6-6-6 Is The Coach Possessed?

No it's not a satanic message or a spell such as the possible one that implores Scott Gordon to play 4th liner Richard Park more than any other forward in his lineup (more on that later). It's the Islanders record with tonights 5-4 11 round shootout loss to the Capitals.

This was a strange one indeed. Washington came out and took the lead 8 seconds in on a goal by Alex Semin. The Isles roared right back and chased Jose Theodore from the net with 3 goals in 5 minutes to take a 3-1 lead.

New York would relinquish the lead and trail 4-3 until the returning Trent Hunter equalized the game with a power play goal at 17:52 of the third.

The shootout was a long one but I wouldn't call it a memorable one with shooters missing the net, losing pucks, and the majority shooting pucks into goalie pads.

John Tavares recorded an assist but seemed to be off at certain points of the game. JT looked like he might be nursing some effects of the flu passing through the Islanders and all NHL locker rooms.

It didn't help JTs' cause that Kyle Okposo (H1N1 virus) was out of the lineup leaving 4th line role player Richard Park on the top line for a 2nd straight game. The Isles from ownership down preach that they are a rebuilding team that is building through youth development but there you had Park, 33 years old, 1 goal in 18 games and 87 in 621 games getting the most ice time out of any of the Islander forwards.

That Park plays on the top line, takes certain faceoffs for Tavares (even though Park was 5-7/JT 11-6), received power play time late in the 3rd period over team leading goal scorer Matt Moulson, and was out there in overtime along with Nate Thompson (another 4th liner for life) more than Moulson and Tavares is an indictment on what the coach is thinking at times.

Look, Richard Park is a nice plugger and has given the Islanders all he has but he's a 4th liner at best and probaly would not even make the top 5 teams in the league. The only way he can help this team is playing a limited role, win or lose. If you lose at least you have a kid or a player with potential learning.

Rant over.

Carolina on Friday the 13th, yes like the Coachs' bench work the Isles have some scary things going on right now.

Game Stats:
1A/ Even/ 3SOG/ 18:48TOI/ Faceoffs 11-6

Highlights:


Links:
Clark’s 11th round goal gives Caps shootout win