New York Hockey

Islanders final grades

April, 8, 2012

4/08/12

7:08

PM ET

By Katie Strang | ESPNNewYork.com

Bruce Bennett/Getty ImagesThe Islanders didn't have much to celebrate this season.

Yet another dreadful season and yet another stab at the lottery for the 27th-place Islanders, who miss the postseason for the fifth straight year. Despite the progress of young stars John Tavares and Travis Hamonic, the Islanders can’t seem to shake the stigma of one of the league’s worst clubs. We hand out our end-of-the-season report card. Warning: it’s not pretty.

Isles' final report card

		Overall It’s going to become very hard for owner Charles Wang and general manager Garth Snow to continue preaching a rebuild with the team missing the playoffs for the fifth straight season. The problems start at the top with the beleaguered franchise and the team has done little to foster a winning culture or nurture development. As a result, the team remains mired in the bottom of the standings once again as it creeps closer toward obscurity.
		Offense Let’s give credit where it is due: John Tavares took his game to a new level in a terrific third season. Matt Moulson continues to silence critics with a phenomenal effort -- his third straight season of thirty goals or more. And PA Parenteau set himself up for a big payday with a career-high 67 points. But that trio constitutes one line and the Isles need much, much more to be competitive on a nightly basis. Kyle Okposo rebounded after an injury-shortened 2010-11 campaign and Josh Bailey picked up his play during the last month, but Michael Grabner regressed and former top prospect Nino Niederreiter stalled completely. The former fifth overall pick recorded only one goal in 55 games this season and had many wondering why the Islanders kept him up in the first place.
		Defense The development of young blue-liner Travis Hamonic has to be one of the brightest spots during a bleak season. The 21-year-old Winnipeg native flourished on the blue line, and along with partner Andrew MacDonald, emerged as one of the team’s young leaders. But the team is still in dire need of another top-four defenseman to help out captain Mark Streit. Only three teams gave up more goals against per game.
		Special Teams The Islanders boasted a pretty good power-play unit this season with key contributions from skilled forwards Tavares and Parenteau. The team ranked 8th in the league with an 18.5 percent success rate on the man-advantage. Their penalty-kill was not as good. Down a man, the Islanders finished with an efficiency rate of 80.5 percent, which placed them 23rd in the league.
		Goaltending What a stunning turnaround for Evgeni Nabokov. The guy goes from Public Enemy No. 1 on Long Island after famously spurning the team that claimed him off waivers last January to the starting goaltender. Kudos to Nabokov for changing his tune and winning the No. 1 job and credit to Snow for re-signing the 36-year-old to another one-year deal before season’s end. The team does have talent in the pipeline with young netminders Anders Nilsson and Kevin Poulin thriving under the tutelage of goaltending coach Sudarshan Maharaj down in Bridgeport. Should be an interesting upcoming season for the future of Rick DiPietro.
		Coaching It wouldn’t be fair to saddle coach Jack Capuano with all the culpability of the team’s travails, but expect him to have a shorter leash at the start of next season. The former Bridgeport coach has passion in abundance but if the Isles suffer another abysmal start, the team needs to find someone with more experience and cache.

Katie Strang

ESPNNewYork.com

Katie Strang covers the Rangers, Islanders and Devils for ESPNNewYork.com. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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