The Isles are not a superior team!!!

They have Tavares... that's it.

Any team can win on any night... the Isles haven't played a complete game yet this season.
- jimmc7722

I've been saying that for a long time, anyone on this roster is expandable except JT

I don't know why everyone is so upset. This is the same Islander team we have seen for years. They go through these major slumps until they are irrelevant and then we fight to battle for the 8th spot in the playoffs. This does not shock me at all.

Capuano still has no clue what is going on out there. I said this last year and got reamed but last year was a fluke. If we played a full season we would have never made the playoffs. Problem is Garth and Wang are to stupid to see this so this is what we get every year

The Isles are not a superior team!!!

They have Tavares... that's it.

Any team can win on any night... the Isles haven't played a complete game yet this season.
- jimmc7722

with all due respect to parity, yes..we SHOULD be the superior team. We are an up and coming team that had a terrific showing down the stretch last year. Regardless of whether we're a 'good' team, we should be superior to a hapless bunch like Buffalo. Unfortunately, we're playing with a handicap:

I don't know why everyone is so upset. This is the same Islander team we have seen for years. They go through these major slumps until they are irrelevant and then we fight to battle for the 8th spot in the playoffs. This does not shock me at all.

Capuano still has no clue what is going on out there. I said this last year and got reamed but last year was a fluke. If we played a full season we would have never made the playoffs. Problem is Garth and Wang are to stupid to see this so this is what we get every year
- kasperrko

I don't know why everyone is so upset. This is the same Islander team we have seen for years. They go through these major slumps until they are irrelevant and then we fight to battle for the 8th spot in the playoffs. This does not shock me at all.

Capuano still has no clue what is going on out there. I said this last year and got reamed but last year was a fluke. If we played a full season we would have never made the playoffs. Problem is Garth and Wang are to stupid to see this so this is what we get every year
- kasperrko

Maybe we can draft up Reinhart's brother???

Get the Western Canada family thing going again!!!

Is it too early to tank???

with all due respect to parity, yes..we SHOULD be the superior team. We are an up and coming team that had a terrific showing down the stretch last year. Regardless of whether we're a 'good' team, we should be superior to a hapless bunch like Buffalo. Unfortunately, we're playing with a handicap:

- keaner17

Isles will never be a superior team w/ 1 star on team, which everyone relies on. Most teams have more than 1 star player, but Isles do have better role players than most teams.

I'm tired of seeing Hickey with snow on his a$$...and I don't mean the GM...there's what bothers me, right there.....grow at least a c**t, if you can't grow ba11s....
- dcb1

Isles will never be a superior team w/ 1 star on team, which everyone relies on. Most teams have more than 1 star player, but Isles do have better role players than most teams.
- Ur Not Me

Now you're going to have to clearly define 'star' player. JT is a franchise player and only a handful of teams have one of those. Having more than one star on your team does not instantly qualify you as a superior team nor does not having 2 disqualify you. Having the better team than your opponent makes you superior. We're splitting hairs here. Point being, the Isles have a better team than Buffalo but right now are coming out of the gates like crap. There's no way teams like Nashville and Buffalo should be sneaking away with 2 points from us.

whelp....there ya go. Another grand performance by Cappy, the personell tactician. Amazing watching Strait botch the clear as Carkner watched slack jawed and did nothing. Yep, with two minutes left, Cappy sends out Carkner and Strait to close this baby out.

Bright spots? Not many. I heard someone talk about KO playing 'great' and perhaps by KO early regular season standards he was great, but on FOUR different occasions I watched KO kill odd man rushes with terribly inaccurate passes to wide open players at close range.

I'm going to refrain from going to negative on the players themselves at the moment since I really do think they'll reel it in at some point, but like many of us were saying at the end of last regular season, the worst thing about the Isles making the playoffs was that in ensured us that we'd have to spend AT LEAST another season with Cappy. Oh the irony of them trying to ram that "Cappy is a great coach' story dawn our throats....did anyone notice the gun at Hamonic's temple when he said "Cappy is the best coach I've ever had"?

