A year ago, the Islanders raced out to a lightning fast start and their long-suffering fans were going wild with glee.

	Chris Osgood is sporting a woeful 4.67 GAA and .793 save percentage.

This season, though, while Lightning and Wild fans are enjoying some surprising early fun, Isles rooters are wondering if the bad old days have returned to Long Island.

Last October, buoyed by newcomers Mike Peca, Chris Osgood and Alexei Yashin, the Islanders were a near perfect 9-0-1-1. In fact, they rolled to an 11-1-1-1 start before going into a mini slump in mid-November. The club rode that fast start to their first playoff berth since 1994.

A year later, though, Peca is hurt, Osgood is struggling and Yashin is looking for a linemate with a finishing touch. Accordingly, the Isles completed their first month with a disappointing 3-6-1 record. Those wins weren't been anything to crow about, either, coming against the Predators, Thrashers and Panthers. Those three league doormats own a combined 6-20-3-5 through Nov. 3.

Intense second-year coach Peter Laviolette, trying to jump start his team for their first game in November, inserted Peca -- who wasn't scheduled to return to the lineup until early December -- into his lineup for a Willis Reed-like cameo. (For those of you too young to get the Willis Reed reference, look it up! It's a good story.)

Peca took the opening faceoff against the Blues on Saturday at the Nassau Coliseum. He skated one short shift (27 seconds), hitting defenseman Barret Jackman for good measure, before retiring for the evening. Not much later, his teammates followed his lead and took the rest of the night off. The result: a humiliating 6-1 loss.

Afterward, Osgood, sporting a dreadful .793 save percentage, told the simple truth: "There isn't a guy in this room who's playing as well as he can."

Speedy fourth-liner Jason Blake added, "Some guys in this room aren't taking shifts off, they're taking nights off."

Against the Blues, despite the emotional boost of Peca's surprise appearance, the Isles were quick to lose focus. When things didn't go well early, they seemed to self-destruct with a stunning number of missed assignments and minor-league mistakes. Right now, the Islanders are a team playing with no confidence.

Tonight, on the same night ex-Isles great Clark Gillies gets inducted into the Hall of Fame, the current Islanders will look to stop the bleeding against the visiting Flames. Clearly, they'll need to play more shift-to-shift hockey to get their game in order. If they don't, scorers like Jarome Iginla and Chris Drury will make them pay.

Last year, the Islanders found out just how important a good start can be. This year, if they keep playing sloppy, uninspired hockey, they'll learn what a bad start can lead to.

E.J. Hradek writes hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.