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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
When you’re off to your worst start in more than a decade, have dropped two straight, and have three consecutive off days, it provides an opportunity for anyone and everyone to pile on.
The fans, the media, your distant relatives, everyone.
On Wednesday, beat writer Andrew Gross wrote in Newsday that the Islanders were “on the brink of having their season fully implode” and that “the eye test showed they were not a legitimate contender.” The prior day, Arthur Staple penned in The Athletic, “With too many long-term deals for over-30, lifelong Islanders, the team has continued to bumble without much flexibility — or seemingly pressure — to change.”
On social media, fans are teetering between disgust and disillusionment, wondering how they let this team suck them in this season and how they may end up doing it again before too long. There’s even been a fair amount of criticism aimed at the coach. Patrick Roy hasn’t been on Long Island for even a year, but early hopes that he would instill a blueprint for success are diminishing as the team looks more like the one he inherited than the one he has tried to change.
Then there’s GM Lou Lamoriello, who gets credit for the culture that has the team dressing room sticking together during this rough stretch but also gets blamed for a dressing room that many feel has stuck together too long.
There’s time to turn things around, but to what end? Another first-round loss? The Islanders have shown us they are not a Stanley Cup contender, and if they're not, is it best to show us that they can sneak into the playoffs for the third straight year, or are things better if they get worse?
Many have been thinking about this for the last 2.5 seasons. Patience is a virtue, but what exactly is the payoff for practicing it? Fans are struggling to see one.
