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

[mm11]

Was expecting a hungry angry sabres team but a solid isles team showed up.

 

[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.

Correction. Horvat had 8 shots on goal.

 

[I Loveallsports]

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

Yea , I've been an isles fan probably before you were born. That's for your great insight on the team.

 

[13th Floor]

Already we see clamoring for Wally over Fasching. It's pretty simple. Fasching is a net nothing and Wally is a net negative. Dude has bad hockey sense and is terrible without the puck in all three zones. The "ceiling" for Wally is only higher when you look at offense. We care about wins. For now, give me the dude who played net positive hockey in the playoffs until he loses his spot.

In the last 20 years of watching this team, how many times have I said to myself that the 2nd line is better than the 1st line? It has be the majority. Barzal and Horvat looked fine, but man is that some Islander fan Stockholm Syndrome. The fact that Horvat went from a 50-goal pace to a 2-goal pace the second he donned blue and orange aside, we need them to be dominant. When I'm looking for a goal, I'm looking to the Nelson line, like I have for the vast majority of Nelson's career here (usually because Tavares had some revolving door of whatever on his wing just like Barzal does). Hmmm...

That really is the ticket to us doing well this year. A one-two punch of scoring threat from the top two lines, net nothing from the 3rd line (i.e., shut down), and the 4th line doing their thing. That's my fun-loving October outlook. Somewhere in the middle of the winter once Clutterbuck gets hurt, Horvat has 1 goal, and the PP is 32nd in the league, and we'll know why we're a middling wildcard team at best.

I'm piling on Horvat a little when I think his game was fine. But we got him to be better than fine. There's something about this team that we grab a player that was scoring like that, and then he doesn't add that scoring to the team and elevate our offense. Instead, we bring his offense down to Islander levels. What is that? It's systemic and regime agnostic. Oh well, it's game 1 -- hopefully this year is different, but I see a lot of gold-ribbon-for-participation celebration for Horvat generating shots (and the nice no look pass from Barzal). I still like him as a player. He's a good leader, and we've created a team of a lot of leaders. The problem I'm seeing is we bring in scoring leaders that turn into just leaders and well, someone needs to score. If this team wants to "score by committee", the rallying cry of teams without any superstar scorers, we're not going far because the league has changed. 3rd and 4th lines are good and can add "scoring by committee" across the league, but that's in addition to their offensive superstars.

The PP sucks. A lot. Again. We have two elite entry players too. But we have no QB. We have nobody who can create any space that leads to offense. Barzal can create space for himself all day, curling along the half wall, but generating that towards the net is another story. And no other player can make a subtle play to break down the defense and create time and space. They're statues in their spots on the ice and they only look to triangle pass around people instead of making a move to open space and creating new angles. On one of the PPs yesterday, they were statue-passing back and forth with the 3 high guys on perimeter of the umbrella, essentially generating nothing, and then one of those passes got intercepted. Can't even pass it along the outside of the perimeter, a clear 3-on-1 or 3-on-2 advantage, without it being telegraphed because we're passing people into corners with only one other option to pass to and no creative ability to create more space. That's garbage. The worst PPs in the league pass along the perimeter (what the defense gives you) and does nothing else with their set up. We can't even do that.

Lastly, I just don't get Lambert. Wasn't he a Trotz disciple? The way I see it is, ever since Tavares departed, this team's core, offensive ability, speed, and talent level has been pretty much the same. Maybe speeds a bit worse with the loss of Leddy and Toews. But my point is there are no superstars, we don't have the horses to run and gun you to death, and we certainly can't play an up tempo game. Trotz saw this and committed us to structure, defense, and opportunistic scoring -- basically what this roster needs to compete. And we made two ECFs in a row. Trotz leaves, Lambert gets promoted, we abandon that defensive structure that defined us, and we suck again. What am I missing? I get theoretically trading some defense for offense, especially if the league is shifting that way, but the results aren't there with this personnel. Either get different players (impossible for this franchise outside of the draft) or change the style. The Tampa Bay Rays can't structure their team the same way the Yankees do.

 

[JBHockey]

I thought the game went well considering Buffalo had played a full speed game already. liked the first line and I would have to believe Horvat is going to get on a hot streak and start netting some of his opportunities, at least he wasn't missing the net by 10 feet.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

Solid win. Our top line played like a top line. Absolutely SHOCKED that the replay went our way. Between a high stick and offside I thought for sure it was coming back. Maybe a sign of good things to come this year.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

Lastly, I just don't get Lambert. Wasn't he a Trotz disciple? The way I see it is, ever since Tavares departed, this team's core, offensive ability, speed, and talent level has been pretty much the same. Maybe speeds a bit worse with the loss of Leddy and Toews. But my point is there are no superstars, we don't have the horses to run and gun you to death, and we certainly can't play an up tempo game. Trotz saw this and committed us to structure, defense, and opportunistic scoring -- basically what this roster needs to compete. And we made two ECFs in a row. Trotz leaves, Lambert gets promoted, we abandon that defensive structure that defined us, and we suck again. What am I missing?

