New York Islanders Are Still Bad Minus Going Two for Four

The New York Islanders have won two out their last four games. They’re finally .500! But why is no one else rejoicing? Where are the revelers? The ticker tape parade? Oh yeah. This team is still bad.

The New York Islanders have won two games now. Praise be to Jack Capuano and Garth Snow. Things must be on the right track. No worries. Playoffs here we come!

Until you start looking at some of those numbers and realize that the Isles have been bad all along. Not like you ever thought differently. But in case you did here’s something to consider.

Two wins out of four is great for the points column, but like our writer Eric Vogel pointed out, these wins are coming off the backs of some tired teams generally playing their backup goaltender.

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We know the Isles haven’t been very good. But we keep getting sound bites from the team that there are positive to take from all of this. Like that time Capuano tried to have us believe that the team was good 5v5. How’s that working out?

Over the last four games, that small sample I used to state the Isles are .500, the team has been a negative possession team. I know, shocking.

*All stats from Corsi.hockey

Just look at those possession stats, all are negative, but trending in the right direction. So, maybe that’s the positive the team is seeing: “Hey! We are as bad as we used to be!”

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Sure. But, that’s like saying North Korea is doing something right because their GDP growth rate is one of the highest in the world. No. A thousand times no. Just like the Isles, it’s easy to trend in the right direction when you’re at rock bottom.

So if you want to talk about phantom points, look at the Isles points column.

The despite what’s being said in the post-game, even after a win, isn’t entirely accurate, but media focused rhetoric. Which, let’s be fair, is exactly what the Isles players and staff have been trained to do.

Frame the discussion on positive. Don’t give the media anything negative to feed off of. SO what do I expect?

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I’d expect the team to verbalize the frustration a bit more: “A win is a win, but we’re still bottom of the league. There’s still a lot of work to be done”. A little honesty would go a long way for me to be able to rationalize that the players see what I’m seeing.