A sign in the crowd at Saturday’s game between the Islanders and the Carolina Hurricanes asked this appropriate question: “Who will stop the bleeding? A) Fedorov. B) Mogilny. C) Linden. D) Flaherty.”
The correct answer would have seemed to be D) Flaherty, as in Wade Flaherty, who started in goal for the Islanders. But when a shot by Carolina’s Bates Battaglia caromed in off the skate of Islanders defenseman Scott Lachance less than two minutes into overtime, Flaherty, who was strong all game, proved not to be the Band-Aid the Islanders needed as they lost their 10th straight game, a disheartening 2-1 defeat at Nassau Coliseum.
“To lose on a shot like that, which hits our skate and goes in, it’s frustrating,” Islanders coach Rick Bowness said. “That’s pretty much how this whole thing has gone for us.”
It is uncertain how much longer it will go on for Bowness. Mike Milbury, the Islanders’ general manager, said before Saturday’s game that he had warned the coach that his job was in jeopardy if the team’s performance does not improve quickly.
Milbury has been reluctant to pin the blame on Bowness, saying he would make a trade before he would fire the coach. Milbury said that in a meeting Friday, he issued an ultimatum to the players.
“I told them, `I don’t want to get rid of the coach, and I don’t want to trade any of you,’ ” Milbury said. “But they looked like a team that quit on the coach the other day,” he added, referring to an 8-2 loss to the Canadiens on Thursday. “That’s not right, and it’s not fair. I told them, `I have to do something, and I have to do it soon.’
“And I told Rick, `This can’t go on any longer without you losing your job.’ “
Milbury had suggested before the game that the score was of was less importance than the effort put forth by the players. The effort that was missing Thursday was apparent Saturday.
Bowness shook things up by recalling Flaherty–who had not played in the National Hockey League since April 11, 1997, as a member of the San Jose Sharks–from Utah on Friday and starting him in goal Saturday. That was an apparent vote of no-confidence in both Tommy Salo and Eric Fichaud, whom Bowness switched twice in the loss to the Canadiens.
The Islanders outshot the Hurricanes by 30-21 but once again failed to convert on numerous scoring chances.
“We controlled the game,” said Bowness, who was brief in his postgame comments. “We dominated the first period, but we had only one goal. When the puck’s not going in, the puck’s not going in. That’s the way things are going.”
Battaglia’s winning score was off a rebound that hit Lachance’s skate and deflected into the goal.
“It was one of those things,” Lachance said of Battaglia’s game-winning goal. “We did everything we were supposed to do, but it is still a loss. We’ve been hoping for that bounce to get us going the other way.”
For Bowness, at least, the change of direction needs to happen soon.
Penguins 4, Devils 1: Stu Barnes scored three consecutive goals in the second period for his first hat trick in more than six years for host Pittsburgh.
Jaromir Jagr, who had been scoreless and minus-5 in two previous games against New Jersey this season, assisted on all three of Barnes’ goals. The Penguins had lost five consecutive games to New Jersey and had been outscored 7-1 in this season’s two losses.
