Interesting Weekend

Interesting weekend for the Islanders, eh?

First our boys lost a Turkey Hangover Game to the Bruins on Friday. At
noon. Look, I am all for giving the fans a fun start time for after the holiday but noon may be just too early for hockey players to get up and do what they do best. Seriously. That game was just ugly for the first period.

Saturday night's rematch at home was a heck of a lot better. The Isles
peppered Tim Thomas all game long and our boys squeaked out a 2-1 win.
How happy was Andy Hilbert after getting his first goal of the season?
The guy had hit the post so many times this season that it started to
look like he was Ronaldinho doing that sick crossbar trick from the
World Cup.

Two things are very, very troubling right now for the team. The first
is that the team is not scoring a lot of goals. Yes, winning one-goal
games builds character and all that but once in a while it is nice to
play with a bit of a lead. The Isles simply need to score some goals.
Put Mindfreak and David Blaine out there with Mike Comrie if you have
to.

In hand with the lack of goal-scoring is the power play; which was been
dreadful of late. Coach Nolan reinserted Marc Andre Bergeron to the
lineup for the home game on Saturday and while he was out there,
Bergeron provided little spark. The Bruins announcers speculated that
Bergeron may be trade bait right now and while that may be true, Nolan
had to go with the seven defensemen to get him and his bomb back on the
PP. Bergeron has a shot that scares teams even though they all know
when it is coming. He is an asset in that regard. A trade-worthy
asset? I'm not so sure. Not yet anyway.

Luckily, I made it through the Bruins' broadcast. It was touch-and-go
there for a while since I was suffering with their crappy announcers,
Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley. Brick deserves a gold star for
perfecting the awkward TV Laugh that those dudes do when their partner
says something meant to be humorous when it actually falls flat.
Brickley is one of those Master of the Obvious color commentators and is nothing special in his own right but trust me, working with Jack Edwards night after night has to feel like spending months tortured on the old water board. Edwards is one of those dudes who likes to use words and phrases in a broadcast to make it seem like he is a really gifted announcer when what he really does is below average. Anyone who heard his "the Islanders are on fire and Tim Thomas is hoping the defense is not made of matches" analogy can back me up on this one. Trust me, Dear Reader. Howie Rose is The Man.

Tonight, the venerable Dallas Stars enter the octagon. Dallas is one of those teams that historically plays well in the regular season but folds it's collective tent in the playoffs. They've been through a lot of changes of late and beat the Rangers yesterday. Brett Hull is the new co-GM. Talk about a head-scratcher. From reports that I read last
year, the guy never even prepared for his gig on NBC and man, did it
show. All he ever did was want to debate Ray Ferraro. Ferraro, who
apparently takes TV seriously because he's, you know, good at it, always was able to throw stuff back in Hullie's combative face. Hull would then just scrunch up his face like Ray didn't know what he was talking about and Bill Clement would try to skate around the elephant in the room. Not good times.

So now Hull has a set of keys to the franchise and he has to prove that
he can evaluate talent and put a team together for Dave Tippett to
coach. A lot of people have to be wondering about Hull's commitment
here. Remember, this is a guy who didn't even feel like getting in
shape to play for the Coyotes after the lockout. No less that Wayne
Gretzky gave him a chance and Hull was too lazy or unwilling to come
back to play in the New NHL. Guys like Ron Francis and Steve Yzerman
work in front offices and everything to learn the craft and Hull goes
from goodwill ambassador to co-GM. Go figure.

So, anyhoo, tonight is the Stars and Wednesday is the suddenly-mortal
Senators at home before the Islanders take the bus to Manhattan for
another showdown with the Rangers. We have got to score some goals in
this stretch.