That we made the playoffs last year with Lambert after missing with Trotz the year before?

 

[CupHolders]

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.

Ironically, Holmstrom more-and-more continues to remind me of Bailey. Similar frame and skating style. He is a bit faster, and hopefully develops a more purposeful offensive game. Very similarly adept at chip passing off the boards for the breakout. Although he already seems stronger than Bailey on the boards. Makes you wonder what grade of chains he was doing push-ups with.

Agree, Dobson was a hot mess. I'm reminded of the first couple of months of Pelech under Trotz. He was benched for a game at one point. Basically, he was playing like he did under Capuano/Weight. There is nothing to suggest Dobson WILL have the same learning curve. But I'm hopeful that a couple of months with Pelech might help to settle him down.

Just as an aside, I know the Isles did not have the room in cap or roster space... But Jordan Greenway would've been the perfect Matt Martin replacement.

 

[JohnTonelliRises]

Already we see clamoring for Wally over Fasching. It's pretty simple. Fasching is a net nothing and Wally is a net negative. Dude has bad hockey sense and is terrible without the puck in all three zones. The "ceiling" for Wally is only higher when you look at offense. We care about wins. For now, give me the dude who played net positive hockey in the playoffs until he loses his spot.

In the last 20 years of watching this team, how many times have I said to myself that the 2nd line is better than the 1st line? It has be the majority. Barzal and Horvat looked fine, but man is that some Islander fan Stockholm Syndrome. The fact that Horvat went from a 50-goal pace to a 2-goal pace the second he donned blue and orange aside, we need them to be dominant. When I'm looking for a goal, I'm looking to the Nelson line, like I have for the vast majority of Nelson's career here (usually because Tavares had some revolving door of whatever on his wing just like Barzal does). Hmmm...

That really is the ticket to us doing well this year. A one-two punch of scoring threat from the top two lines, net nothing from the 3rd line (i.e., shut down), and the 4th line doing their thing. That's my fun-loving October outlook. Somewhere in the middle of the winter once Clutterbuck gets hurt, Horvat has 1 goal, and the PP is 32nd in the league, and we'll know why we're a middling wildcard team at best.

I'm piling on Horvat a little when I think his game was fine. But we got him to be better than fine. There's something about this team that we grab a player that was scoring like that, and then he doesn't add that scoring to the team and elevate our offense. Instead, we bring his offense down to Islander levels. What is that? It's systemic and regime agnostic. Oh well, it's game 1 -- hopefully this year is different, but I see a lot of gold-ribbon-for-participation celebration for Horvat generating shots (and the nice no look pass from Barzal). I still like him as a player. He's a good leader, and we've created a team of a lot of leaders. The problem I'm seeing is we bring in scoring leaders that turn into just leaders and well, someone needs to score. If this team wants to "score by committee", the rallying cry of teams without any superstar scorers, we're not going far because the league has changed. 3rd and 4th lines are good and can add "scoring by committee" across the league, but that's in addition to their offensive superstars.

The PP sucks. A lot. Again. We have two elite entry players too. But we have no QB. We have nobody who can create any space that leads to offense. Barzal can create space for himself all day, curling along the half wall, but generating that towards the net is another story. And no other player can make a subtle play to break down the defense and create time and space. They're statues in their spots on the ice and they only look to triangle pass around people instead of making a move to open space and creating new angles. On one of the PPs yesterday, they were statue-passing back and forth with the 3 high guys on perimeter of the umbrella, essentially generating nothing, and then one of those passes got intercepted. Can't even pass it along the outside of the perimeter, a clear 3-on-1 or 3-on-2 advantage, without it being telegraphed because we're passing people into corners with only one other option to pass to and no creative ability to create more space. That's garbage. The worst PPs in the league pass along the perimeter (what the defense gives you) and does nothing else with their set up. We can't even do that.

Lastly, I just don't get Lambert. Wasn't he a Trotz disciple? The way I see it is, ever since Tavares departed, this team's core, offensive ability, speed, and talent level has been pretty much the same. Maybe speeds a bit worse with the loss of Leddy and Toews. But my point is there are no superstars, we don't have the horses to run and gun you to death, and we certainly can't play an up tempo game. Trotz saw this and committed us to structure, defense, and opportunistic scoring -- basically what this roster needs to compete. And we made two ECFs in a row. Trotz leaves, Lambert gets promoted, we abandon that defensive structure that defined us, and we suck again. What am I missing? I get theoretically trading some defense for offense, especially if the league is shifting that way, but the results aren't there with this personnel. Either get different players (impossible for this franchise outside of the draft) or change the style. The Tampa Bay Rays can't structure their team the same way the Yankees do.

