GDT: GDT #1 New York Islanders vs Buffalo Sabres | October 14th | 7:30 PM | F/W 3-2

[BelovedIsles]

I'll take any win the way they come. They could've ran away with this game. Going to be a lot of frustrating wins, frustrating losses, and in between.

Going to give Nelson his credit. For all the flash and dash Barzal brings, Nelson isn't too far behind in skill, AND he produces. When he's on his game, he's the 2nd best Islander.

Pelech has to make better decisions. He's the rock.

Horvat needs to finish, I would imagine if he keeps getting these chances eventually they'll go in.

D was okay, some egregious turnovers, but they recovered well.

 

[barz2]

Horvat sniffed the net a few games also. Good player.

Not mentioned that much, but that was a really nice play by Horvat in the D Zone to end the game..

:: Formerly Barz1 :::

 

[beach]

Isles played well. That was an exciting game. I don’t know why y’all bitchin.


levi will be a great goalie for buff

I thought they had a very mediocre game. Too loose in their own zone.

 

[Chardo]

Typical win for the Elmont Eh

 

[Bones45]

Perfect record without 12.



Just pointing that out.

 

[The Wahligator]

This team needs Hanifin

 

[NYI365]

NYI365's Lock of The Year: Isles win tonight. Isles haven't won a proper home opener with fans since 2017-18, where they beat these same Buffalo Sabres. We're due.

They've lost every home opener since if you can believe that (COVID 20-21' season without fans for a majority not withstanding). They've lost to Nashville in 18-19, Washington 19-20, (Beat Boston in the "Home Opener in 20-21 but there were no fans), lost to Calgary to open UBS in 21-22, and lost to FLA last year.

I rest my case, your honor.

 

[Taswell]

Wasn't particularly pretty, but not too terrible for the first game of the season. Big positive for me was Engvall picking up where he left off last year, speed/reach/board battles all looked excellent tonight. Sorokin also looked good after a fairly pedestrian preseason. Romanov was also quite solid.

Horvat still concerns me. Still think breaking up Pelech-Pulock has drastically affected Pelech's game.

 

[The Real JT]

Lou will be behind the bench by Thanksgiving.

With a Walker?

Nah. With a broken hip . He’s fallen and he can’t get up.

 

[SI90]

This team needs Hanifin

Would solidify the defense.

Pelech-Dobson
Hanifin-Pulock
Romanov-Mayfield.


That’s as deep and solid an entire defense there is.

His contract is up after this year. I think he’s a UFA because of service time? He’s gonna get a hefty raise.

Bolduc has to go the other way and more. Im all for it.

 

[ALEXIVICH CHULKATURI]

I just don’t understand the infatuation with Hudson Fasching. He’s a Michael Dal Colle clone. Let’s see what we have in Wally or Gauthier who are both younger than him. He’s played 56 games for us including the 6 playoff games and he’s registered 19 points. If we were to cut him he’d clear and he would be playing for Bridgeport. He’s not an NHL player.

 

[islesfan3913]

I just don’t understand the infatuation with Hudson Fasching. He’s a Michael Dal Colle clone. Let’s see what we have in Wally or Gauthier who are both younger than him. He’s played 56 games for us including the 6 playoff games and he’s registered 19 points. If we were to cut him he’d clear and he would be playing for Bridgeport. He’s not an NHL player.

He’s much closer to a Cizikas clone. He also isn’t here to score, he’s here to be a solid bottom six forward who plays hard, plays well defensively, and doesn’t make mistakes, and he does all of that. He’s a perfectly fine player to have in a teams bottom six.

 

[ALEXIVICH CHULKATURI]

He’s much closer to a Cizikas clone. He also isn’t here to score, he’s here to be a solid bottom six forward who plays hard, plays well defensively, and doesn’t make mistakes, and he does all of that. He’s a perfectly fine player to have in a teams bottom six.

Perhaps my good man I just think he’s a dime a dozen player and at best a 4th liner. Wally’s ceiling is higher…At least I hope.

 

[MJF]

I’m not sure what to make of this win. I thought Nelson’s entire line had a good game as well as Barzal. Keep playing the north-south game without slamming on the brakes and looking to dish off. I’m not sure how many shots on goal Horvat notched. I’ll guess he had 5, and all of them found the crest or the glove. Oh well, they’ll go in eventually.

The 2nd period was trash. Thank you Ilya for keeping us in it because we were chasing the game for most of the middle stanza. We’re gonna need that from him and Varlamov every game.

And Noah Dobson? P.U. I liked the Romanov-Pulock pairing but Noah had a rough night even with Adam Pelech. Hope it improves as we go forward.

Onward and upward.

 

[BelovedIsles]

He’s much closer to a Cizikas clone. He also isn’t here to score, he’s here to be a solid bottom six forward who plays hard, plays well defensively, and doesn’t make mistakes, and he does all of that. He’s a perfectly fine player to have in a teams bottom six.

Fasching is an adequate bottom-6'er. I do not see the comparison between him and CC. I suspect they are giving Wahlstrom more time to get his game to NHL speed, I also suspect that Lambert isn't too fond of him.

