Perhaps its the lack of any assemblance of recent success. Perhaps its the young core of a team yet to truly prove itself. Perhaps its the major injuries that have taken a major hit on the team before the puck has dropped in game number one.
There is no faith out there in any hockey publication, web site, blog, newspaper, sports dirt sheet or any other media outlet that does not have the words "Islanders" at the top of it.
This is nothing new to Islander fans as they have gotten used to low expectations and disappointing outcomes despite the almost defiant hope that things will be different this time.
The Hockey News predicts the Islanders to finish 14th in the conference or 28th in the league and this is BEFORE anyone knew the Islanders would be without their top winger and defenseman for extended periods.
In the Hockey News' defense, they do state that if certain things happen, like Rick DiPietro regaining his all star form and the revamped defense bringing down the horrible goals against totals combined with the maturing of some of the teams young stars could net the Islanders a playoff berth.
Way to hedge your bet guys.
TSN ranked the Islanders 29th taking repeated pop shots at the "fact" that the team can't score goals even though they had the same amount of goals last season as New Jersey and the NY Rangers.
Anyone that does any sort of research will know that goal scoring was not the Islanders primary problem last season. It was stopping them.
The team has vastly improved its team defense and taken it out of the charge of guys like Freddy Meyer and placed in under the care of guys like James Wisniewski and Mark Eaton.
Obviously someone at TSN missed the facts.
CBSports.com doesn't mince any words. They hold nothing back and give the team no hope stating that the Islanders had no depth to begin with and the injuries to Striet and Okposo will not help. They say the Islanders finish 30th in the league and dismiss them as at the start of just another lost season.
If the Islander fans can look forward to something this season its making all of the nay sayers eat a great big steaming pile of craw.
Yes this article is being written after the injuries of Streit, Okposo and Schremp.
As good as Streit is this team is not built around one player or superstar.
Any team can have one flashy guy who scores 40 goals and a back up cast of slugs who never will win anything.
Thats not what the Islanders are trying to build. They are trying to build like Chicago has built their power. Slowly, methodically and with a purpose.
Sure every team needs a cornerstone guy and that is John Tavares. Watch what he does this year. I am not saying he scores 51 like Stamkos did but make no mistake JT will score more often and consistently.
Despite losing Streit the Islanders will be vastly improved on the defensive side of the puck. This is not an opinion based on anything but fact.
You dont add the players the Islanders did on defense and get worse.
What does all this point to?
The NHL writers, websites and what have you? They better get their forks ready because the Islanders are about to serve them up that craw they have been waiting to serve for a long time.
Place your opinion below.
No comments:
Post a Comment