New York Islanders J.F. Berube Looks Rusty After Two Weeks Sitting
J.F. Berube looked pretty rusty yesterday, but to be fair he hadn’t played a game in two weeks before last night’s New York Islanders loss.
The New York Islanders season long mismanagement of goalies came back to bite them last night with J.F. Berube’s performance. He let in four goals on 25 shots.
It was pretty clear that Berube was attempting to shake off the cobwebs last night against Carolina. He didn’t look very good at all. Although in his defense, he hadn’t seen any action in exactly two weeks. How could the Islanders expect him to be crisp?
The past two night’s the Isles defense hasn’t been very good. Too many costly mistakes, against two mediocre teams.
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Though last night Berube just didn’t seem to have it.
I understand wanting to ride the hot hand of Thomas Greiss, but when you don’t give your backup any playing time you are only making his job harder.
At least with just two goalies, he’s getting more work in during practice, but like any player will tell you it’s necessary to get in-game action to stay fresh.
Here’s the game winner in OT. I know about the John Tavares broken stick. We’ve seen it happen before, it always happens at the worst times. That said, the shot still should’ve been stopped. It was far enough out in which he could’ve made a glove save.
It’s a tough situation, as the Isles are trying to win games to make up ground in the standings I can understand the temptation of running Greiss out there every night. But the Islanders have to avoid that so they don’t burn him out and also to keep Berube somewhat ready.
I would be shocked if we saw a Jaroslav Halak reunion. I know some fans would rather Halak as the backup. He is the better goalie of the two but I just can’t see the Isles calling him up and then waiving Berube.
So for now we have to hope it was just rust and that Berube can work out the kinks. We’ll have to see the next time he’s called upon to start, which as we’ve seen can be awhile.
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