Monday, December 22, 2008

What's the Magic Number?


Will the Islanders drop 10, 12 or even 15 games before finding a way to garner two points. Certainly they will be too little too late, but it seems the only thing to ponder is how long the slide will last.

I have them pegged for 12. I don't know why. I just picked that number. Guess I was thinking about Donuts. I must have been passing Dunkin' Donuts when it came to me.

I decided to stop by practice today for just a little while. Just to see what I could see. I didn't see much. I did see a coach getting involved with all his players. A coach who was teaching as well as training. He was loud, but he was patient. And I saw a group of players listening and watching. Learning is something you can't determine by the looks on their faces.

What I did notice that struck me and my mother's eye was that Brendan Witt was not huddled with everyone else. When they were watching and listening, he was six feet away at the glass. He did this on several occasions.

There was a seriousness at today's practice. They know what they are up against.

DiPietro was skating, and although Botta said Trent didn't practice, I thought I saw him on the ice. My eyesight is getting considerably worse, so I could very well be wrong. But what bothers me more is that would mean that someone else has decided to take up the Mennonite beard thing. Uh... yuck. I saw Bruno skating. I'm sure of that one as I did catch the "8" on the back of his helmet.

I didn't see too many familiar faces there today. I did notice Charles Wang walk in with Garth Snow. Garth graciously stopped to sign autographs for those who asked, then he and Mr. Wang secluded themselves upstairs.

I chatted with CJ Papa for a few minutes, but when he (like everyone else does) asked "Are you working?" then I knew it was time to leave.

Tomorrow the Thrashers come to town and then there's the Christmas break. Can they beat the Thrashers? Anything is possible. But I'm still going to say the magic number is ... Twelve.

2 comments:

Ken Dick said...

Well, let's see...there are 49 games left in the season. They've lost 9 in a row as of now. So at least we know they won't be going over 58 in a row. This season.

Looking at the schedule, they've got Tampa Bay at home on February 3rd. I'll go out on a limb and call that game a streak stopper. So we're looking at *only* a 25 game losing streak.

Your mere 12 game streak would mean they beat the Rags at MSG to end it. A most delightful ending, if it were to happen.

Doug Davidson said...

Jeez. What happened to those orange and blue colored glasses? Guess we'll see tonight while you wearing that ol' #55. Catch you there tonight.