It's easy to blame Alexei Yashin for just about everything under the sun. The mail is late? It must be his fault. It's raining out? Blame Alexei. A fuse blows? Pin it on No. 79.

	Alexei Yashin registered 15 points and was plus-10 in March.

He's an easy target. He walked away from his contract with Ottawa (though few bother to ask his reasons). He's a quiet Russian skill player in a loud, clutch-and-grab North American league. He prefers classical music to rock or rap. He dates a model. And, of course, he has that ridiculous $10 million contract. (I don't remember anyone forcing Charles Wang to sign off on such a deal, do you?)

So, with the sputtering Islanders currently putting on an off-Broadway revival of "Jekyll and Hyde," observers will be quick to finger Yashin as the source of the club's recent schizophrenic play.

In this case, though, they'll be dead wrong. It isn't Yashin's fault. Not this time.

"(Yashin) has been our best player for a month and a half now," said Isles captain Michael Peca. "He's doing little things. He's winning faceoffs, he's backchecking hard to the right places on the ice, he's even getting more involved physically."

Need more?

"In the last several weeks, he's really been much more competitive in all three zones," said coach Peter Laviolette, who demoted a slumping Yashin to the fourth line for a brief time in mid-February. "He's been tougher to play against and it has been tougher to take the puck off him. He's really been playing well."

Still not convinced?

"He's been playing really hard and paying close attention to detail," said goalie Garth Snow. "He's been playing with more initiative. And I think he's really been regaining his confidence in the last six weeks."

The numbers backup the remarks made by the captain, the coach and the goalie. In his last 12 games, Yashin has nine goals and 17 points. He enjoyed a five-point night in Montreal and a four-goal game in Chicago. Despite his late-season success, Yashin will finish with the lowest points-per-game average of his career.

"Skill players like Yash are always under the microscope," Laviolette said. "But, believe me, he has come up big in important games for us in the last two years."

So, if Yashin's been playing so well, why are the Islanders stumbling to the finish line with a 5-8-2 in March?

"We have just been too inconsistent with our play," Laviolette said. "And, that's very frustrating because I know how well we can play."

Laviolette's team has played extremely well in recent road wins over the Eastern Conference-leading Senators, Canadiens and Blackhawks. In those three games, the Isles outscored their opponents, 20-7. On the flip side, they looked dreadful in weekend losses to the Leafs and Devils.

In Sunday's 6-0 loss at New Jersey, the Islanders looked amazingly lifeless for a team that desperately needed a win. Afterward, Peca said, "It was the most embarrassed I've been as a professional."

Laviolette was equally disgusted.

"There were one-on-one battles all over the ice in that game," Laviolette said. "They beat us to the battles and once we got there they beat us in the battles. They beat us everywhere on the ice for 60 minutes."

The Islanders, who have been a resilient group throughout an up-and-down season, failed to clinch the final playoff spot by tying the rival Rangers 2-2 on Tuesday night at Nassau Coliseum.

	“	We've had chance after chance to put these teams away and we haven't responded. Right now, we're tired of talk, we need actions. We need to put some F-you attitude back into our game ”
		— Michael Peca

"We've had chance after chance to put these teams away and we haven't responded," Peca said. "Right now, we're tired of talk, we need actions. We need to put some F-you attitude back into our game."

They also might want to put some attitude into their special teams, which were particularly ineffective against the Leafs and Devils. In those two losses, the Isles were 0-for-8 on the power play, while surrendering three power-play goals in just eight chances against.

Believe it or not, the Isles' penalty-killing unit just might be missing competitive role player Claude Lapointe, who was inexplicably dealt to the Flyers for a fifth-round pick just two days before the trade deadline. Without Lapointe, who could also win faceoffs, the Isles have opted to use Oleg Kvasha on the PK. Blessed with great size and raw ability, the painfully inconsistent Kvasha doesn't seem to have the instincts to be a good penalty killer.

On defense, Kenny Jonsson's injury woes continue to be a problem. Currently, Jonsson is day-to-day with post-traumatic migraine headaches as a result of a nasty collision with Devils right wing Grant Marshall. When Jonsson can't play, shaky D-men Eric Cairns and Mattias Timander move up in the rotation. When that happens, those players can be exposed. Or, as one Devils forward said, "We think we can really work their defensemen."

In goal, Snow has blanketed many of his teammates' defensive-zone mistakes since inheriting the No. 1 job from an injured, then traded Chris Osgood. Since Jan. 21, when Osgood went down with a sprained ankle, Snow is 12-9-3 with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage. With young Rick DiPietro looking a bit overanxious and susceptible to the soft goal in his several appearances, Snow must continue to provide strong goaltending.

All this brings us back to Yashin, who has been playing on a line with Kvasha and rugged right winger Arron Asham. In big games, he will certainly draw the top checking line. Can he consistently overcome the clutching and grabbing (and penalties) that are allowed in the playoffs? Will his linemates help him find some time and space in tight postseason games? If they don't, will Laviolette be quick to find other ways to use him?

Those questions won't be answered for a few weeks. In the meantime, there will be those who will continue to pick at Yashin's game. For now, though, despite his team's inconsistent performance, Yashin isn't giving his critics much to pick at.

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