GDT: #18| New York Rangers @ New York Islanders | November 15th | 7:00 PM | F/W 7-5

[Islanders4Cups]

Practically everyone here.

Not no more.

 

[Islanders4Cups]

Barzal has to pick his spots better.

He does but he reacted to a 6’3” player coming at him at high speed to run him over. That was also a borderline charge.

 

[Islanders4Cups]

He does but he reacted to a 6’3” player coming at him at high speed to run him over. That was also a borderline charge.

I just watched it again. Definitely a charge should have been called there on Howden.
Barzal would have been flattened had he not reacted. These two were going at each other just earlier with Howden holding Barzal stick, Barzal with 2 punches and Howdenwith the elbow. Bad no-calls.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

I just watched it again. Definitely a charge should have been called there on Howden.
Barzal would have been flattened had he not reacted. These two were going at each other just earlier with Howden holding Barzal stick, Barzal with 2 punches and Howdenwith the elbow. Bad no-calls.

Maybe Trotz benched him to stop those shenanigans. No need for Barzal to get hurt.

 

[Islanders4Cups]

Right. We should not assume Barzal was benched for his play. He is not their best defensive player and he certainly was getting pushed around.

That is the approach teams will be taking. They will go after him and the Isles need to be prepared to respond. Reminds me of the Rags going after Lafontaine back in the day.

 

[Satan'sIsland81]

I am glad that Beau finally had a breakout game, but that almost assuredly means he will not be taken out of the lineup any time soon, which means I dont see how Dal Colle gets in. What they do with Dal Colle over the next week will really show me whether this new brain trust knows what it is doing with young players. If Dal Colle is not going to play up here , he has to and I mean ABSOLUTELY HAS to be sent back to Bridgeport. You cannot take a player who is finally showing glimpses of something and off to a fantastic start in the AHL and put him out of game action for a prolonged period. It is the one and only thing that cannot be done. Either play him up here or send him back down. I cannot imagine that anybody on here could possibly disagree with me on this.
Personally I take out Johnston, put MDC on the second line and put Kuhnhackl on the fourth line. Keep Beau with the third line after the game they had yesterday.

 

[Hunn]

I am glad that Beau finally had a breakout game, but that almost assuredly means he will not be taken out of the lineup any time soon, which means I dont see how Dal Colle gets in. What they do with Dal Colle over the next week will really show me whether this new brain trust knows what it is doing with young players. If Dal Colle is not going to play up here , he has to and I mean ABSOLUTELY HAS to be sent back to Bridgeport. You cannot take a player who is finally showing glimpses of something and off to a fantastic start in the AHL and put him out of game action for a prolonged period. It is the one and only thing that cannot be done. Either play him up here or send him back down. I cannot imagine that anybody on here could possibly disagree with me on this.
Personally I take out Johnston, put MDC on the second line and put Kuhnhackl on the fourth line. Keep Beau with the third line after the game they had yesterday.

They can scratch Kuhnhackl and put both Beau and MDC in.

Anyway, they MUST play MDC, JHS, Toews, etc, at some point in the season – otherwise I don't understand the meaning of "evaluation year".

 

[PK Cronin]

I am glad that Beau finally had a breakout game, but that almost assuredly means he will not be taken out of the lineup any time soon, which means I dont see how Dal Colle gets in. What they do with Dal Colle over the next week will really show me whether this new brain trust knows what it is doing with young players. If Dal Colle is not going to play up here , he has to and I mean ABSOLUTELY HAS to be sent back to Bridgeport. You cannot take a player who is finally showing glimpses of something and off to a fantastic start in the AHL and put him out of game action for a prolonged period. It is the one and only thing that cannot be done. Either play him up here or send him back down. I cannot imagine that anybody on here could possibly disagree with me on this.
Personally I take out Johnston, put MDC on the second line and put Kuhnhackl on the fourth line. Keep Beau with the third line after the game they had yesterday.

You love hot takes.

 

[MJF]

I am glad that Beau finally had a breakout game, but that almost assuredly means he will not be taken out of the lineup any time soon, which means I dont see how Dal Colle gets in. What they do with Dal Colle over the next week will really show me whether this new brain trust knows what it is doing with young players. If Dal Colle is not going to play up here , he has to and I mean ABSOLUTELY HAS to be sent back to Bridgeport. You cannot take a player who is finally showing glimpses of something and off to a fantastic start in the AHL and put him out of game action for a prolonged period. It is the one and only thing that cannot be done. Either play him up here or send him back down. I cannot imagine that anybody on here could possibly disagree with me on this.
Personally I take out Johnston, put MDC on the second line and put Kuhnhackl on the fourth line. Keep Beau with the third line after the game they had yesterday.

Either Johnston or Kuhnackl comes out for MDC. The next game is Sunday against Dallas. With Jamie Benn fighting the entire league these days I’d rather have Johnston dressed for this one.

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

You love hot takes.

He isn't Mr. Freeze's Island...

 

[periferal]

Let's see:

On Tuesday, Knuckles plays with Flip and Leo - gets two goals.

On Thursday, Beau plays with Flip and Leo - gets three goals and an assist.

Who's next?

Not great players, but smart and hard working.

