It's early, and the Islanders already have fun lineup decisions
by Dominik on Oct 6, 2009 6:15 AM EDT
in Roster Manoeuvres in the Dark
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Print"Kyle, for basically playing only seven minutes of preseason hockey, was one of our best players," Gordon said. "I've said all along, he's just going to keep getting better."
The word from the BlogBox bloggers with locker room access after the home opener was that Kyle Okposo was in a foul mood. Foul, as in frustrated that the Islanders -- despite a promising opening display -- started their season off by blowing a third-period lead again. Foul, as in a newly named alternate captain taking a shootout loss hard.
Foul, as in this 21-year-old played all of seven preseason minutes yet drew rave praise for his fiery efforts from a coach who doesn't dole out praise easily. (Of course, even that coach was tickled by opening night optimism.)
Which brings me to the lovely one-game-in jump to fantasy: Do the Islanders maybe have something here?
I mean sure, that's been the whole point all along: To do this rebuild slow and do it right. But now that the games have started again and I look at a 21-year-old, a 20-year-old and a 19-year-old as easily the Isles' best three forwards, I start to salivate (all over again) at the the thought of what Okposo, Josh Bailey and John Tavares might become once they're no longer wet behind the ears. Of what the Islanders might look like once those three get out of the crib.
It's a pretty sweet dream, and with a few more days before Thursday's game in Ottawa, I'm going to let my head go there for a while.
But it's not just them. Since -- in a complete 180 from last season -- no one was maimed nor felled by illness in the home opener, suddenly Scott Gordon has lineup decisions to make. Day-to-day groin man and new captain Doug Weight is ready, as is Blake Comeau. Work those guys into the top two lines -- to say nothing of Rob Schremp Hockey -- and I'm not sure if Sean Bergenheim is ever going to get the chance at prominent minutes that he desires (minutes I still suspect he could capitalize on).
I really like Bergenheim, particularly when he's firing on all cylinders (and not devoting one cylinder to dumb overexuberance-fed minor penalties). But this is a fantastic problem to have.
I'm not yet convinced on the NHL future of any forwards in Bridgeport, but if the existing forwards continue to develop (including my pet Frans Nielsen, who's resumed light skating), then I can see where the Islanders could be a team to reckon with in a few years. (The subpar blueline, as I've repeated as nauseum, is my real lasting concern.)
So while last season's miserable experience provided bits of fun when we saw little blips of stardust in the nascent galaxy forming, this year has started off with a flash quite a bit brighter. Put it this way: Not until well into 2009 did any Islanders line look the way Moulson-Tavares-Okposo looked Saturday night.
For now, I'll take that as a quite welcome step one.
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It's exciting.
We deserve exciting hockey. I know the season just started and we have a lot of young players, but Thursdays game is a must win and they should win. I think I’ll be disappointed if they don’t leave Ottawa with 2 points. I don’t recall every caring last season whether they won or lost because I wanted the first overall pick, but I’m glad that after one game I care whether they win or lose.
Welcome aboard! Thanks for joining.
I know what you mean. Even this year, I’ll see the greater value in getting another very high pick, but on the way there I’m going to be rising and falling with each win and loss.
Saturday was winnable, and Thursday should be if they don’t come out flat. Should be fun to see how Campoli’s doing.
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My take: use Frans’ absence as an opportunity. Put Doug at third C and let JT center one of the top two lines and Josh the other. Hunts and Josh could be on one line, Moulson, Okposo, and JT on the other. Tambellini and Schremp could alternate as LW on Josh’s line. Bergy and Comeau could fill out the third line and Sim, Thompson, and Jackman the fourth with Comeau and Sim occasionally switching.
Is Schremp in for this next game? Does anyone know if he has had enough time to become “acclimated to his surroundings”? I’m curious is the kid is going to try to prove something or if he is going to skate his way down to Bport.
I am guessing that Frans is back next week? I thought I read that he was out 2-4 weeks approximately 2 1/2 weeks ago.
Apparently, Frans is still out till November, at least. He’s only resumed “light” skating, so it will be a while.
With Schremp, they practiced today and will practice again tomorrow, so who knows if he gets into the lineup that quickly. They might wait for a chair to fall on somebody.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
Speaking of the youngsters...
