The Double Minor

10 days ago the Islanders Season began in a 2-1 defeat in New Jersey, and Rick DiPietro was wearing a Reebok cap. The next day, Rick was once again sporting the cap, as Joey MacDonald was named the first star. Monday was the same, a backup, and so was the Thursday to follow. Finally after much speculation and anticipation Rick DiPietro made his season debut this past Saturday. On his first NHL shot faced since March 15th of last season, Rick DiPietro’s shutoutstreak had ended. After a 34 save losing performance of 2-0 to Tomas Vokoun and the Florida Panthers, DP feels HAPPY and looks to take on the “workload” of being the Islanders starting netminder.

Of course the 2-0 loss was not of any value points or standing wise, it had the significance of getting an All Star netminder back between the pipes. From his preseason debut, to his regular season debut, DiPietro showed he is back. Personally, with postive signs of Joey MacDonald, let Gordon intervine with the managment of DP’s play, just as he had done since the start of the season.

Now onto the Scoring situation.

We all now that the Islanders will not be the league leaders in goals scored and they certainly do not have a dynamic goal scorer to help, but the offensive production must be spread out on a consistent basis. Players such as Jon Sim, who has totaled a whopping 0 points while being given pleanty of ice and power play time, and Nate Thompson who was in my eyes spoon feed a starting role on this team have to do something to produce on the scoresheet. If the scoring is not consitant and distributed on both the powerplay and 5v5, games which the goalstending keep the Isles in, will never be capitalized.