from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,
Their superstar is off to a miserable start while flanked by workmanlike but unremarkable wingers. Three core players took advantage of free agency to go elsewhere over the summer. The team’s in-your-face identity that was created in large part by the best fourth line in the NHL has evaporated with the departure of one of that unit’s components. Summer additions have fizzled. The much-ballyhooed fountain of youth within the organization is barely sprinkling in meaningful contributions on the big-league level. Just five weeks into the season, the general manager has been forced to give the dreaded vote of confidence to his coach.
And if it is true Jack Capuano, the man behind the Islanders bench, is not on the clock, then surely general manager Garth Snow must be as the Jon Ledecky-Scott Malkin ownership assesses the situation in its first year on the job. For even in the oddly insular world the Islanders have created for themselves over the last decade, this 5-8-4 getaway in which the team has the fewest wins in the NHL over a not-so-small-anymore sample size is not remotely acceptable.
The team barely has created a ripple in the New York sports pond and now is drowning in a sea of slushy ice. And this is what John Tavares, who has 13 points overall (5-8) and eight points at even strength (2-6), is going to sign up for with 2018 free agency looming?
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