Healthy Scratch

As my time in Buenos Aires draws to an end the Islanders embark on a long west coast road trip that represents just the beginning. All of the good vibes and promise generated with a 6-3 start to the season will either be validated or exposed in the next two weeks. It will signal to the league and their fans that they are really playoff contenders or provide another bitter taste of reality that they are just regular season pretenders. Just because the names change on the back of the sweater does not mean that the record for the team on the front gets any better.

The previous four Novembers have been a disaster for this team and each of those previous fall months have put the Isles in a hole that they could not dig out of. The only exception was the year before last when the Islanders made the playoffs, but being that it happened to be a strike shortened season there really wasn't a November to worry about. Technically today the calendar still said it was October, but what is a couple of days amongst friends. What laid ahead was still a concern and still a very formidable challenge.

My international data on my iPhone ran out today. That meant as the audit team went out for a final dinner here in Argentina that I would not have the ability to get constant updates of what was happening in Colorado. The boys were on their own and their would be no way for me to be there to provide real time support. Whenever I cannot watch, listen or follow a game there is a feeling that I have let the team down. Its almost as if I am sitting on the bench with the rest of the Islanders and contributing in some way. For this evening I was a healthy scratch.

The best I could do was a couple of iPhone refreshes after the game started to see what was going on. After the the appetizer and salad I glanced at my iPhone and noticed it was 11pm. I decided to check on the game. I knew I would be paying for extra data but I could not go the entire evening without knowing what was going on. It turned out that Colorado was on top 1-0 at the end of the first period. The Islanders did not score the first goal in the game which was not surprising or concerning because they had done so in almost every game up to now.

Now that the cat was out of the bag I checked a couple more times in the second period. In what seemed like a matter of minutes it was 2-0 and then 4-0 Colorado as the period ended. All the air was out of the balloon. The Islanders lost to the Avalanche 5-0. It was almost like they did not show up to play. All I knew pre-game was that Capuano started Chad Johnson in net. That was surprising because Halak is the clear #1 here and Johnson had been adequate at best in his three wins. Without seeing the action I once again could not tell you if the issue was defense or goal, but what I do know is that when you get shut out it does not bode well for the offense.

I think the best thing to do here is to forget that this game ever happened. No need for analysis and no need to try to break it down and place blame. I will be flying home this evening and in front of my television tomorrow. This road trip must be a success and I need to be there for morale virtual support. There will be no need to worry about distractions and there will be no barriers to overcome. We need to stop losing streaks before they start. There are no upper body or lower body injuries. There cannot be any more healthy scratches. I need to be damn sure I am in the line-up.