Islanders Hatchlings 7, Bruins Fledglings 2: Strome, Cizikas, McNeely, Nilsson Shine

this is not good news for Islander fans. Without a dedicated beat writer and Botta, I feel like LHH is probably the only place to come for Islanders coverage. I had a feeling Botta was done after this past season – without credentials, it’s just impossible to run a well-informed and updated Islanders blog (well, unless you’re Dominik and the writers here at LHH!). Good luck to Botta in the future, his blog really could’ve been something special (and it certainly was, for a while) before letting personal shenanigans get in the way.

I guess doing more video or something. Maybe more NHL as opposed to Islanders based coverage? Well, whatever he does, I wish him well. I got really turned off to the site due to the personal nonsense, negativity and insane posters, but it was a great resource for news.

He is a very good source of news.
I have to admit I am a teeny bit worried about LHH in light of this.
I hate to think that this place could wind up the recipient of all the type of comments that were left on IPB.

For fuck’s sake!!

So that’s three Islanders down in two games. Yes, I’m paranoid and FREAKING THE FUCK OUT!

Obviously Tavares only wants to return to Toronto, he totally said so last year.

to the Yippie Yo Yay.

Thats our boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ullstrom and Dibo look like men amongst boys out there

And this is the risk, I think, with the prospect games and guys who have been in the AHL a year. They really are supposed to play like men out there, but of course even when they do really well you’ve got the “well, sure, you were playing against junior kids” aspect. Damned if you do, really damned if you don’t. They certainly held up their part though.

Here’s the answer: If we assume Tavares stays at Center, he’s not playing PK. Which leaves us with 3 centers to do so.

One is Nielsen, who while I hope is a long term piece, is kind of a UFA and requires an extension before the season is over. The other long term is presumably Bailey or whoever is the 4th line C when Strome makes it up. But what happens if they’re in the box?

In other words, you can quite easily shield one center from PK time. You can’t shield two (and we didn’t last year – Bailey, Konopka and Nielsen all got significant PK time). So why not start trying him out on that role early, to see what you got?

(You can go with 2 wingers on the PK but you like to have Cs for faceoffs).

Maybe the coaches want to test in all situations since the game is essentially meaningless. I’d say that’s a positive to seem him get a chance to play a position outside of his comfort level. This isn’t a permanent assignment for him, just one rookie game.

On Strome playing the PK, its about his chances of seeing 9 games. If he’s going to be around in October he’s going to have to contribute on the PK. He’s not going to be taking a top sixer’s spot in that situation, and everybody on the bottom six contributes on the PK. That goes for Nino as well.
Grabs-Frans, Bailey-Comeau, Reasoner-(Nino/Strome)

Kabanov… Skinny Kozlov? It always amazed me how he was built like a Mac Truck, but came into the offensive zone like a Volkswagon Beetle.

Donovan, to me was the biggest disappointment of the two games. He didn’t play bad, but much like Dibo and Ulsstrom he’s one of the few that had good success against men. I think he’ll shine in BPT, but I hope he gets paired with more size than Ness. A Donovan/Klementyev pairing might be good 5-on-5 in BPT. He’ll need to be with Jurcina or Wishart in the NHL.

+ completely agree on Pedan. He was great on the PK, asserted himself, hustled, and threw his lanky weight around…I wonder if he grew up a big Kaspy fan…I can only hope!

+ Nilsson was a joy to watch on that 5 on 3. There were a few times where some better Bruin shots would have been goals if they didn’t miss the net, but regardless of some good luck I thought he played smooth and smart.

+ Nino played big and that was nice to see. He layed some people out and took his licks in front of the net on the PP. He’s a big boy out there, so maybe that’s why some felt he wasn’t hustling…then again I don’t seem to need that excuse for……..

++ Kabanov! This kid’s got talent AND work ethic! Loved seeing him steal pucks, cancel icings, make creative passing plays, even driving to the net…he looks like he’s having more fun out there than anyone else. You can tell he just loves the game. I don’t care if he ever hits anyone – with skills like that, he won’t need to!

+ Strome was the most poised, composed puckhandler on the Coliseum ice last night. Can’t wait till he’s stronger…

++ Casey Cizikas you are friggin’ awesome! The spirit of Tonelli is back in the barn!

+ Ullstrom. I see a healthy competition between he and CC – who can play with more Tonelli-ness – sounds good to me.

Is it October 8th yet?

Excellent. Good to see. Thanks for coming back and sharing with the class.

They may. They may not.

Last bit I saw went like this:

“… so I went to watch the game,” he said, adding that Snow and Wang didn’t discuss a possible training camp invite.

Until the Isles offer the Open Invite like last year

and thy said the first game would go up yesterday and that still isn’t there…so who knows. The Blue/White thing was up immediately though.

When I watch European soccer, I usually record it because it’s usually on during my office hours (or else when I’m sleeping/playing hockey on the weekends).

Used to be able to avoid the news easily, but nowadays it’s more popular here and Twitter and all that is filled with spoilers.

I still have reservations there — well, not that I’d prefer Hamilton (I wouldn’t), but that it’s really too early to judge anything, especially between an F and D.

That said, Dougie didn’t do much to catch my eye, and I do remember a few scouts saying they didn’t get the fuss.

That really is impressive. I wonder how he managed to secure the first star without scoring the GWG or providing the SO.

Thanks for the update!

Now webby is gonna need a better translator for his sunday posts.

I am intrigued. Can you elaborate a little bit?

So we’d have:
^ a postgame recap (usually by me, with the stat links, video, thoughts etc.)
^ a separate post for everyone’s plus/minus and/or reports from the game (if they attended?) (is this the FanShot you’re talking about?)

This has me interested because it’s always hard to toss up a quick recap with half-formed thoughts and the links/videos in a timely manner. So perhaps an instant plus/minus reaction thread after the game, followed by my “official” recap later?

Any other feedback/voters on this?