Flyers Defeat Flat Islanders 2-1

Tonight, for the first time this month our Islanders lost a game in regulation.  Tonight, it was 2-1 to the rival Flyers.  Here are some of my notes:

-This was the teams third straight sub-par overall game.  This is a little concerning for me now as the season comes to a close and the playoffs start.  Hopefully, the team is able to take the couple days after the season and before the playoffs to right the ship so to speak and get back to what drove them before these past few games.

-Visnovsky has to step it up!!  Since signing his extension, while he still pinches Visnovsky has really stopped putting up stats.  He will be a guy the Islanders need to count on if they hope to win a playoff series for the first time in 20 years.

-The Tavares line really needs to wake up to!  Outside for the game in Toronto, they have been pretty much non existent for close to a month now.  That needs to change as we head to playoffs!

-The reasoning on Capuanos part to play both Boulton and Carkner tonight and on the same shift nonetheless is one I am not sure I will ever understand.  Boulton serves no purpose other than fighting.  He took the brainless penalty that led to the Flyers first goal tonight.  Carkner in his last two games has been exposed defensively more than once.  I get the element he brings and am a fan of it, but sometimes he is quite hard to watch.

-The powerplay needs to step it up!  They spend way to much time passing around the perimeter and need to focus more on getting shots to the net.

-Considering this was his first game in about three weeks I thought Kevin Poulin was pretty solid tonight!

Well, tonight couldn't have gone worse for the Islanders.  With their loss and wins by Ottawa and the Rangers the Islanders fell from 6th to 8th place in the conference.  Now, without a little help from the Devils and the Flyers we will end up getting matched against the Penguins in the first round which is one of the worst matchups possible for us in my opinion.  Up until this point we had our destiny in our hands, with tonights loss we no longer have that and are now in a less than favorable situation when it comes to seeding.

Next Game: Tomorrow Night @ Buffalo (Last game of the regular season)

ASTERN	DIV	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	DIFF	HOME	AWAY	S/O	L10	STREAK
1	Z - PITTSBURGH	ATL	47	35	12	0	70	32	157	116	+41	17-6-0	18-6-0	3-0	7-3-0	LOST 2
2	X - BOSTON	NE	46	28	13	5	61	24	127	102	+25	16-4-3	12-9-2	4-3	4-5-1	WON 1
3	Y - WASHINGTON	SE	47	26	18	3	55	23	146	128	+18	14-8-1	12-10-2	3-0	8-1-1	OT 1
4	X - MONTRÉAL	NE	47	28	14	5	61	25	145	125	+20	14-7-3	14-7-2	3-2	4-6-0	WON 1
5	X - TORONTO	NE	47	26	16	5	57	26	144	129	+15	13-8-2	13-8-3	0-5	6-3-1	WON 1
6	X - OTTAWA	NE	46	24	16	6	54	20	111	100	+11	15-5-3	9-11-3	4-4	5-5-0	WON 1
7	X - NY RANGERS	ATL	47	25	18	4	54	21	126	112	+14	15-6-2	10-12-2	4-4	7-3-0	WON 1
8	X - NY ISLANDERS	ATL	47	24	17	6	54	20	138	137	+1	10-11-3	14-6-3	4-2	6-1-3	LOST 1
9	WINNIPEG	SE	48	24	21	3	51	22	128	144	-16	13-10-1	11-11-2	2-3	6-3-1	LOST 2
10	NEW JERSEY	ATL	47	19	18	10	48	17	112	125	-13	13-9-2	6-9-8	2-7	4-5-1	WON 2
11	PHILADELPHIA	ATL	47	22	22	3	47	21	131	140	-9	15-7-2	7-15-1	1-2	5-5-0	WON 3
12	BUFFALO	NE	47	20	21	6	46	14	123	142	-19	10-10-3	10-11-3	6-4	6-4-0	WON 1
13	CAROLINA	SE	47	19	24	4	42	18	125	152	-27	9-14-1	10-10-3	1-1	3-5-2	OT 1
14	TAMPA BAY	SE	47	18	25	4	40	17	145	145	E	12-9-2	6-16-2	1-3	2-6-2	LOST 1
15	FLORIDA	SE	47	14	27	6	34	11	107	168	-61	8-11-5	6-16-1	3-1	2-8-0	LOST 1

 photo courtesy of http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm#?navid=nav-stn-main