Preseason Notes: Bruins 3, Islanders 2

Either the Bruin’s D was excellent or we were on the fumes.

Well- they are the defending stanley cup champions.

but honestly, 5 games really wasn’t enough for me to get a good feel…What did Poulin and Nilsson play 35 minutes? In Nabby’s defense (I noted in the game thread) he outright said he would need more game time to get his timing back and really, he got a game and 10 minutes. I guess it is going to shake itself out in-season, but yeah, I’d start with those two.

I’d say we see DP in the net Montoya on the bench and Nabokov in the press box on 10/08,. They’ll need to rotate for a while, maybe 2-1-1 until somebody stands out and somebody stands down.
If DP continues to play well there’s no harm in having Poulin and Nilsson in BPT, while Montoya paces towards 20 games and Nabby towards 10.. or a trade. Koskinen, I would guess, will either be loaned to an ECHL team or kept in BPT so they can work with him. His mobility seems to have gotten worse.
If DP is healthy, and playing the best of the three, there is no reason why DP shouldn’t be starting. Let’s just keep our fingers(and anything else we can) crossed that he stay’s healthy. The guy has at least earned that much from us.

quote fail:

Seeing the very large Bruins throwing their weight around, it’s going to be tough on the Isles’ skilled but small forwards this season against bigger teams. If, say, the Isles third and fourth lines most nights are Comeau-Bailey-Niederreiter and Rolston-Reasoner-Pandolfo/Martin, the only real banger among those seven is Matt Martin. That’s going to mean some wear and tear on the skilled guys. Something to watch for.

But don’t remember the malady.

He left the game in the first period with a groin injury. Click

that here, he doesn’t mention Nino battling for a roster spot. I’m assuming he is leaving some out due to injury. Also note that all 3 goalies were sent to BPT. I guess it is still possible to loan one from BPT to the ECHL, but as of now, all at AHL level.

Here

Pandolfo v Haley should not even be floating around… The team needs a Haley, it most definitely does not need a Pandolfo.
What’s up with Rolston… I can only see Nino sticking around if Rolston = 2010 Doug Weight.
So many decisions… zero practice games left to use to decide.

RDP – looked the best he has in years. The question remains about his health and his lack of maturity around the net.

Nabby – looked mediocre at best and like RDP wanders around the net too much.

Big Al – seems to play a calm and simple game.

My choice is to trade Nabby and some other players to get a gifted defenseman.

Big Al seems to be ready to be the real deal and RDP looks okay.

besides pounding heads, having a crazy mustache, and pumping up teammates opening the gate is his third best attribute. But I still don’t like the idea of keeping a guy on the roster to play just 4 minutes a game.

All of those teams can afford to bury a body in the minors rather than deal a desirable player off their roster.

I’ll have to dig into their roster situations team by team, but it strikes me as a lot of “Oh, you can take Kotalik or we can just waive/demote/send him to Europe” situations.

He played really well last night

I disagree with this move.

To make room for Pandolfo? I hope not.

him or Martin to be headed that way. I would have preferred Martin for his development (and I think Haley is a better fit right now).

I don’t doubt he’s going to be back soon.

For some freaking reason Snow likes Smurfs and Old Men.

We have a team of freaking Smurfs on offense and defense. Last nights game should have made it crystal clear we need some big boys to protect our talent. Instead Snow has reverted back to the old Snow by moving forward with all of these smurfs…..

What turn the season around for the Isles is we played like big boys and got respect. We will not survive this game of sharks and orcas playing like minnows. We either get smart and aggressive players or we will be dead.

Bring back Haley…..keep Martin….bring up Ultstrom….

Looks like Rolson has taken the mantle of too old to play role on the team. We seem to be replacing Rolson with Pandolfo. Why? Pandolfo was mediocre in the games he played. Why keep an old timer when a hungry kid will be a better long term solution.

I thought his lack of physical play was a knock on him from the size-or-else faction? Meanwhile, Jurcina is one of the bigger D on the team, does use his body … and ends up injured frequently as if he’s a smurf himself.

Magus, I don’t think Snow “likes smurfs.” I think on the NHL market, when all things are equal (skills, smarts), the bigger player is always harder to get. In a rebuild you’re trying to get legit hockey players through whatever way possible, and the reality is the overlooked ones (i.e. ones available later in the draft, in the college free agent pool) are the ones who have skills but for whom size is a question mark. That’s how they ended up with so many small-to-average size D prospects with skills.

This past summer’s draft sure looked like they felt they could afford to focus on size more. But it’s always at a premium, unless you’re willing to accept a big body who plays a Kvasha game.