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Summer Football Game Analysis

Decent Essays

Last year, the New York Islanders finished with their best regular season in 29 years, collecting 101 points at a 61.6% point percentage before bowing out in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in a tough, hotly contested battle with the Washington Capitals.

This year, they have 93 points through 77 games (60.4%), which is now their third highest total in that same time span (96 points in 2001-02). Looking at their schedule entering this last week of the regular season, combined with the way they have been playing for the better part of six weeks now, you have to wonder not if they will challenge last year’s mark but how many points they can conceivably pick up before Sunday's finale.

Yesterday in Brooklyn was an absolute horror show of a performance by a team that is stocked with the talent to achieve so much more. To put forth such a feeble effort as was witnessed by a sellout crowd of 15,795 poor souls who clearly wasted their money and Saturday afternoon is truly puzzling at this point of the season when the team should be getting ready for the upcoming playoffs, which start next Wednesday, April 13. And nobody seems to have the answers to why, how or what to do to reverse what has now become a trend rather than an aberration.

Sure, you can point to the 6-1-0 road trip in late February/early March and subsequent home win over the …show more content…

The mental makeup of this team right now is as fragile as it gets. Forget the fact that the team has scored 14 goals over their last five games - they are struggling mightily to generate any consistent offensive pressure and possess a breakout right now that would make a high school hockey coach cringe. Players seemingly are looking at each other, waiting (hoping?) that someone will step up and lead the turnaround, rather than taking it upon themselves to do something about

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