Slumping Isles Sulk Into Swamp
January 4th, 2007 by murph
Losers of 4 straight games and scorers of 3 goals in that span, the slumping Isles visit the first place New Jersey Devils tonight. Jason Blake has scored 3 of our past 5 goals…in a 5 game span. The Isles have started off 2007 in a major funk. Coach Nolan has decided to shake the lines up tonight.
Islanders coach Ted Nolan elected to alter his lines yesterday at practice. Shawn Bates skated on the second line with Viktor Kozlov and Miroslav Satan.
“By shaking it up a little bit, sometimes it works,” said Nolan, who also put Chris Simon on the first line and Arron Asham on the fourth. “We have to get Satan and Kozlov going a little bit. Bates is responsible defensively and also gives enough speed to generate some things offensively. There’s no discredit to Robitaille, but it wasn’t working.”
Robitaille hasn’t scored in seven games with the Islanders, and Satan and Kozlov are pointless in their last five. During Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to Philadelphia, Richard Park got some time on the second line. Now it’s Bates turn.
The solution is clear. It is time to reveal my super-top-secret plan for Islanders domination of the NHL. I’ve shared this ingenious idea with many close friends and fans over the past 3+ seasons of NHL hockey, but I have resisted making it public because of it’s controversial nature. I am not sure the public is ready for it, but now is the perfect time to reveal it…
Ladies and gentlemen, the Islanders must clone Jason Blake. We need 5 Jason Blakes on the ice at all time. DP, Dunham, and 18 Jason Blakes on the roster and 25 Jason Blakes in Bridgeport, ready to go, should one of the other Jason Blakes get injured. Mr. Wang, make it happen. Get some bio-technical geniuses on the payroll in some super-top-secret location working on it now.
In all seriousness, the NHL season is quite long and every team goes through slumps. Better now than in March I say. I have faith in Coach Nolan, he’ll shuffle the lines and do whatever it takes to get this team scoring again. Our loss last week to the Devils was on a early fluke goal, and we beat up on Jersey in the swamp back in November, let’s do it again. I’m going to game with my brother and an old co-worker who’s a Devils fan, should be fun tonight.
Catching up on the Isles highlights, although there haven’t been many.
Philly
Buffalo
Devils
