(My Sportsbook) - Without Michael Peca, the New York Islanders knew they would be in trouble at the beginning of the season. However, the play the team has put forth through its first six games has left sophomore head coach Peter Laviolette wondering if this was the same team that started last year 9-0-1-1 and returned to the postseason for the first time since 1994.

"It's all frustrating," Laviolette said. "We're in it for results and we're not getting them."

New York, which is 2-3-1, has looked brutal in the early going and suffered a 4-1 home setback to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.

The Isles went 0-for-9 on the power play and have gone three games without converting a man-advantage.

"They'll come, that's all I can tell you," Laviolette said. "But it's tough sledding right now."

The Islanders' 28th-ranked unit is 0-for-19 over the last three games and 3- for-44 this season. The penalty-kill has not been much better, and on Tuesday Carolina cashed in on three-of-eight chances with the man advantage.

"It's a privilege to be on the power play and we've got to start showing it," defenseman Adrian Aucoin said.

New York peppered former Islander Kevin Weekes with 37 shots, but only Claude Lapointe's rebound found its way past the Hurricanes' netminder.

Garth Snow, rewarded with the start after a fine outing in Philadelphia last week, played on "Chris Osgood Bobblehead Doll Night" and stopped 14-of-17 shots he faced.

To make matters worse, the Islanders announced Wednesday that Oleg Kvasha will be out a minimum of two weeks with a left ankle fracture suffered in last night's loss. Kvasha left the ice late in the second period after getting hit in the leg by a slap shot off the stick of Hurricanes' defenseman Bret Hedican.

One player who did return to action was promising young defenseman Radek Martinek, who skated in his first game since early last season because of a rehabbing a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

And speaking of Peca, Laviolette has targeted December 4 as his return date, two days before the team's first matchup with Darcy Tucker and the Toronto Maple Leafs, who knocked the Isles out of the playoffs last spring. It was Tucker, who low-cut Peca, that caused the knee injury.

"All I can tell you is when he's healthy and 100-percent, he'll play," Laviolette said. "It won't matter who we're playing."

NEXT UP

The Islanders will continue their four-game homestand on Thursday when Florida pays a visit. The team will also host the Flyers and Phoenix Coyotes during the set.