More love for de Haan:
The contrast between Calvin de Haan on Sunday and at the same time a year ago was stark as he limped out of the Oshawa Generals’ dressing room following a 5-4 shootout win over the Ottawa 67’s. … Fleet afoot and as smart a hockey player as they come, de Haan was impressive enough in the Islanders’ camp that he nearly made the team.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
I really wouldn’t mind watching Sutton throw his weight around against Ottawa. It really would be nice to see a defense that stands people up on the blueline every once in a while. It was nice to see Witt do it against Pittsburg. I swear my TV is tired of me scoffing at it when I watch the incredible collapsing defensive scheme that the Isles use. It renders all the hard work used on the forecheck, useless. I can’t imagine Gordon is happy with it either.
…oh yeah and Roloson would agree with me from the looks of his mid-air slap of the puck out of the zone last Saturday. I’m glad they did not have him mic’ed up…for the kids sake.
The baseball swing is Rollie’s signature. When he’s “had enough of this crap”, he clears the puck himself.
Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.
That would make sense. Unfortunately I guess we are going to see that a lot of the baseball slap in the third period. I just wonder how willing the defense is to help him because they seemed to abandon him in the last game.
If our defense collapsed anymore we could rival those vaccum suction storage bags that they advertise on TV. We need some grit. Trust the goalies that we have and take a poke at the puck once in a while. What could it hurt? We are losing the games that we aren’t doing it so what is the difference?
The traffic is what bugged me. Collapsing followed by screening him.
I hope we don’t run into the same debate as last year:
Gordon: We’re losing third-period leads because we’re abandoning our gameplan.
Witt: We’re abandoning our gameplan because you can’t defend a lead like that.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
Excellent. I’m looking forward to Rollie’s mean streak.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
I like that after the horrible season last year, Okposo is still taking the losses bad. Sometimes it seemed like earlier bad Islander teams just stopped caring about the losses.
Plus the Islanders should expect to win in those situations no matter who they are against. Two goal lead, a competent goaltender, they just can’t sit back and allow themselves to be outshot 18-5 in the third and 4-1 in OT.
I'm in a foul mood looking at our schedule
and that we will only have played 2 games in the first week.
This is too much time off in between games. Especially after a first game which we played well in. This five day stretch is ridiculous.
Scary thing is that Boston is a mean team and we have them on Friday. This early in the season it takes a while for guys to really get in the flow. The fewer games played by us is not good when going against Boston who is a bag team and really mean. I wouldn’t be surprised if we walked out of that game with a few injuries.
Yep. The Boston game looks like a classic setup to fall hard.
When the schedule was announced, that jumble of games was what worried me, but now I’m just as bothered watching other teams get in their groove while the Islanders sit.
Lighthouse Hockey: Side effects may include Weight gain and frequent game loss.
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1979-80
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May 24, 1980: Tonelli to Nystrom. At long last, the steady build of the New York Islanders from expansion doormat to surprise semifinalist to annual contender reaches the promised land: Buoyed by a late season trade for Butch Goring that gave the team the depth up the middle GM Bill Torrey had been seeking, the Islanders knock off the Philadelphia Flyers in six games.
The victory justified the faith in coach Al Arbour who guided them from their second season to their first Stanley Cup seven seasons later. The Islanders would not be the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup, but they would be the only one capable of a dynasty.
1980-81
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May 21, 1981: This time it was much easier. After falling to "only" 91 points in the 1979-80 season, the Islanders returned to their division title tradition, piling up 110 points -- a whole 13 points over second-place Philadelphia.
Between the quarterfinals (where they beat the upstart Oilers in six games) and the finals, the Islanders reeled off eight consecutive wins -- with a four-game sweep of archrival Rangers in between. As they defeated the Minnesota North Stars in five games for their second Cup, their goal difference in the final was a combined +10.
1981-82
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May 16, 1982: Another year, another landslide title. The Islanders won the Patrick Division by a whopping 26 points over the second-place Rangers, and were seven points clear of their nearest competition for the President's Trophy, the still-not-quite-ripe Edmonton Oilers.
A first-round scare against the Pittsburgh Penguins turned in the Isles' favor thanks to John Tonelli's heroics, and a true dynasty was on its way: Past the Rangers in six games, then an eight-game sweep of the Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Canucks to run away with the Stanley Cup.
1982-83
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May 17, 1983: Not so fast, whipper-snappers. The Edmonton Oilers' steadily rising challenge for league supremacy took them all the way to the finals for the first time, where the New York Islanders summarily dispatched them in a four-game sweep. For the Islanders, the Dynasty was secured. For the Oilers, it was a powerful lesson in where talent ends and the demands of playoff hockey begin.
Four years, four Cups, 16 consecutive playoff series wins (a record that would grow to 19 until the rematch with the Oilers the following year). Mike Bossy scored 60 goals yet again, and Wayne Gretzky became acquainted with Billy Smith's crease.
