Isles Lose to 'Canes 8-3

Many people wondered how the Islanders would respond to a 6 day layoff. The only activity the team had over the past week was practice. The lack of game activity definitely showed last night with the loss to the hurricanes.

Ruslan Fedotenko, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Mike Sillinger scored the goals for the Isles, however Sillinger's goal came with 5 seconds left. The team definitely showed the signs of rust, and that's really what it comes down to.

Most of the goals given up were very soft, however not one person is to blame for this. While Rick DiPietro didn't have his head in the game, he didn't have much help from the defense. The forwards had trouble holding the puck and did not play with as much fire as they have shown in the past.

With their next game on Thursday, it doesn't appear the team will get days off this time around. As a matter of fact, I expect Nolan to work the team very hard and I expect them to be prepared for Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The team is better than what the game last night showed. We know it, the fans know it, and the team knows it.

ON THE AIR TONIGHT: Sean and I will be on the air once again tonight at 10 PM on http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/dcox/website/listen.html. As always, we will be taking calls and instant messages via AIM. For those unable to listen, we will be putting up the podcast version and we hope to have that up quicker than we have in the past.