isles hockey ramblings well the patrick division got a little more interesting last night the islanders lost in ot and the devils tied the pens that means if the isles beat the devils on friday the will meet the caps in the playoffs however i have some more comments on the islanders and hockey in general that i need to get off my chest first of all with the islanders back to back lackluster performances against the whalers one may think that the islanders are out of shape these guys always suck wind in the nd period come on a little in the rd and run out of gas too soon it is unbelieveable how many one goal games these guys have lost anyway the games was pretty wide open the isles still have tons of trouble scoring the whalers played a golie in is st nhl start i think his name was lenarduzzi sp his nhl debut was the tuesday tie against the isles like i mentioned before this guy looked like the best golie on the planet for a while until he misplayed a mahlakov slap shot to go to ot i say it s because the isles don t shoot correctly has anyone else noticed this also i think it is really a shame for hockey when i guy like mick vukota gets as much ice time as he does this guy has about as much hockey talent as jiggs macdonald who did play hockey i think anytime he gets the puck it gets stolen and he always starts fights and gets needless penalties richard pilon is another guy who is on the ice to stir up crap and he s a defenseman he s got to be approaching negative infinity for his plus minus this guy gets beaten all the time why the need for such enforcers not only do fights slow the game down alot but it takes away from the guys who are really trying to play the game i ll be one of the few to admit i do enjoy a good fight once in a while but only when it s called for you know when a guy checks the goalie too hard in other words a violation of hockey ethics might cause you to get puched but there is no need to start crap when you are losing or becuase you can get away with it does anyone agree that referees need to be a little less lenient in the rd and ot i mean come on already i m sick of seeing teams pulling guys down holding guys etc just becuase the referee doesn t call it ot and late in the rd should be a time for strategy not physical prowess trying to set up a goal should be first and foremost if you are so afraid that the other team is going to score that you have to pull a guy down to prevent it you don t deserve to win in the first place just my honest opinion gary at hofstra accgsg vaxb hofstra edu accgsg hofstra bitnet
