John Tavares, Captain of the last place New York Islanders (16-17-8) led his team to a much needed victory on Friday the 13th against the 11th place Florida Panthers (20-7-8). John Tavares was at the center of the spotlight with career points (499, 500, 501) via a 3 goal, hat trick performance. Free agent addition Jason Chimera joined in on the action in the 2nd period scoring his 7th goal of the season with the help of an assist by rookie Anthony Beauviler. Anthony Beauviller had a strong performance in his first action since being relegated to the bench almost two weeks ago.

Heading into the second half of the season, the New York Islanders have to kick it into gear to have a shot at making the playoffs for a 3rd consecutive season under Coach Jack Capuano and General Manager Garth Snow. The departure of key Islanders Frans Nielsen, Kyle Okposo, and Matt Martin has been a devastating blow to the Islanders roster. Free agent pick up Jason Chimera has had a strong season for his standards with 14 points via 7 goals and 7 assists. Andrew Ladd, the man Snow handed a 7 year/38.5 million dollar contract, has been dismal to say the least. Brought in to replace the departing Kyle Okposo to play along side John Tavares, Ladd has managed to contribute a measly 12 points halfway through the season and is on pace for his worst offensive output since 2007-2008, a year in which he played only 20 games for the Chicago Blackhawks. What is already looking like a distarous contract, Ladd needs to deliver now to erase the early comparisons of his contract to that of Rick DiPietro.

The time is now for the team to go on a run. With Jack Capuano and the rest of the coaching staff on the hot seat, albeit words of encouragement from GM Garth Snow "Jack is an excellent coach...I have a lot of confidence in our players...I have a lot of confidence in our coaching staff." If the team fails to crawl back into contention, we are likely to see new faces on the bench come next season.