Another Easter Sunday Islanders game to close out the end of a Hockey season that started with excitement and hope. It wasn't the Easter Epic of '07 that caused Islesblogger.com to get Islanders plates for his truck. It wasn't even a spoiler of a game as I believe the '08 game may have been. No, yesterday's game was basically pointless for more reasons than I want to count. So pointless that my Easter guests were changing my TV back and forth to the Ranger game.
Sigh, and I let them. A team with so many injuries and so many youngsters had little hope of doing anything but put up a good effort this season. This weekend the line up didn't even do that. They were just run over for 48 hours and it was hard to watch. I can't imagine this was part of Scott Gordon's plan to end the season.
IslandersPointBlank mentioned that the Islanders didn't "roughhouse" on Saturday which disappointed many of the fans. There were no battles against the glass on Sunday either. Even I was disappointed at this as I really would have loved to hear chants of "Recker! Recker!" one more time before the season ended. One last time to watch big #40, Joel Recklicz, show the opponent that the Islanders were not going to be taken lightly no matter where they were in the standings was all I wanted.
I also wanted another goal out of Sean Bergenheim. I didn't get that either. But at least I witnessed one the day before and certified good guy Doug Weight did add to his yearly total. Yes, this season is over. On Saturday night the mood in the locker room was one of looking toward the future. Perhaps they had started looking too soon and forgot about the game they still needed to play. I'm not sure.
However, even as dismal as this season was, there were still bright spots here and there. I'm sure I will replay them in my mind and well as here from time to time during the incredible "off season" that begins for me this morning. Oh, sure there is Tuesday's lottery drawing, the draft, rookie camp and any other surprise press conference the Islanders wish to throw at us this summer as well as the "where's DiPietro" watch that has started to run rampant. (Hmmmm... OTB wanted to get into Sports betting on Long Island, maybe they'll start running odds on whether or not Ricky will play next year.)
But there are other things that I will need to explore in the next 24 hours. Most importantly the coverage that the media outlets gave Saturday morning's rain soaked press conference outside the coliseum. I am livid at the segment that News 12 aired as well as the brief article that appeared in Newsday on Sunday morning. Please check back for the TRUTH about that gathering. There is so much more to it than was presented to the public.
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