Thursday, November 6, 2008

No We Can't

A trend perhaps? Throughout the second period, I was going to write a post entitled, "make me stop" where I started to talk about how the Islanders may be for real and that I'm getting genuinely excited about the team. No need, I've been stopped. In trying to understand these collapses, I first put the onus on the players. But then I thought, in all sincerity, that perhaps there's a flaw in the game plan and it just takes other teams a little while to see the holes and they're then able to exploit those holes in the third period. Of course, those holes may also be called Gervais, MacDonald, Polk, or Tambellini.

Before I go totally negative, let me say that Hunter looks good this year. Damn good. The numbers aren't there yet but he plays smart and seems to play position well. Like what I'm seeing from him. I predict he gets hot in the second half of this season.

2 comments:

Mr. Bad Example said...

What, you were expecting a three-game win streak? There's optimism and then there's just silliness.

Bryan Chambala said...

Agreeing with Mr. Bad Example, I wasn't devastated by the loss, but but but ... I was having many of the same thoughts about "overspeed" as I think were shared by The Mediocre.

I like the aggressive play. It's entertaining and aesthetically pleasing, but I had this thought last night that even if (when?) the Islanders iced a deeper, more talented and robust team, they would be in danger of becoming the Phoenix Suns of the NHL.

Now, there's a lot of unlikely things that would need to happen for the Isles to be that good, and I don't know if I would even complain were the team to become that good, but still ... I worry that "overspeed" won't win a Cup, regardless of the roster.

I get a distinctly "minor league" feel some nights when the team's aggression just looks misguided. Teams make so few mistakes in the NHL ... .

Well, there's your dose of dour for the day. Back to our regularly scheduled "believe" programming.