Rick DiPietro: Out for the season
Joey MacDonald: Out 2-4 weeks
Wade Dubielewicz: Claimed off waivers by Columbus
If you think these three headlines would have knocked out the Islanders...you weren't alone.
Misfortune has a major theme of this season, with the injury bug pretty much living in Uniondale this year. Having pretty much your entire defensive squad missing action at one time or another is not acceptable, but it's something fans could live with. Having Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, Frans Nielson, Sean Bergenheim, and Trent Hunter (the nucleus of Garth Snow's "rebuild") all miss time on the disabled list isn't exctly what Garth had in mind for the first year of the rebuild, but what are you going to do?
However, when you're franchise goalie and his backup go down, plus the backup plan for that go down the drain via waivers...that's just plain unlucky.
That is the exact situation the Islanders found themselves in this past week, when backup to the backup Yann Danis was thrown in net against five straight tough opponents: the Rangers, Bruins, Devils, Capitals, and the Ducks. How did he respond? With solid play in each game, but no win, until last night...
In by far his best game of the season, a 2-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks, Danis weathered 40 shots and only allowed 1 goal all night, a B.S. shot by young Bobby Ryan which Danis clearly could have had. Danis stood on his head in goal against a offensively superior Anaheim team which threw onto the ice offensive juggernaut Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Ryan, who is making a strong bid for the Calder Trophy, the NHL's rookie of the year award.
However, Danis' play last night was only half the story. When word came out that the Islanders had passed up picking up both Curtis Sanford from Vancouver and Dany Sabourin from Edmonton on waivers, Danis knew that the team was his for now.
Coach Scott Gordon had a one-on-one with him before the Anaheim game last night, and as Gordon put it, "I told him that he needs to make the most out of his situation...he may never have a chance like this again". With the faith Gordon has shown in Danis by giving him this opportunity, it shows that this organization believes in him, and that for now, Yann Danis will be the last line of defense for the New York Islanders.
2 comments:
At this point in the season, all these injuries are nothing but a blessing in disguise. As horrible as it sounds, the more injured they get, the worse the team should get. This might be the thing that propeles the isles to a possible franchise reviving draft. I'm a huge hedman fan but it makes more sense for the isles, more then any other team, to draft the dynamic game changing offensive talent that is john tavares. Here's a ranger fan wishing the isles the best of luck.
Ps. Great job with the blog. Very insightful.
Great article Brian. They Isles do seem very unlucky this year, but I'd much rather an unlucky year during the re-building stages, than during what's supposed to be a championship year. Danis is good for the isles at this point in the year. They obviously have written this season off, so they may as well aim for grabbing that number one spot in the draft. I'm not saying that Danis is a bad goalie, but it is apparent that he wouldn't be the guy leading a team to the Stanley Cup Finals. Furthermore, though I would prefer DiPietro to be playing, it isn't all bad that he is out for a couple of reasons. First, it gives a chance for this team to actually re-build. DiPietro is already "built" so to speak; he is already a huge asset to any playoff team. Now the Isles just need to create a few more huge assets, like Okposo or Bailey, so they don't need him yet. Second, with DiPietro out, the Isles can search for a good back-up for Rick, for when the Isles do make the playoffs and if Ricky gets hurt again.
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