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You might have been caught by the "gotchya" headline, but with the NY Islanders only 5 points from relevancy, this season is far from over. However, it is quite clear from this season's disappointment, besides the fan clamor, that there are some things seriously wrong with these NY Islanders. So let us address a few things....
1. THIN DEFENSE: like it or not, the trading of Mark Streit, a guy who played both the PK and the PP has mattered thus far thanks to the injury of Visnovsky. It has shown how thin and precarious that defense is really. If Visnovsky is out for another 3 to 4 weeks, this team is in SERIOUS trouble. That is how thin the defense really is.
2. 2ND LINE OUTAGE: The Isles twitterazzi seems to point to the Vanek trade, forgetting that this team was already rendering a stink when Moulson was here. The real difference seems to be that the 2nd line has not been as topflight as the start of the season or last season.
3. PK STINK: The Islanders Penalty Kill is awful. Their power play is middle of the road, so hardly the reason for their fall. But their Penalty Kill is just plain bad.
4. COACHING: The NY Islanders under Caps has always been a bit of Jekyll and Hyde. However, the big difference between this and last year is that for most of last season, they kept it close, even in losses. This season, that has faltered, losing by 2 or 3 goals and more. This, coaching or not to blame, is unacceptable. Someone has to pay a price for this young team to understand what happens when they continue to free-fall. Someone needs to walk a plank...
5. FIRE A PLAYER? Garth Snow seems reticence to sacrifice the coach since he and the coaching staff have been on the same page. But who do you fire from the team? Which "passenger" do you deal?
Michael Grabner remains the most with value, and his play from the latter half of last season and the playoffs has not been seen in the last 15 games. He is not winning the one on one battles. He remains a valuable commodity for his PK/PP work and 3rd line transitional work, but if he's going to continue on the 3rd line, then he remains expendable.
3rd line is easily added-to when Persson and Sundstrom are in Bridgeport.
6. THE GOALIE CONUNDRUM: Nabokov's mediocre play with that thin defense has set the stage for Kevin Poulin to get more reps. Overall, for the Isles future, this is a good thing to see because before this season I thought Poulin was looking to be a wash. Poulin, however, in his first real consistent play, will continue to make mistakes and there will be a learning curve. So IF it is to be Poulin's time, the Isles need to shore up that D with a steady vet defender.
However, can we dismiss Nabs? Because its hard to grade the goalie with such a trainwreck of D in front of him. The wheels came off once Vis got hurt.
SUMMATION:
Unless one of these 6 elements are offset in some way, this season will continue to be a step backward. Unless a price is paid by coach or by player, with some move... I fail to see how these issues can be overcome this year.
In talking to sources, despite words earlier this season of impatience with poor results, conversely, there seems to be a stress of patience with the current issues. This is something that doesn't quite equate to me.
Ultimately, this all falls on Garth Snow's shoulders as a burden and mistake. He failed to provide solidity to the defense when he knew Streit was going. He left it precarious & ineffective, and continues to remain that way.
This season is perhaps the first clear mistake with quantifiable results for the rebuild effort. The free agents and moves did not yield intended result or proper stopgaps in 24 games. This team has regressed and remains in stark contrast to last seasons success.
Unless some definitive move in made to address that mistake instead of hubris & hopes that it will change without doing anything, it might become a glaring negative bullet-point to Garth Snow's tenure.
At this juncture, mistakes will become more apparent. The fact there seems to be no plan but "wait & see"at this moment... seems flawed.
For "patience" seems to just hope the presence of Visnovsky can solidy/unify the porous defense and Vanek's return to push more scoring. However, even
if these items happen: it still leaves items as thin as before. •