New York Islanders Need Tavares To Step Up

facebooktwitterreddit

The New York Islanders captain has three points in his last ten games. Absolutely terrible numbers for what is a superstar in this league. And if the Isles are to get back to winning ways they’ll need him back.

In their last three games, the New York Islanders have lost by a score of 6-3. Scoring a single goal in each. None came from their captain John Tavares.

In fact, Tavares doesn’t have a point in any of those three games. You have to go back to that 6-2 thrashing of the Winnipeg Jets for Tavares’ last point.

Tavares is having a bad year. We can all agree to that, right? His .69 points per game is his lowest since his rookie year in 2009-10. We’re talking about a point-per-game player who is floating dangerously close to half of that production.

That has to change if the Islanders are going to have any chance at saving face on this season. Not make the playoffs, just save it from being a total embarrassment.

Money Line

New York Islanders +135 /-145 Florida Panthers

According to Vegas the embarrassment is set to continue with the pendulum swinging in one way, and one way only on this, as they make the Panthers a fairly h. Who, let’s be honest aren’t that much better than the Isles.

Sure the Islanders have one of the worst road winning percentages in the league at 33%. Only St-Louis, Arizona, and Vancouver have worse road records at 32.4%, 30.0%, and 23.7%, respectively.

And sure, the Panthers just beat the Islanders 2-1 two days ago. But the Panthers home-wining percentage isn’t anything to write home about. At 50.0%, it ranks them at 26th in the league. And it wasn’t the Panthers that beat the Isles in Brooklyn. That was the Islanders beating the Islanders.

New York Islanders Potential Lineup:

Lee-Tavares-Bailey                    Leddy-Pelech
Ladd-Nelson-Strome                Hickey-Boychuk
Quine-Beauvillier-Chimera      de Haan-Seidenberg
Kulemin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck  Greiss (Berube)

Florida Panthers Potential Lineup:

Griffth-Trocheck-Jagr                        Yandle-Pysyk
Marchesseault-Jokinen-Smith       Matheson-Demers
McCann-Sgarbossa-Sceviour         Kindl-Ekblad
Thompson-MacKenzie-Thornton  Luongo (Reimer)

Next: Are The Isles The Worst In The League?

Where You Can Watch The Game:

Venue: 7:30pm, BB&T Center, Sunrise Florida

TV: MSG+

Radio: 660AM, 101.9FM – WFAN, 88.7FM – WRHU

facebooktwitterreddit