I see your point, but KO hardly looked right at home on the second line last season with Nielsen and Grabner. If anything, he looked like he had no idea what his role was on the team until he moved to JT's wing.
The problem with Okposo is that he's not what we initially thought he was. I think when we all read that stuff all around saying that he was going to be like a younger Iginla, we expected a tank that would plow over defensemen, be a physical force, and even mix it up and drop the gloves once in a while. For people who still hold onto that assessment and refuse to let it go, last night was probably especially frustrating, since we saw that exact player...except he was playing for the Winnipeg Jets.
But if people can forget about the initial write-ups, then they'd probably see he's not a bad player at all. He can put up points, control the puck, fight a bit on the boards, and draw some attention away from the other players on his line while maintaining enough sense to find them once they're open...like he did on JT's goal last night. But that's what he is. He won't throw the big checks, and on the forecheck, he's far more likely to go for the puck than take the man. When he has the puck, he'll usually try to dance around a defenseman rather than run over him. And when JT is crunched from behind by Phaneuf, don't expect KO to come after him with fists flying. That was all on Carkner.
So, I get the frustration people have with KO just based on what the expectations were. On a team like the Isles that could definitely use more toughness among its scoring forwards, it stands out a bit more. However, Okposo is still a useful player...even a good player. Until I see someone prove that they deserve the roster spot over him, then it's tough to say he should go. Like I said before though, always listen to offers. I don't think he's untouchable, but he hardly should be put on the first flight out of town either.
Perfect Post, I still laugh out loud when I see people refer to Kyle as Big, or a power forward, or compare him to Bertuzzi.
Yes, 34 yr old Aucoin with his 41 total nhl pts and 29 yr old MacDonald,with his total of 3 nhl pts are clearly better players then KO.
Well its clear to me you dont watch Isles games this year. If you think Okposo is better than anyone on our third line you are high. Stop worrying about age or previous stats or when a person was drafted. Thats idiotic logic (standard HF Boards) and maybe start focusing on how a player actually plays, the decicions they make on the ice, and their ability to contribute. Start watching some games maybe?
Well its clear to me you dont watch Isles games this year. If you think Okposo is better than anyone on our third line you are high. Stop worrying about age or previous stats or when a person was drafted. Thats idiotic logic (standard HF Boards) and maybe start focusing on how a player actually plays, the decicions they make on the ice, and their ability to contribute. Start watching some games maybe?
I'm not basing my opinion on 5 nhl games.
I'm looking at 34 yr old Aucoin's entire pro career, 29 yr old MacDonald's entire pro career and 24 yr old Okposo's entire pro career.
I know, shocking that 5 games in a 5-15 yr career doesn't have a wow factor for me
Aucoin and MacDonald spent the lockout playing in the AHL and their conditioning shows. Okposo stayed home and his conditioning shows.
Agreed, just because Okposo isn't putting up top line numbers doesn't mean that he isn't one of the top forwards on the team. And a team that is playing Reasoner, Boulton, McDonald, Boyes and even Aucoin, as well as he has played in a short time, should not be looking to trade a player like Okposo.
That said, I would not be opposed to the Isles moving Okposo in a deal for a quality, young dman or a legit top-line forward. But unless moving Okposo will give you an immediate upgrade somewhere else, there is absolutely no reason to.
Rational. Very rational. Teams can't always obtain a James Neal or a Corey Perry to bolster their top line but you can skate the best 12 forwards that you can. If you can't have an elite top line, have a 3rd line with top 6 type forwards and your 4th line with top 9 type forwards.
It would be ok to have Kyle, PAP, Boyes and even Comeau on the same team if the alternatives are Boulton, Reasoner, Pandolfo, last years unmotivated Rolston and last year's not ready Nino. Play your best 12 forwards and best 6 forwards and the team would improve.
Kyle has good chemistry with Bailey and Frans jells with Grabner and JT is JT, so the basis for 3 very good lines are there.
I'm too lazy and disinterested to go back and check all of Tavares pro stats, but Tavares put up 22 pts last Jan, when Okposo was promoted to his line.
So, I will disagree that Okposo can't play with top line talent.
So about 4 weeks later do you still disagree with me that Okposo shouldn't be playing with first line talent? Because honestly at this point I don't think he even deserves to play with the 2nd or 3rd line. And I've actually been a big Okie supporter, as you can see by my name.
Okposo is garbage on so many levels, if you can't see that then i don't know what game you're watching. I spend every Islander game yelling at Okposo aka my TV screen. Lazy, weak on his skates, dumb, terrible hockey IQ i can go on and on. He is awful.
