NY Islanders captain Anders Lee needs to be more critical of team's performance

New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy has preached the need for the team to keep a consistent mindset through the remainder of the season. However, that doesn't mean that you can't be critical of yourself or your team's performance. The team was "even-keeled," as Thomas Hickey after the game, with a more positive spin than what was deserved, given the importance of securing two points against a struggling team

After the 2-1 shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken, Roy voiced his displeasure with how the team played. “We need to be better with the puck. We need to make better decisions. The fans were pissed, and I was also pissed because I thought we didn’t do a good job.”

Islanders captain Anders Lee took a different route. He spoke about the "grindy" game the team played and how despite not being able to create much offensively, the team bent but didn't break and was able to come away with a point - the 13th time this season they have lost in either overtime or the shootout.

"We did a really good job of making sure we stuck in this game and got ourselves a point tonight," said Lee after the game. There's some truth to that, but it's also true that without Ilya Sorokin, the Islanders would have lost this game 3-1 or 4-1 and were outplayed heavily at even-strength by a Kraken team that played the previous night. There wasn't an acknowledgment of that.

It's not what fans want to hear. They want players, especially the captain to call it out for what it was, a disappointing and borderline unacceptable performance given the stakes. The Islanders now have four days off before their Stadium Series matchup with the New York Rangers and are likely to see teams widen the distance between them during that span.

Compare what Lee said to linemate Bo Horvat. The former Vancouver Canucks captain had several chances in the third period and overtime on Tuesday but failed to convert. "Personally, I have to be better out there," Horvat said. "It hasn't been good enough from me, especially tonight."

That is what fans expect a captain to say about his own performance and the team at this juncture of the season. It's not October or November anymore. The nights where you can be satisfied or even relieved that you picked up a point have been over for some time. Lee probably knows that, but he should also know matter-of-fact comments will be perceived by a fanbase that has lost patience with a group keeps telling us they know how big these games are, but fail to perform as such.