Agreed on the Lambert choice or at this point retaining him as HC.

He's not bad, just not particularly great. The team will eventually need upgrades on the roster and on the bench. I'm hoping the GM and owners see that as well.

 

[13th Floor]

That we made the playoffs last year with Lambert after missing with Trotz the year before?

You are right -- I did mess up the years. I still think the overall trend is there. Do you disagree? We are fair worse on defense and barely better on offense.

 

[Chokabloc]

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.

Hopefully you noticed that at the end of the game with a 1 goal lead, it was a triangle of Sorokin, Pelech and Mayfield who secured the win. Mayfield with a couple blocked shots, one off the knee, didn't seem too invisible to me..........

 

[ALEXIVICH CHULKATURI]

The 13th floor took time time to nail the most important point, Horvat looks underwhelming. You’d think 8.5 million would get you more but maybe not considering Matthews make 5 million more maybe he makes the 2023 NHL normal salary for 70 point per season player. Fact of the matter is you look at the roster and you ask yourself are we really only 500,000 short of the league max cap. I would give Lee away for a bag of pucks to get that 7 million in cap space. And that Horvat contract in 5 years when he’s 33, holy cow is that going to be one bad cap hit. Our GM should be in a nursing home drinking milk and playing gin. So should most of our politicians but that’s a story for another day. Wallowed in mediocrity is where will be unless SoroKING gets hurt and then maybe just maybe can we actually draft in the top 5. As for Wahlstrom we need to put on the first line to see what we have in him. If. Doesn’t cut it and I believe that maybe gut be the case trade him out West for a 2nd and a 3rd in the off season.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

Solid win. Our top line played like a top line. Absolutely SHOCKED that the replay went our way. Between a high stick and offside I thought for sure it was coming back. Maybe a sign of good things to come this year.

Top line was so good, super encouraging to see

 

[JohnTonelliRises]

The 13th floor took time time to nail the most important point, Horvat looks underwhelming. You’d think 8.5 million would get you more but maybe not considering Matthews make 5 million more maybe he makes the 2023 NHL normal salary for 70 point per season player. Fact of the matter is you look at the roster and you ask yourself are we really only 500,000 short of the league max cap. I would give Lee away for a bag of pucks to get that 7 million in cap space. And that Horvat contract in 5 years when he’s 33, holy cow is that going to be one bad cap hit. Our GM should be in a nursing home drinking milk and playing gin. So should most of our politicians but that’s a story for another day. Wallowed in mediocrity is where will be unless SoroKING gets hurt and then maybe just maybe can we actually draft in the top 5. As for Wahlstrom we need to put on the first line to see what we have in him. If. Doesn’t cut it and I believe that maybe gut be the case trade him out West for a 2nd and a 3rd in the off season.

I'd give Horvat about 20-30 games before we start ringing the alarm bells. If it's the same old story and dance of last season for most of the players, then it's a coaching problem. At that point, I'd change the coach first, before we start shaking up the team. The team will need upgrades due to age anyway, but I don't think we should trade away key players before we test out a different coach.

 

[doublechili]

I didn't see the game, but from reading this thread I now know that Horvat was very good as well as terrible.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

I didn't see the game, but from reading this thread I now know that Horvat was very good as well as terrible.

I was at the game which is a different view but I thought he was great. Lots of opportunities.

 

[Sparksrus3]

I didn't see the game, but from reading this thread I now know that Horvat was very good as well as terrible.

He made the play on D with 10 seconds left to lock it up for the good guys. so that makes him ok for now

 

[Taswell]

I didn't see the game, but from reading this thread I now know that Horvat was very good as well as terrible.

His overall play was fine, I just feel like I haven't seen the goal scorer he was labeled as when he got here. He had a lot of shots, and you'd think eventually they'll start going in.

 

[Osakahaus]

Horvat is #Good

 

[GOLFWANG]

As soon as you join the Islanders two things happen and maybe three, you're shooting percentage goes down and you start hitting the goalie right in the chest.

you might play like a third line player.

 

[Osakahaus]

Gauthier would fit better over Fasching on the third line, and bench Martin. I think that C-Buck played fine.

 

[Bones45]

Everyone ready to make changes after one game.


Stellar.

 

[Dutch Frost]

We played 40 minute Hockey as always. Team took foot off the gas and the Sabres made it interesting. If we faced off against the Bruins or Carolina and played like this we would've lost.

 

[The Real JT]

Already we see clamoring for Wally over Fasching. It's pretty simple. Fasching is a net nothing and Wally is a net negative. Dude has bad hockey sense and is terrible without the puck in all three zones. The "ceiling" for Wally is only higher when you look at offense. We care about wins. For now, give me the dude who played net positive hockey in the playoffs until he loses his spot.