 

[GOLFWANG]

Fasching at least last year has done things that some of our regulars were scared to do. Fasching also does the right thing most of the times.

He often drove the net and sometimes forces a pass or shot on net which they say put it on net and things happen.

Wally may have higher upside but has often looked lost, slow, and has often taken stupid penalties so far in his young career.

Wally or Holmstom haven't showed that much that they should just be given a spot also just because they have high upside.

 

[PK Cronin]

Just finished watching the game. A few things stood out in game one.

I really liked the chances that the first line produced even though they didn't end up the scoresheet. Seemed like they were clicking fairly well and Holmstrom did a nice job in his role of disruption/third man high.

Nelson's line was the most dangerous and they were fun to watch. Engvall with Nelson really works. They had multiple chances with limited breakdowns all night. Obviously they scored two of the three goals too.

Pageau's line was okay. I felt that Lee was dominant on that line, really controlling the puck and making sure the safe plays were made. Pageau was good, especially on faceoffs, but Fasching wasn't doing much of anything all night.

Cizikas and the rest of the fourth line were good but I don't worry about them until fatigue starts setting in.

Defensively I thought everyone was okay. Didn't notice Aho and Mayfield much, but Aho did make a few shifty plays offensively in the third period. He also had one of the two worst turnovers I saw in the game, and that's precisely why the advanced stats just don't matter. Not all turnovers are created equal and if you're coughing the puck up in prime scoring areas routinely you don't deserve to play, even with good advanced metrics.

Dobson really f***ed up on the game tying goal. No idea what he was thinking. Just play the man instead of the puck and that's an easy play.

Sorokin was good.

The other bad turnover was Lee. Just pushed it to the top of the zone in the second period and I didn't like it at all. Take care of the puck and this team has a chance every night.

 

[IslesNorway]

Good grinding win, of the fashion there will be many this year as well as some defeats. Nelson looks ready, but the failure to shoot by Holmstrom in the 2nd just tells he is working hard to become a Bailey clone. Just too much respect for his linemates.

 

[LeapOnOver]

Liked Holmstrom's game. Feel like if that line can get rolling his confidence will snowball. He just needs to play like he is supposed to be there and not an experiment.

 

[Duanesutter12]

Good grinding win, of the fashion there will be many this year as well as some defeats. Nelson looks ready, but the failure to shoot by Holmstrom in the 2nd just tells he is working hard to become a Bailey clone. Just too much respect for his linemates.

I'm not sure he fits in on the first line. You'd like to see a little more scoring there in my opinion. As far as his game is concerned I like him. He's a good overall hockey player who skates well and should contribute in all phases of the game.... Like Bailey but hopefully with a little more upside.

I see a lot people saying the first line looked good and I didn't have the same feeling. It's not that they looked bad but one thing that stood out was Barzal not holding the puck too long whether it was power play or full strength. It seems he's making a concerted effort to distribute quicker and it was strange to see because for the last five years it's been him dancing around all the time! He had once real nice quick drop to Horvat from behind the net that gave us a good chance. You wouldn't really see that in the past. Perhaps he's a new man??

 

[The Real JT]

Good win. I too suspect this will be the formula for many of this season’s wins.

Lest we forget, this could’ve easily gone the other way. Buffalo rang one of the post late in the third with the game tied. If that went in…. but it didn’t.

Survive and advance

 

[IslandersGER]

Any rookies on this year's team

I see a big chance Isles hfboards getting more rookies than Isles team. Even when it's not usual to become an Isles fan

 

[Metnut]

Would love to add someone like Ishkatov or Wahlstrom or even Gauthier to the third line.

Fashing is fine as 13th forward or maybe on the 4th line but I’d like to see a more dangerous option there in the top 9.

Solid effort last night. Buffalo gave all they had after being embarrassed in their opener and Isles answered them.

 

[Strummergas]

JFC then dont watch. WTF? Dragging my balls over a cheese grater is no fun either, which is why I don’t fvckin do it. You should do the same with the isles if it pains you so much.

If you do it lightly and on the fine side of the grater, it's actually quite nice.

 

[SayItAintSoJohnny]

It's a win, so we take it and move on.

The 2nd line played exceptionally well, continuing the success they had late last season. Nelson was obviously the 1 Star and I think Palms/Engvall looked sharp alongside him.

Top line had its moments and hopefully they can continue to feed off that as we go along. Holmstrom can't be passive though and I saw two times where he should have shot. Horvat (8) and Barzal cant combine for 11 and you not get one at all..

Lee looked solid on the 3rd line for the most part but you wonder how we are getting offense from him (and we need his 25-30 per usual goals) with Pageau and chopped liver on the other wing...

4th line hung tough, combined for 12 of our 29 hits and didnt look completely washed up out there, especially CC.

I thought Pulock and Romanov were the best d-men last night. Good solid play and some nice passes from Alex early. The Pelech/Dobson duo struggled, not necessarily as a unit but individually they made some really bad decisions. Communication problem? Idk. Mayfield was basically inviisible until you look at the box sheet and realize he blocked 4 shots and Aho to me was very shaky on the defensive side but got in on some OZ chances.

Power play didn't look awful, but it didnt look great either.

Sorokin was solid.