Lack Of Defensive Play Leads To An Isles 5-2 Loss

Tonight, our Islanders came up short in the back end of their back to back as they were defeated 5-2 by the Flyers.  Here are some of my notes:

-It'd be nice if the defense actually showed up today!  Specifically Carkner and to a lesser extent MacDonald.  MacDonald was beat pretty easy in the first period which set up the Flyers first powerplay and subsequently their first goal.  He continues to struggle as the seasons opening month progresses.  Meanwhile, Carkner appeared to forget that he is supposed to play the man as a hockey player and not just fight and have scrums after the whistle.  On the second goal, he just watched as the guy skated right in and made the dish to set up the goal.  Then, on the third goal, he had terrible positioning and let the guy get behind him and made no effort to try and recover.  It is unfortunate that the teams lack of depth has forced them to play him because he is really not an NHL player.

-Unfortunate game for Poulin!  I know a lot of people see five goals and they want to pin it on the goalie.  However, the goalie is supposed to have defense to help them and for half the goals allowed tonight that wasn't the case.  You can only expect the goalie to do so much, especially when he only plays once every two weeks.

-The powerplay sure didn't look like the number one powerplay in the NHL tonight.  While it did have an occasional good stretch, overall it was pretty bad tonight.

-The refs were terribly inconsistent tonight and let a tremendous amount of stuff from the Flyers fly.  Most notably, not calling something when Tavares got boarded early in the first period.  Also, in the third period allowing the Flyers 4th goal instead of calling goalie interference which seemed to be the obvious call from the replays that were shown.

I want to give a shout out to the people up in section 329 for chanting my cousins name as he left the ice tonight after dropping the puck for the ceremonial faceoff.  It was very much appreciated!  You can follow them on twitter here.

Overall, tonight was a very disappointing game after last nights big win against the Penguins.  For a team that will likely be on the brink of playoffs come Arpil, the Islanders need to hope that losing games like this won't come back to hurt them.

Next Game: Tuesday @ Home Vs The Rangers