Okposo is garbage on so many levels, if you can't see that then i don't know what game you're watching. I spend every Islander game yelling at Okposo aka my TV screen. Lazy, weak on his skates, dumb, terrible hockey IQ i can go on and on. He is awful.
I wouldn't call Okposo lazy, in fact, he's pretty hard working player. He's just not good at a lot. His lack of hockey IQ kills play in the offensive zone. His one move (fake shot deke) that has never worked is worse than the Isbister shoulder-drop drive-the-net. He ALWAYS falls within 10-15 feet of the net makes terrible passes. All these issues detroy zone time for his line rendering he and his teammates ineffective. He is a large part of the problem IMO.
Problem is, what do you do? Sell low? Keep watching him move down the depth chart to 3rd then 4th liner? Im not sure. 3rd and 4th liners are usually either better at providing spark or can server multiple purposes (PK, fight, etc) and I don't think Okposo brings enough to justify a role in those spots. It honestly may be time to move on. Sad thing is I don't know how his happened. He showed so much potential his first couple of years. Did that Phaneuf hit really destroy him?
What do we think KO's problem is? (If he even has a problem?)
Is it all mental?
Is he just not that good?
Something else?
My opinion.. I think it's mental. Maybe earlier it had something to do with conditioning, even though he did play daily with a bunch of NHL'ers in Minny, perhaps he wasn't exactly up to game speed. I feel like KO is thinking too much out there on the ice, almost like this slump has gotten into his head and he's trying to hard instead of just going out there and playing the game.
I've liked KO, have always felt he was an important part of the core to this team. It's obvious his play and not just this season has made me seriously question that and has definitely made him expendable. I just really would like to see him turn it around.
This might be off topic, but I don't think we should worry about KO right now, he is 1 forward out of 12. We should worry more about the most important position on the ice and that is in between the pipes. IMO.
My opinion.. I think it's mental. Maybe earlier it had something to do with conditioning, even though he did play daily with a bunch of NHL'ers in Minny, perhaps he wasn't exactly up to game speed. I feel like KO is thinking too much out there on the ice, almost like this slump has gotten into his head and he's trying to hard instead of just going out there and playing the game.
I've liked KO, have always felt he was an important part of the core to this team. It's obvious his play and not just this season has made me seriously question that and has definitely made him expendable. I just really would like to see him turn it around.
I agree with this, he seems to hesitate reacting to plays on the ice instead of just using natural reactions, has trouble keeping his feet moving at times. Earlier in his career he was consistent at getting into the center ice and letting wrist shots go, even if he wasn't accurate he was getting into the right areas.
Trading him seems like a tricky situation, I think he has more to offer but very little value right now. On the other hand as long as Cappy is the coach I doubt we see any real improvements.
I think his problem might be that he doesn't think he's a 3rd line player who needs to have 3rd line spunk. I think he thinks he's a 1st line player, partly because for a large chunk of his NHL career he's been on our lousy 1st lines.
With his body, he really should throw his weight around a bit more. or at the very least go back to being a fierce never give up stick checker that he was earlier in his career.
I think his problem might be that he doesn't think he's a 3rd line player who needs to have 3rd line spunk. I think he thinks he's a 1st line player, partly because for a large chunk of his NHL career he's been on our lousy 1st lines.
With his body, he really should throw his weight around a bit more. or at the very least go back to being a fierce never give up stick checker that he was earlier in his career.
it is despicable how he refuses to throw a body check.
it is also despicable how he never is benched (even for a single shift) for his refusal to finish a check.
I think his problem might be that he doesn't think he's a 3rd line player who needs to have 3rd line spunk. I think he thinks he's a 1st line player, partly because for a large chunk of his NHL career he's been on our lousy 1st lines.
With his body, he really should throw his weight around a bit more. or at the very least go back to being a fierce never give up stick checker that he was earlier in his career.
Actually, he's been on the second line a lot more than he's been on the 1st line.
What do we think KO's problem is? (If he even has a problem?)
Is he just not that good?
I think it's that he's not as good as isles fans want him to be. He's still a good player, an NHL player, hardly a guy this team can afford to toss aside.
If we get used to KO as a 3rd line player, we'd judge him in a much different way. Same for Bailey for that matter. If Nielsen was making $7MM a year, like say Gomez, I assure you many wouldn't see him as the player he is.
Kyle doesn't play smart enough to be on the top checking unit, at least not yet anyway. They should greatly consider moving him and ROR would be a wonderful target.