It's way too early to start damning players but I was less than excited when we traded Nino for Cal for one reason. While Cal is a fan favorite, a hustler and one tough sob, we dealt away a future high end skill player, for yet another checking line guy. We're sitting young skilled players, for gritty guys. Long story short (too late), when you are a team with mid range talent, you can't pass up adding more talent. No one is going to benefit from watching the game in a press box. The team won't benefit by putting a 6'5" pylon out there in place of a young skilled defensemen. We don't benefit by putting Eric Friggin' Bolton out there in place of Brock Nelson.
- keaner17

as much as everyone rags on carkner, he didnt play a bad game. what exactly did you want him to do, it was straits blown-clear.


EDIT: having said that, once i saw that colin was out, i was hoping nelson would be in. under no circumstances should boulton be on this roster.

In all fairness from the little I have seen of Donovan he has been just as bad as Strait and Hickey. The Brightside of this game was Clutterbuck. He will be fun to watch with Martin
- mighty13duck

Not anywhere near as bad as strait who has been almost as bad as Amac Hickey is debatable.

Chief we need the Benny Hill music after tonight. The Wolfpack may still be needed after all.
- ses111

Never a doubt in my mind.

The 48 game season proved little IMO. A flukey kind of yr all around. This season will be telling one way or another. Its early. But next week is crucial to make a good showing. This team cant be playing catch up in the standings. Their mind set and confidence is still to fragile to fall behind and spend the season catching up. We shall see.

I stand firm by one of my earlier post. PMB will be waived or traded. Although he did spend a brief amount of time in front of the crease last night. He floats way to much and he's not good enough to just be hanging around waiting for a pretty pass.

I loved the grit from MM. CC and even JT last night. Great energy from all three IMO. Others should take note.

Don't disagree but I don't think it was a horrible decision to play Boulton. He also played quite well too.

As for your other post, I've been to the last two home games and yea it's a bit off with the crowd, even smaller crowds get going more. Just seems the team can't get anything consistent going and you're always waiting for the shoe to drop because that's the cycle. Can't close out games.
- Isles316

3:59

as much as everyone rags on carkner, he didnt play a bad game. what exactly did you want him to do, it was straits blown-clear.


EDIT: having said that, once i saw that colin was out, i was hoping nelson would be in. under no circumstances should boulton be on this roster.
- LetsGoIsles

On that particular play, I wanted them as a tandem to get the clear, but I agree that was largely on Strait. That said, Carkner was terrible in the corners last night.

Isles will never be a superior team w/ 1 star on team, which everyone relies on. Most teams have more than 1 star player, but Isles do have better role players than most teams.
- Ur Not Me

Islanders have good depth up front that's not the problem. The problem is they have zero defense and an horrible coach.

Not anywhere near as bad as strait who has been almost as bad as Amac Hickey is debatable.
- Cptmjl

They have all been bad minus Hamonic (who people seem to think has been bad too). I think Hamonic has been playing very well and is atleast trying to get up on the play. Hickey is supposed to be an offensive dman but hes terrible at it.

Never a doubt in my mind.

The 48 game season proved little IMO. A flukey kind of yr all around. This season will be telling one way or another. Its early. But next week is crucial to make a good showing. This team cant be playing catch up in the standings. Their mind set and confidence is still to fragile to fall behind and spend the season catching up. We shall see.

I stand firm by one of my earlier post. PMB will be waived or traded. Although he did spend a brief amount of time in front of the crease last night. He floats way to much and he's not good enough to just be hanging around waiting for a pretty pass.

I loved the grit from MM. CC and even JT last night. Great energy from all three IMO. Others should take note.
- SCLI

See I think the finally stretch and playoff series proved a lot. It showed how well this team can play when they're firing on all cylinders. The thing I haven't seen from the Isles yet is sharp passing from zone to zone. The final 15 games of last year and subesquent playoff series had the Isles reminding me of a poor man's Detroit Red Wings. The one thing the Red Wings did (a few years ago) better than anyone in the league was create a turnover in their zone, followed by quick chip passes from player to player through all three zones. The Isles did that last year but have yet to do that so far this year. It's the sign of a rusty team that's not playing together. I'm confident we'll get it together eventually but very concerned that our sub par defensemen will still be the death of us.

Never a doubt in my mind.

