OffThePost.org

https://www.nhl.com/islanders/schedule/2021-01-01/ET

Isles start the season with 2 games at the Rangers, Jan 14 and 16.

Interesting parts:
Longest home stand is 7 games, Feb 25 through Mar 11.
Longest road trip is 5 games (twice), Jan 24-31 and Feb 15-23.
8 sets of back to backs.
They don't play on my birthday. So rude.

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Time for the 2021-umm, 2021 season to get underway!

Isles open with 2 games at MSG with a day off in between.

Varlamov starting tonight. Maybe we see Sorokin in Game 2?

Two years and a day ago, Barzal had 5 points against the Rangers. Of course, that was a mid-season game, in the last "normal" season. Seems like decades ago.

Time for hockey!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Barzal just deactivated DeAngelo.

You hate to see it...

Tony D just got cancelled...

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Barzal went on D'Angelo's LEFT too. I guess that's the secret. He can't move left.

Some fun stuff from this game- Lee was credited with his 2nd goal, and had an interview about it. During the intermission it was changed to Eberle's goal even though you can clearly see Lee tip in Eberle's shot.

Later, Eberle dove into the crease after a loose puck and Pulock scored, with Eberle colliding with Shesterkin who had skated out to play it. Original call- no goal. Play reviewed by refs. Called a goal. Rangers challenged for goalie interference. No goal. Weird sequence of events there.

Isles looked good. Hoping for the same result Saturday. 2 PP goals. 4 goals scored. Such a boring brand of hockey...
Bellows with 7 hits in 8 minutes of ice time. He looked good.
Johnston and Rooney collided behind the play accidentally. Rooney laid on the ice and Johnston stood there looking concerned. Rooney didn't return to the game.
Shesterkin wears a plastic headband under his helmet to keep his hair in place. He methodically removes his mask and resets it during stoppages. The Isles female broadcasters were mildly laughing at him. My daughters wondered how that thing doesn't kill his head underneath the mask. I wonder if he has the foam cut out to make a space for it.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Ug. In the warmups for game 2 of the season, Clutterbuck accidentally shot high and caught Varlamov (who should have started) in the throat with a shot. Varlamov went down and laid face down on the ice until the trainer could get him up. And just like that, Sorokin went from backup to surprise starter and Schneider went from taxi squad to backup.

But Sorokin's debut didn't go well. 5-0 loss to an angry Ranger team, looking to avenge Thursday's shutout that went the other way. No Islander played well. Trotz said after the game that there was no update on Varlamov, that the team left Sorokin out to dry, and that they need to be much better than that. He also said there's no excuse for hurting your own goalie in warmups. Lee said Sorokin deserves much better than that level of play. Shit dude, everyone does. The Isles were stir fried dog shit. Dobson with 2 giveaways that lead to Ranger goals. Mayfield got burned once because a panicking Islander forward threw the puck back toward him while under pressure, only to have the linesman totally block out Mayfield, springing a Ranger for an odd rush resulting in a goal. You could see the officials were embarrassed, so they gave the Isles a phantom even-up PP on the next shift. They spent most of that PP stuck in their own zone.

Fucking awful.

Monday dinner interrupting game vs Boston. Home opener, if you consider an empty arena an opener.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Fucking idiot Clutterbuck.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the Rangers played better with Tony DeActivated out of the lineup.

Sorokin indeed did not look good though--tough situation to be in.

Apparently Trotz lit into Clutterbuck. Said the whole team played "like junk" and he was right.

But Varlamov was back in tonight and recorded another shut out. First home win against the Bruins since 2013. What the fucking fuck? Pelech shot from the point and Bergeron deflected it up. Pageau waited for it to come down below the crossbar and baseball batted that shit in. Really nice play. 1-0 win.

Devils up next. Might see Sorokin in for that.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Bellows apparently demoted to taxi squad. I can't believe they aren't taking this opportunity to have the taxi squad designation sponsored. The Uber Squad, or the Taxi Squad, brought to you by Lyft. Something to that effect.

Wahlstrom is expected to play in Bellows' place.


Ho-Sang is off to Sweden, if I hadn't mentioned that. He thanked the Isles for setting him up with a team to play for over there. Weird situation all around. Guy has cleared waivers twice, asked to be traded and couldn't be, yet they gave him a qualifying offer, then didn't invite him to camp and are now lending him to a SEL team. Am I missing something or is that all really odd?

Schneider defended Sorokin today, saying that Sorokin was thrown into a weird situation, having to make his debut unexpectedly, and said he knows Sorokin is far better than he showed in that game. Not like he was going to say the kid sucks, but it was nice to see.

Isles-Devils tomorrow.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Josh Bailey apparently out for covid protocols. Could mean he had a fever or cough. No word of a fine or anything like that.

Isles-Devils tonight. Bellows, who had been assigned to the taxi squad, skated in Bailey's place yesterday, with Wahlstrom skating on the 3rd line. I don't know how happy Pageau is going to be with a constant rotation of wingers, especially when they include 2 rookies, and either Ross Johnston or Uncle Leo. Dude is very good, but he deserves some stability and better wingers.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

4-1 win. Varlamov's shutout streak broken 2:10 into the 2nd. 142:50 to start the season. Nice.

Eberle with 2, Barzal & Nelson also scored. After the game Trotz said he's spoken with Barzal a lot about shooting more. Says he could put in 30-40 in a full season if he'd shoot more, which would really help the team. Yep.

Isles with 2 PP goals, which is amazing for them. Dobson with 2 assists. Kid is gaining confidence, but said he knows he'll make mistakes and just has to work through them.

Devils again on Sunday.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

I forgot to mention- Nelson got tripped by a Devil and fell face first into Subban's knee. Nelson's visor cut him badly on the outer area of his eye socket and he had blood all over the inside of his visor. Subban waved the Isles trainer over, told the ref to stop play and stayed with Nelson until the trainer was there. Total class.

I haven't checked to see if Subban was on when Nelson scored in the next period. Nelson had 12-14 stitches on the eye area. Pretty bad ass looking.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.