KO has literally brought nothing to this team this year that is good. His "hustle" is wasted when it always ends in a turn over or him taking a penalty. He is the worst player on the team. He is worse than Reasoner.
He has never been the same player since the Phaneuf hit. Ever since that play he has played timid, and looks scared on the ice. Before that injury I thought he would be a 60+ point player that was a beast in the corners and a great 2 way player.
I think when i started this thread i got flack in the early stages. What some people did not read far enough into or didn't bother to recognize was i also said maybe it would be best for both of us (meaning the Islanders and him) .I never said anything in my original post that he sucked hence why i said " maybe better to part ways". Now a month later i'm sticking with that, he just might need a change of scenery. This happens to lots of players in all leagues. Sometimes with the original drafting team things don't work out and that's just how it goes. I hope we can trade him and he winds up flourishing elsewhere and the player we get back works out great for us, a win win situation in my eyes.
I think Okposo's "problem" is really an Islander HFboard problem.
We seem to be a team with massive mood swings based on a few minutes of play per game. We'll praise a player one day and say "TRADE" the next and TBH, while KO is not playing as he should, his play showed much improvement since day one of this season.
He was for sure out of game shape...no doubt about that and he was NEVER a person to finish his checks and he still scored 24ish goals.
He seems like a player that takes a real long time to get started, but once he gets into form, he IS a first line winger.
Last year was PAP and Bailey...Bailey finally came into his own come the end of the year and PAP..the whipping boy for the previous 2-3 years is now playing like we wanted him to play..so I ask Islanders fans this...
KO plays poorly in the first 15 games....we should trade him? seriously? Trust me...I want to let him go, but I think we need to keep him for at least one more year to see how things go. We can't just say "trade him" EVERY time someone plays poorly. JT has horrible games...mind you, not as many as KO, however, lets just give it a rest and see how things work out.
Look at Finley...EVERYONE hated him..EVERYONE wanted this guy out, then he picked up his game, made it simple and I hear people now, who were Hickey fans...saying..leave Finley in over Hickey....?
Can we just see what this team can do? Judging by all the players retained in the lineup..and spare parts on the scratch list..I don't think the Isles org has any intentions of calling any rookies up this year UNLESS we have too many injuries....we have fillers for at least 2-3 spots if people go down.
I don't advocate trading someone when their value's likely low, but I never thought to myself how much I wanted to see #21 not on the ice so much as the last few games....sloppy plays, bad passes, stupid penalties. Regardless of cause or symptom, he needs his role reduced until he plays his way back up to where he should be.
That being said, both Martin and Hamonic are light years more deserving of alternate captainship than Okposo right now. If he's a "leader" here, no matter what people may feel about him in the locker room, keeping the 'A' on him is a level of complacency I don't even want to get into.
I think his problem might be that he doesn't think he's a 3rd line player who needs to have 3rd line spunk. I think he thinks he's a 1st line player, partly because for a large chunk of his NHL career he's been on our lousy 1st lines.
With his body, he really should throw his weight around a bit more. or at the very least go back to being a fierce never give up stick checker that he was earlier in his career.
Agreed, I think management and the coaches need to realize that this guy will not be the player they invisioned on draft day, they are just expecting him to be something he just isn't. They need to make a decision on how to proceed with him, he is not a first or second line player, he has had enough time to prove himself as such. Take note of his strengths and change his game to what suits him. He has the size, and can grind for pucks in the corner. He can be a solid third line player with the right linemates and convincing him in concentrating on these changes to his game.
Our problems are Nielsen is not a legitimate second line center, not really a third or 4th line center either due to size, so what does one do with him besides keep him around for depth or package him in a deal? Shame because I really like the guy on PK and shootout.
Love Moulsons knack to get in position in front of the net, and how he works with JT, but he is deplorable in the defensive end and is useless in the corners. JT should be the slot person, but has to do all the grinding on the first line because neither Moulson or Boyes can. Moulson is a fine second line player, again, with the right linemates.
Bailey has to start showing his potential every single night. He has to prove himself on the second line or he has nowhere else to go on this team in the next few years.
Reasoner just has to go. DP needs to be bought out today. Want to see more of Ullstrom in the lineup, a few call ups for a few games right about now can't hurt.
This team needs to stick to a defensive first system right now to get out of this funk, I thought that was implied, but I am just not seeing it.
The lack of forechecking in our game, or the personel that can do it, as well as a hunger to do what it takes to win are quite worrisome...it's an albatross to our game from what I have witnessed thus far.
