If ever a National Hockey League team could be diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia -- split-personality -- the current playoff-bound Islanders is it.
If ever a National Hockey League team could be diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia -- split-personality -- the current playoff-bound New York Islanders is it.
Its ups and downs over the 82-game marathon would make Coney Island's Cyclone Roller Coaster blush in envy.
Start with the pre-season literary slap that was read by experts all around the league:
"They said we were 'too old and too slow," recalled vet team "shrink" Cal Clutterbuck.
Well that media analysis wasn't pure buck, it sure was full of applesauce.
You want old teams, take the Capitals; you want slow teams, take the Penguins; after Crosby.
With 20/20 hindsight, it became apparent to the high command that Lane Lambert was not the second-year coach Lou Lamoriello hoped he would be.
Not that it was a matter of lack of brains but rather personality. Players simply didn't respond to his urgings.
As a matter of fact, that was evident in Lambert's farewell presser when he ripped his team for its lack of -- for want of a better word -- intelligence. Lane taught, but the Isles seemed to let the messages go in one ear and out the Long Island Sound.
Instead of sitting on his hands, Lou pulled the chute on Lambert and executed one of the most dramatic moves in the club's 51-year history: hiring Patrick Roy.
No fault of the fans, but Isles rooters often fail to realize that Roy's most monumental achievement was re-teaching -- rebuilding, if you will -- his team on the fly, in-season.
And let's remember Lou's unobtrusive -- but key -- moves, such as replacing his decimated D-corps with Mike Reilly and Robert Bortuzzo and upfront speed with hustling Kyle MacLean.
It was January 19 when Roy arrived to begin the "in-season rebuild," which was filled with potholes. Perhaps his most significant achievement was teaching his brigade how to rebound from aching defeats.
What could have been more demoralizing than the blown three-goal lead to the Rangers in the outdoor game at MetLife Stadium and then to lose it in less than half a minute of overtime?
That debacle could have broken the team's confidence to smithereens, and don't ask me how Roy put the pieces together again -- except that he did.
Then he had to find more Band-Aids after the six-game losing streak in March that threatened to scuttle all the good things that had previously happened.
"But," added Clutterbuck, "we did it."
Somehow -- The Maven still maintains, miraculously -- the team crystalized as the The Finish Line came into view. Or, as captain Anders Lee averred, "Good teams play their best hockey at the right time."
For that he can thank Roy's decision to replace slumping Ilya Sorokin with Patrick's old and trusty goalkeeper Semyon Varlamov.
Wow! What a game-changer -- not to mention game-winner -- that turned out to be. Forgive Monsieur Roy for a bit of a smile over that one. Over an eight-game span
Varly went 7-1-0 with a .939 save percentage.
Roy: "With ten games to go, no one gave us a chance to make the playoffs, and now, here we are!"
As far as The Maven is concerned, the ultimate -- and decisive -- series was the end-of-season two-game set with the Rangers.
I vividly recall at the start of the season when I checked out the Isles entire schedule. At the point where I saw the two clashes with the Blueshirts, I said to myself, OY VAY! "That could kill us!"
Our Islanders got three out of a possible four points, and THAT'S what enabled them to eventually clinch the playoff berth.
"We gave ourselves a chance to get in," Clutterbuck concluded, "and, really, that's all you can ask for."
Pardon The Maven while I still shake my head in disbelief!