Keep it simple

Jack Capuano thought tonight was better than last night. Portland’s shot total goes to his defense, obviously. He thought Justin DiBenedetto had a better night than in recent games, moving his feet a little more, he said, but he wished DiBenedetto would shoot more.

Actually, he wished a lot of them would shoot more.

“I thought we had chances in this game from the top of the circles, and we didn’t shoot,” Capuano said. “We just have to understand, when we get in those areas, it’s good to shot. It doesn’t have to be perfect.”

One too many passes sometimes led to passes in each other’s skates. There were times, I said in passing to someone, they looked as if they hadn’t played together. “They haven’t,” he said. Line combinations switched up to start and switched up again in the third, with only Smith-Moore-Bentivoglio sticking together.

“We’ve just got to keep it simple,” Bentivoglio said.

“We’re successful offensively when we throw pucks at the net.”

Like, for instance, when Anton Klementyev put a low shot on net for Bentivoglio to deflect home late.

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The low glass here got the Sound Tigers for three delay penalties in two nights. And as tweeted: Jon Gleed wound up in the box four times in two nights, which had people wondering up here. Get this: In his first 38 games, he was responsible for only 12 opposition power plays.

Chris Botta noted Sportsnet’s report that the Islanders will train in China in the fall. Saw Katie Strang’s tweet that it’s not said to be finalized. But if so, since Bridgeport’s first year, they’ll have gone, what, Lake Placid to Wheeling to Yarmouth to Halifax to Saskatoon to Shanghai*. Keep up that trend, and where can you go? Australia? Some farther part of Antarctica? Tranquility Base?

Prescout. Still no Fritz, but the Admirals win late. They should beat the Sound Tigers to Bridgeport by at least a few minutes.

Thinking on the ride up: What if they played the Pro Bowl with schoolyard rules? No running plays… blitzing only after counting to “five Mississippi” out loud (but going on “four Mississippi,” of course)… only one first down allowed per drive… Heck, I might watch that. Failing that, I’m down with Joe Posnanski’s suggestion to turn it into Tecmo Super Bowl, give each team only eight plays and have a fan call them out.

And RIP, Jane Jarvis and Tom Brookshier.

*-Go to Google Maps. Put in Shanghai. Get directions from Uniondale. Don’t miss Step 119.

Michael Fornabaio