In the last 20 years of watching this team, how many times have I said to myself that the 2nd line is better than the 1st line? It has be the majority. Barzal and Horvat looked fine, but man is that some Islander fan Stockholm Syndrome. The fact that Horvat went from a 50-goal pace to a 2-goal pace the second he donned blue and orange aside, we need them to be dominant. When I'm looking for a goal, I'm looking to the Nelson line, like I have for the vast majority of Nelson's career here (usually because Tavares had some revolving door of whatever on his wing just like Barzal does). Hmmm...

That really is the ticket to us doing well this year. A one-two punch of scoring threat from the top two lines, net nothing from the 3rd line (i.e., shut down), and the 4th line doing their thing. That's my fun-loving October outlook. Somewhere in the middle of the winter once Clutterbuck gets hurt, Horvat has 1 goal, and the PP is 32nd in the league, and we'll know why we're a middling wildcard team at best.

I'm piling on Horvat a little when I think his game was fine. But we got him to be better than fine. There's something about this team that we grab a player that was scoring like that, and then he doesn't add that scoring to the team and elevate our offense. Instead, we bring his offense down to Islander levels. What is that? It's systemic and regime agnostic. Oh well, it's game 1 -- hopefully this year is different, but I see a lot of gold-ribbon-for-participation celebration for Horvat generating shots (and the nice no look pass from Barzal). I still like him as a player. He's a good leader, and we've created a team of a lot of leaders. The problem I'm seeing is we bring in scoring leaders that turn into just leaders and well, someone needs to score. If this team wants to "score by committee", the rallying cry of teams without any superstar scorers, we're not going far because the league has changed. 3rd and 4th lines are good and can add "scoring by committee" across the league, but that's in addition to their offensive superstars.

The PP sucks. A lot. Again. We have two elite entry players too. But we have no QB. We have nobody who can create any space that leads to offense. Barzal can create space for himself all day, curling along the half wall, but generating that towards the net is another story. And no other player can make a subtle play to break down the defense and create time and space. They're statues in their spots on the ice and they only look to triangle pass around people instead of making a move to open space and creating new angles. On one of the PPs yesterday, they were statue-passing back and forth with the 3 high guys on perimeter of the umbrella, essentially generating nothing, and then one of those passes got intercepted. Can't even pass it along the outside of the perimeter, a clear 3-on-1 or 3-on-2 advantage, without it being telegraphed because we're passing people into corners with only one other option to pass to and no creative ability to create more space. That's garbage. The worst PPs in the league pass along the perimeter (what the defense gives you) and does nothing else with their set up. We can't even do that.

Lastly, I just don't get Lambert. Wasn't he a Trotz disciple? The way I see it is, ever since Tavares departed, this team's core, offensive ability, speed, and talent level has been pretty much the same. Maybe speeds a bit worse with the loss of Leddy and Toews. But my point is there are no superstars, we don't have the horses to run and gun you to death, and we certainly can't play an up tempo game. Trotz saw this and committed us to structure, defense, and opportunistic scoring -- basically what this roster needs to compete. And we made two ECFs in a row. Trotz leaves, Lambert gets promoted, we abandon that defensive structure that defined us, and we suck again. What am I missing? I get theoretically trading some defense for offense, especially if the league is shifting that way, but the results aren't there with this personnel. Either get different players (impossible for this franchise outside of the draft) or change the style. The Tampa Bay Rays can't structure their team the same way the Yankees do.

I liked the beginning of your post but…too long. I bailed.

 

[Sparksrus3]

The 13th floor took time time to nail the most important point, Horvat looks underwhelming. You’d think 8.5 million would get you more but maybe not considering Matthews make 5 million more maybe he makes the 2023 NHL normal salary for 70 point per season player. Fact of the matter is you look at the roster and you ask yourself are we really only 500,000 short of the league max cap. I would give Lee away for a bag of pucks to get that 7 million in cap space. And that Horvat contract in 5 years when he’s 33, holy cow is that going to be one bad cap hit. Our GM should be in a nursing home drinking milk and playing gin. So should most of our politicians but that’s a story for another day. Wallowed in mediocrity is where will be unless SoroKING gets hurt and

then maybe just maybe can we actually draft in the top 5.

Strome , Dal Colle, Reinhart,Niederreiter, Tr91tor, Dipietro, Torres, Connolly,Luongo, DuPont ,Redden, Kasparaitis, LaChance, Chyzowski, Lafontaine, Gillies,potvin,Harris

You asked for it
well here is our top 5 selections all time . After Lafontaine 40 years ago how have we done ? Please don’t tell us Griff brought Barzal to New York