These are critical games for the Isles and they continue to not be able to win big games. It's not just that they aren't winning, their effort level and EMOTION LEVEL is NON-EXISTENT.
Puzzling.
It's what happens when there is no veteran leadership that can actually garner respect of his teamates & a lousy coach.
The worst part about this Islanders season is that far too often they just go through the motions & play as though they're just trying to get through the night without injury.
Don't give up on Grabner yet, Hopefully he sparks soon, and I wish Haley was in the lineup too I love the fire he brings to the team, I hate Wallace
I hope Grabner catches fire soon. But it almost feels like teams know how to limit his speed. He's a big part of the reason we have no secondary scoring. And yeah I don't like Wallace at all, Haley is a lot better and useful
I hope Grabner catches fire soon. But it almost feels like teams know how to limit his speed. He's a big part of the reason we have no secondary scoring. And yeah I don't like Wallace at all, Haley is a lot better and useful
Grabner has horrible stick handling and every time hes 1v1 with a defender he cant seem to ever pull off a nice move by him
Grabner has horrible stick handling and every time hes 1v1 with a defender he cant seem to ever pull off a nice move by him
That's the point, teams are limiting his speed and he can't make a
Move to give himself a chance to make a play, also he's been absolutely terrible on his breakaways
It's what happens when there is no veteran leadership that can actually garner respect of his teamates & a lousy coach.
The worst part about this Islanders season is that far too often they just go through the motions & play as though they're just trying to get through the night without injury.
Seriously!?
Everyone sitting here saying they played with no heart? I guess maybe, kinda. It looked to me like they were ****ing exhausted. They had nothing left. They have played a lot of hockey lately. I don't think it is a coincidence that the 2/3 lines looked like **** and the 1/4 line looked "decent". The JT line looked OK because they are skilled. They didn't look GOOD, they looked OK. Even JT was WAY off tonight. He had glimmers of brilliance, but it looked to me like he was just too gassed all the time to take those glimmers of brilliance and finish on them(like he usually does). The 4th line also looked "decent" because they are FRESH! They aren't exhausted from the last 2 weeks of hockey.
FWIW, player of the game for the Isles is Reese... no doubt. He hustled all night and played smart. He single handedly took the puck into the zone successfully, and he also kept it in the offensive zone quite a few times as well. I was impressed.
That's the point, teams are limiting his speed and he can't make a
Move to give himself a chance to make a play, also he's been absolutely terrible on his breakaways
All he's gotta do is use that speed to move to the outside and FORCE the Dman to let him go by or to take him down. He doesn't do this.
Another thing folks: Haley can throw some fisticuffs, but I feel its necessary to point out that Wallace is better in every other aspect of the game, including hitting.
He's doing JUST fine up here on a fourth line.
Of course, I'd rather see Haley and Ullstrom than any of Rolston, Pandolfo or Reasoner.
It wasn't the Leafs that beat us, it was us that beat us. We had a bad game.. Shake it off and move on.
As for Grabner..we seem to always poke at the person not producing..I guess that's normal, but as I said before and others have said the same thing, his hands are crap. I've been thinking about it and I personally believe that "part" of the reason is that his stick is too long. I can see it in his reach. I played with a very long stick and the reason was to be able to poke check easier as a defenceman. When I moved to forward, I was like Grabs..fast, but crap hands. To make a long story short, I realized that a short stick makes it MUCH easier to stick handle. If Grabs reduced his stick length by 6 inches, he would be much better.
The graphic for that awesome poster picture seems to only be available in two different links, thus cutting the things in two halves. Any way to get the whole poster in one link?
Can the playoff talk stop now? Please? I have kept pretty quiet with all the playoff talk around here. Didn't wanna be 'that guy'. But seriously... now can we put it to bed? This team is not making the playoffs. This team won't even come within 5 points of making the playoffs. Just hope for improvement the last few months that actually carries over to next season.
I have realistic expectations of this team. Monday morning quaterbacking here but for this game some energy could've been injected by replacing Reese, Wallace and Rolston with Staois, Ulstrom and Haley. Rolston could've been given a maintanence day and the other two sent down. Would've liked to have seen Nino moved up and Ulstrom center Pandolfo and Haley.
I missed the game because of work, and I'm unhappy with the loss, but I'll wait & see how things turn out on home ice before going nuts. If they get a victory and either three goals or that shutout back, all is forgiven.