The 48 game season proved little IMO. A flukey kind of yr all around. This season will be telling one way or another. Its early. But next week is crucial to make a good showing. This team cant be playing catch up in the standings. Their mind set and confidence is still to fragile to fall behind and spend the season catching up. We shall see.

I stand firm by one of my earlier post. PMB will be waived or traded. Although he did spend a brief amount of time in front of the crease last night. He floats way to much and he's not good enough to just be hanging around waiting for a pretty pass.

I loved the grit from MM. CC and even JT last night. Great energy from all three IMO. Others should take note.
- SCLI

A team struggling for offense, I would trade PMB and De Haan for a top four dman

See I think the finally stretch and playoff series proved a lot. It showed how well this team can play when they're firing on all cylinders. The thing I haven't seen from the Isles yet is sharp passing from zone to zone. The final 15 games of last year and subesquent playoff series had the Isles reminding me of a poor man's Detroit Red Wings. The one thing the Red Wings did (a few years ago) better than anyone in the league was create a turnover in their zone, followed by quick chip passes from player to player through all three zones. The Isles did that last year but have yet to do that so far this year. It's the sign of a rusty team that's not playing together. I'm confident we'll get it together eventually but very concerned that our sub par defensemen will still be the death of us.
- keaner17

+1

They have all been bad minus Hamonic (who people seem to think has been bad too). I think Hamonic has been playing very well and is atleast trying to get up on the play. Hickey is supposed to be an offensive dman but hes terrible at it.
- mighty13duck

Hamonic is handicapped by his defensive partner. I'd love to see him operate with a legit top 4 dman. Hickey's problem is he's simply too undersized. He has natural talent but gets bumped off the puck way too easily. As someone who played a few decades on defense and coached for years, I love Hickey's positioning and grit, but it's more will than brawn.

Isles will never be a superior team w/ 1 star on team, which everyone relies on. Most teams have more than 1 star player, but Isles do have better role players than most teams.
- Ur Not Me

i actually think this is the mentality of most here and no one realizes that EVERY player cant be tavares...sure passes were missed, and pmb continues to suck but if you are unable to see the obvious talent on the offensive side of the puck then i recommend watching a slower game...try checkers.

On that particular play, I wanted them as a tandem to get the clear, but I agree that was largely on Strait. That said, Carkner was terrible in the corners last night.
- keaner17

but as a 3rd pair dman who was in the game bc it was expected to be (and was) a physical game, he did his job last night...do you agree with that?

A team struggling for offense, I would trade PMB and De Haan for a top four dman
- mighty13duck

i bet you would!!!

Hamonic is handicapped by his defensive partner. I'd love to see him operate with a legit top 4 dman. Hickey's problem is he's simply too undersized. He has natural talent but gets bumped off the puck way too easily. As someone who played a few decades on defense and coached for years, I love Hickey's positioning and grit, but it's more will than brawn.
- keaner17

this

hickey is good and adding 10 lbs of muscle would significantly help him.

Now you're going to have to clearly define 'star' player. JT is a franchise player and only a handful of teams have one of those. Having more than one star on your team does not instantly qualify you as a superior team nor does not having 2 disqualify you. Having the better team than your opponent makes you superior. We're splitting hairs here. Point being, the Isles have a better team than Buffalo but right now are coming out of the gates like crap. There's no way teams like Nashville and Buffalo should be sneaking away with 2 points from us.
- keaner17

I guess my point was, if Isles had a few very-good to star-like players on team who can be game changers instead of average or slightly above average players on roster.

Only Matt Moulson is almost a star-like player because of his consistency of producing goals, but unfortunately he is 1 dimensional.

Question; If you are a coach of another team, who on the Isles besides JT are you afraid of beating you?

Now there is a possibility some of our prospects like Strome, Nelson, etc might have that star-like ability, but for now, not yet....

I guess my point was, if Isles had a few very-good to star-like players on team who can be game changers instead of average or slightly above average players on roster.

Only Matt Moulson is almost a star-like player because of his consistency of producing goals, but unfortunately he is 1 dimensional.

Question; If you are a coach of another team, who on the Isles besides JT are you afraid of beating you?

Now there is a possibility some of our prospects like Strome, Nelson, etc might have that star-like ability, but for now, not yet....
- Ur Not Me

grabner...bailey