See and I think that smart and hard working make you a great player. I'd rather watch overachievers b/c of hard work than the Yashin, Kavasha, and Ho-Sang's of the world who have lots of talent, but mediocre smarts/effort.

 

[periferal]

Agreed.

Amazingly I find several people on twitter who are losing their minds about Trotz overreacting about benching Barzal. “How can Trotz bench our most talented player in a close game late in the 3rd. Bag skate him tomorrow, bench him the following game, but don’t scratch him now.” Unreal.

I guess there are still people out there who still aren’t used to having a coach do the right thing disciplining a team.

You get it. They don't.

 

[periferal]

Sooo...How many people wanted to boot Beau out for MDC?

How many people wanted Beau to sit for a few games, but for someone else other than MDC...?

 

[periferal]

Ledecky is a man of the people

Tell me that photo doesn't look at least a little doctored? Like Ledecky's face was planted on some other guy wearing a suit?

 

[SI90]

Tell me that photo doesn't look at least a little doctored? Like Ledecky's face was planted on some other guy wearing a suit?

It does but I want to believe it so bad lol

 

[periferal]

Agree but, let me say one thing here. The kid has to defend himself. The game was too tight to do anything about it but I saw I believe Howden coming after Barzal up high and Matt brought his stick up in self defense. Understood it was a penalty at a crucial point but someone has to end that. Howden is a big kid and kudos for drawing a penalty but I hope some of our more physical players take note of Howden for the return matchup at MSG.

That's a fair point and a fine line to walk. Really I think the team should be defending Barzal as Barzal should not be in a tiff ever with a player like Howden. The most important message is that no one on the team can take a dumb penalty, especially in a crucial situation, and Trotz continues to be a coach of his word on that, but after that I also think it's fair to create a culture of sticking up for your teammates from the tougher guys on the team. I mean if that isn't Matt Martin's role then I don't know why he's here.

 

[Satan'sIsland81]

You love hot takes.

You dont even agree with me on this one? You would be okay with MDC just sitting in the press box for the next week or two?

 

[periferal]

It does but I want to believe it so bad lol

But if it's real why don't you believe it?

 

[Quickdraw2828]

Ledecky is a man of the people

somebody throw him a banana

i see the man of the people took the perfect view seat while his homies can deal with the glass obstruction

 

[SI90]

But if it's real why don't you believe it?

I don’t know if it’s real or not.

 

[Quickdraw2828]

Tell me that photo doesn't look at least a little doctored? Like Ledecky's face was planted on some other guy wearing a suit?

Ha, he does look a bit neckless. Should have raised his head more.

And the guy to his left, our right, seems to have an oddly aligned head as well.

 

[Glory Days]

Ledecky is a man of the people

Lou and Malkin have reduced Ledecky to head of the cheerleading squad.

 

[periferal]

Lou and Malkin have reduced Ledecky to head of the cheerleading squad.

Well what else is he good for? When in your first town hall you proclaim that "Tavares is NOT going to become a free agent," I think you've lost a lot of credibility that can only be gained back over a long time.

 

[Uncle Duke]

That's a fair point and a fine line to walk. Really I think the team should be defending Barzal as Barzal should not be in a tiff ever with a player like Howden. The most important message is that no one on the team can take a dumb penalty, especially in a crucial situation, and Trotz continues to be a coach of his word on that, but after that I also think it's fair to create a culture of sticking up for your teammates from the tougher guys on the team. I mean if that isn't Matt Martin's role then I don't know why he's here.

My take on the whole Barzal thing from the BT perspective is that he had to do what he did to send the message that you can't take a bad penalty in that situation, but deep down he secretly loves that Barzy is no pretty boy looking for help from mama when things get a little rough. He'll learn to pick his spots and to not be stupid about exposing himself to unnecessary risks to his health.

 

[PK Cronin]

You dont even agree with me on this one? You would be okay with MDC just sitting in the press box for the next week or two?

You're too black and white. The other night it was ALL Pulock's fault and he was a dumb hockey player. Today, Dal Colle HAS to play or he shouldn't be up at all.

Whether or not I agree with you depends on what you mean by having to play him. Do you mean every game or just spot duty? If you mean every game, I disagree with you.

If Beauvillier is getting into a rhythm, that's a great thing. If Kuhnhackl continues to play well, that's a great thing. There is no need to pull either of them out of the lineup if they're playing well right now. Dal Colle can practice and get spot duty if someone has a bad game or gets banged up a little. Beauvillier has shown more in the past two years than Dal Colle, so it's much more important to me that he gets the time he needs if he's playing well. It's still a reward to Dal Colle that he was the call up and not someone else, so I don't really view it as a negative if he sits in the press box for a week. Two weeks, I'd be a little surprised and depending upon how the games go, could be upset. The bottom line is that he's taken years to put a string of games together like this, overcoming a break in play is something he should be able to handle without an issue if he wants to be an NHL regular.

I really don't think he'll be sitting around though. If he hadn't played the night before I really believe he would've started in that last game. There's a bit of a condensed schedule coming up, so he'll get in one or he'll get returned to Bridgeport by the end of next week I'd think if he hasn't gotten into a game and someone gets healthy.