The National Hockey League began its 2009-10 campaign this past Friday night and once again, I am filled with hope and at the same time reality (or disappointment) for my lowly New York Islanders.
Goalie Rick DiPietro is coming off of yet another knee injury and surgery and will not be available until late October at the very earliest. This year, however, I give the Islanders much more credit than least year when they were in this predicament because at least this year they are somewhat prepared for such a loss.
Instead of sitting on their hands and leaving the fate of the club in the hands of two goalies who have less than 25 games of NHL experience under their belts, New York went out and signed two former Stanley Cup goalies: Martin Biron and Dwayne Roloson.
In case you're not familiar with them, Biron is formerly of the Buffalo Sabres, and Roloson was part of that terrific goalie tandem of himself and Manny Fernandez in Minnesota before going on to be the number one guy in Edmonton and taking them to the playoffs in recent years.
So, the Islanders should be fairly solid in goal. But, what about the forwards and defensemen?
Still lacking firepower as well as a payroll, New York did not attempt to replace the offensive presence of Bill Guerin, their former captain that they traded late last season.
Instead, the Islanders are resting their hopes on several of their kids, including number-one draft choice John Tavares. New York is putting a lot of pressure on Tavares' shoulders, whether they admit it or not.
They say in the press that it's unfair to have all these expectations of a rookie, but what do you expect people to do when you have the kid on your number one line and no veteran scorers for him to learn from?
I think the Islanders are asking too much of this kid, and if they wanted to properly develop him, they would have gone out and signed some veterans for him to ease the pressure of being the only one who can find the back of the net on this club.
New York has done nothing (outside the drafting of Tavares) to make anyone believe that they are serious about winning and are dedicated to being a contender.
Doug Weight has returned, as has Mark Streit and Brendan Witt. The Islanders will be tough, but will they be able to stop teams from scoring? They couldn't do it last year, and I'm not convinced that they can do it this year, either.
The Islanders may have had a bunch of inexperience between the pipes last season, but when you're being outshot by 15 shots per game, I don't care who's in net, there's going to be problems.
And the Islanders had plenty of them last season. Can they improve on that this year? We'll see.
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