Pick Your Islanders All-Decade Lineup

I like it. I like that third line better with Peca; however, and would put Yash with Satan and KO

I can make an argument that besides Streit, Aucoin was the best D-man we had for his time here. Certainly a better talent than Witt, Cairns, or Martinek.

 Overall, nielsen is better then kvasha, but kvasha had potential. And schremp is still to unproven for me to take that last spot.

I would switch Peca and Yashin on your roster. Yashin is more of top six center and Peca is one of the best defensive forwards in recent history. Also, no enforcer? Otherwise I like it. Your fourth line would be a great shutdown line. York has the speed to really fit well with Gordon’s system and can generate an aggressive forecheck. Satan/JT/Czerkawski could be a line that would come up with some creative plays down low. I would only worry that that line might be vulnerable defensively. I like the defense. I forget about Hamrlik when I came up with my lines. I had the same goalies, only with Luongo starting.

his last year with us was 98-99, but he’d be a lock for the 1990’s isles all decade team.

ehhh, for me it feels a bit too short of a stint.

18games is not enough. And I consider what he did to us in the offseason after we traded for him and paraded him around the island as actions enough to consider him never here. Sure he’s a great player, but when we make a blockbuster trade for a superstar, sell a number of his jersey’s in long island, and give him a huge welcoming like he’s the second coming of jesus. I expect him to stay with us for at least 1 more year, especially since we were already playoff contenders.

I totally forgot about Smyth

I think Blake gets buried cause the Islanders were surprisingly strong at Center for most of the decade. Personally talking about Center, to me three of them have to be Tavares, Peca and Yashin. And then there’s just so many other good centers on the Islanders that it’s not surprising Blake is being overlooked.

I think he deserves a spot, I even put him in the top 6 :). DP definitely deserves a spot. He was our starting goalie for 1/2 the decade and his great 06-07 season was enough for me to lock him in a spot without question.

I especially like that fourth line. I was thinking of putting Scratch as my 4th line center as well but went with Lapointe. I liked your defense so much that I basically stole it for my lineup (see below), only switching Witt for Martinek and changing the pairings a little.

Osgood/Roloson

IR: DiPietro, Bates, Peca, Martinek, Sillinger, Weight and Sutton.

I so miss Sillinger. An every man, playing every position and doing it well.

The Yashin Buyout: That really is a crazy calculus (paying someone that much, for that long, to walk away except for once each summer when his agent calls the Last Local Beat Writer Standing). So I always figured Snow, coming from the locker room, had a compelling enough belief that subtracting him was a better cost than keeping him around. Because really, it’s not like this team was in salary cap danger — that move had to be all about subtracting an atmospheric drain, no?

Chara: left Chara out because he wasn’t all that great as an Islander

If you had told me then that Chara would one day win a Norris I would have called you crazy. I was watching a Boston game with my Dad last season. He follows the Islanders a bit but otherwise doesn’t watch many games. He remembered Chara from his Isle days and was shocked when I told him he was considered one of the best defenseman in the league.

Yikes, we really have had it bad.

Thank you!! No one looks at Park-Bates and see a great Penalty Killing team of the decade. I like Campoli too and thought he needed time, unlike Gervais, who will need a lifetime to be as good.

I possibly could, if we had enough entries. We’d also have to decide what years ratings to use with older players.

Is anyone ever interested in an EA-type league for members of this site? I occasionally receive solicitation like that — I think the last one might have been from the non-EA game — but I just don’t have much time to entertain them. Still, if there is interest, I’d help facilitate.

Imagined/thought/knew, there is a number of ways to phrase it, but for the most part our GM’s have screwed the team over as a whole with countless bad and illogical moves over the past ~15-20yrs before snow or pretty much ever since our dynasty ended.

On the Sidebar, Click “Hockey What If?”

I imagined if Hunter didn’t cheap shot Turgeon, but I concentrate on Turgeon – Palffy being an incredible combo, McCabe being a solid defensive leader with Johnsson and Bertuzzi being part of a solid second line after Milbury gets fired.

Something for every role and situation. This would be a pretty fun fantasy video game-sim team.

Thanks for joining — I can’t believe “islanderfan” wasn’t already taken.

I can see people wanting godard, but simon was better all around. Simon was stronger, bigger, more feared, and a hell of a lot better all around player that could produce, and actually useful on the ice compared to 1-tool godard.

I picked Nielsen over Tavares only because of tenure within the decade. Safe to say he won’t be omitted for long :)

I thought about Godard, but since I preach enforcers who can play 5-on-5 hockey I figured I better go with Simon.