix for the final 2 periods of this game. Once more, defensive breakdowns by Milan Jurcina and Mark Eaton were responsible for a Doan goal, Mark Streit was pretty much as abysmal as he'd been the whole season and only one Islander had an even rating for the game, which was none other than Matt Martin. It's very hard to blame Evgeni Nabokov for many of these goals when he's being completely hung out to dry by the pisspoor defense that's been placed in front of him. P.A. Parenteau also had another completely abysmal game, culminating in a double minor with a tacked on unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that was entirely his fault.
All in all, it's simply the same ol' song and dance over and over again, except this year there simply is no excuse for the team to be performing at this low level of play on a pretty consistent scale. Most of the blame goes to Snow, but there are certain players on this team right now who are playing completely below even the most moderate of expectations and sometimes look to not even care. The team, besides about 3-4 standout players, looks completely lost again and is heading towards the same lackluster style of play that gave them a 20 game winless streak last year.
It's a shame that whenever this team looks like it has a legitimate shot at recouping its losses, they lose one they shouldn't have and simply fall apart as a team. It's a fundamental problem that goes to the core - from the coaching to the GM to the owner himself.
As a hockey fan it is fairly easy to also say congrats to Shane Doan who was able to score with less than a second to go to get his first ever career hat trick.
The Islanders have finished up their road trip and will now face off against the Detroit Red Wings at home on January 10th. Game time is 7PM and will be on MSG+.
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