Starting Over Again

The start of a new NHL season is like starting in a new school. A fresh start. What happened last year doesn't matter. Nobody knows you. You can be who you want to be and you can start the year with all the optimism in the world.

Well the Isles started their new school with the persona of "overspeed". They survived the first few days before the bullies tracked us down for our daily after school beat down. Our lunch money has been stolen and we're a little bloodied.

A 2-6 start is not what any of us expected. Isles continue to make the same bad turnovers which lead to goals and our defense is shaken and badly wounded. The frustrating part is that this team has shown signs of figuring out this system. When they play it right, it works great. We limit opposition shots, take few bad penalties, and generate quality offensive chances. But boy, when it's not working, it's brutal to watch.

I mean, take away DP and Meyer's turnovers against Carolina and we win. A bad early goal against the Rangers and perhaps a different game. Shakey defense against Dallas and DP has no chance.

The question is now... what do we do about it? Do we accept the after school beatings or do we start fighting back? The other teams around the league are looking to see if we will tuck tail and run or stand up for ourselves.

The first positive sign was the team captains seeking coach Gordon out for a meeting yesterday. What comes out of that meeting remains to be seen but it's nice to see the veterans stepping up and not throwing in the towel. We're getting Sutton back on D this week which should help tremendously. Now, if we can only get a healthly, confident DP back in goal.

We start our new season tomorrow night in Philly. Another chance to right the ship and start showing the rest of the league that we won't lay down, that there's some fight left in us.

BC