The Islanders were trounced in Philly tonight as the Flyers won 6-2 for Coach Peter Laviolettes' first win. The Isles had issues again on the penalty kill and some of the mistakes and inconsistencies have become trends with 30 games in the books. Plenty of time has been done to evaluate players and it is time to make changes.
Martin Biron was worth taking a chance on for 1.4 million at 1 year but he has been a bust. I don't need to hear the rhetoric that he has not received goal support. The bottom line is that he is often off his angles and not square to the puck, does not control his rebounds, and has not made the timely saves that number 1 goalie Dwayne Roloson has. Biron at this point is a good backup but probaly a number 1 only on a sub-par team. Rick DiPietro is coming back and it's time to end the Biron experiment, even if DiPietro proves unhealthy Bridgeport goalie Scott Munroe would be worth a look over Biron. If you can net a 3rd rounder or a marginal prospect so be it, otherwise I would waive Biron and take my chances.
Then you have Bruni Gervais, the former 6th round pick who has been developing forever, or it only seems like it. What it doesn't seems like and in reality was the case was Gervais being a mess in his own zone. It's time to cut the chord and package him for a defenseman who can give the Islanders some quality minutes.
New York is expecting Andy Sutton back this weekend which will help, but reserves are needed. Brendan Witt as this point is playing under 15 minutes a night and is a number 6 D-man. The problem is you also have Gervais, Freddy Meyer, and Andrew MacDonald on this core who are also 6-7 depth rearguards.
It's time for changes.
John Tavares gave the Isles somewhat of a chance with 2 power play goals. JT had a very noticeable game but beyond him and Matt Moulson you couldn't find much to be happy about. Kyle Okposo is struggling big time and needs to step up with New York generating little to no offense beyond Tavares and Moulson.
Back to T.O. tomorrow.
Game Stats:
2G/ -2/ 2SOG/ 22:26TOI/ Faceoffs:14-8
Goal 1:
Goal 2:
Highlights:
Links:
Richards, Carter, Giroux score 2; Flyers snap skid
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It may be time for a change, but it's not going to happen anytime soon. Welcome to sticking to a rebuild. At this point Milbury would have traded half of the players on this roster.
ReplyDeleteGervais is second in minutes played, which should not be happening. It's not just Gervais, its a few players on this team that have to step up and play consistent hockey, which has not happened for a few games.
Forget about adding players until later, for now, the whole team needs to step up first.
As always some good stuff from netminder39...I agree in not going the Milbury route but my feeling with Gervais is that their force feeding him when he's had plenty of time to develop. I just think it might time to cut our losses with some of these guys and move on...I am NOT for trading prospects and draft picks for sure.
ReplyDeletethanks for commenting.