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Conversely, what in hell happened to Brock Nelson? I always thought he was a solid utility guy/grinder but he's been centering the third line and they've more or less been awful.

The Isles right now are living and dying on the strength of those two top lines. Which is not the worst scenario BTW but it's gonna be one crazy offseason in Long Island/Belmont/Wherever.

Nelson has always been streaky, and when he's on a down streak, he's awful. He plays with ZERO confidence, and doesn't even play the D side of the puck well. Lots of Isles fans hate him for this reason, and very few would mind seeing him be part of a trade. He just plays like he doesn't give a fuck if he's not scoring. Then out of nowhere, he'll suddenly remember he's a good player and pop in 5 good goals in 8 games. Then, disappear for 20 games again.



He always is.

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Guess I missed a doozy tonight.

Obviously Chris will feel differently about the result, but it wasn’t a snoozer by any means. I don’t know what got Dougie Weight’s goose but he got tossed from the game. Avs scored on the ensuing power play to boot.

NHL Network noted that 3 of the 4 longest current point streaks in the league were on the line tonight: Tavares, Bailey, and Rantanen. Only Bailey’s, the longest, survived. Kucherov is the other one if anyone was curious.

Shit show by the Isles. Total lack of effort. The Avs looked like a team that wanted to win. The Isles looked like they had important NYE plans.

Weight was furious because the interference call on Pelech was pretty weak, and during that PP an Av player clearly interfered with Clutterbuck, wasn't called. During the next play stoppage you could see Weight asking why there wasn't another call, the ref waved a dismissive hand at Weight and you could read his lips yelling "Fuck you! Fuck. You!" I think that was after he was tossed, but didn't leave the bench. He left after a minute or two of yelling. And then the Isles pretty much gave up completely after that PP goal for the Avs, other than Bailey pretty much ensuring he'll be leaving the Isles at the end of the year by continuing to score. I haven't seen such a good example of a contract year performance since Jason Blake's 40 goal season.

I don't even know who the Isles play next, and with the way they've been playing, I couldn't care less. Maybe they don't either.

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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.

Bruins are on a hot streak. Isles are a hot mess. My prediction- 5-1 Bruins.

Isles sent Bernier & Beauvillier down to Bridgeport. Bernier is a call up option. Beauvillier looks lost this year after a decent rookie season. Tanner Fritz called up for his NHL debut. Sebastian Aho in the lineup again. Halak back in net after allowing 5 goals in 2 periods vs the Avs.

Have to think Snow is concerned about all of this. He's got to have the team be competitive this year or possibly watch Tavares walk for nothing. Carolina are now 1 point behind the Isles, who are barely holding on to WC2. Time to make a move, or three.

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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.

Snow is in a tough spot, possibly the toughest spot of any GM right now. He's gotta re-sign Tavares, and then decide what to do with Bailey and de Haan, and THEN what the hell to do about goaltending because a change has to be made. He's got serious depth issues and there's no real ace-in-the-hole prospect coming to the rescue.

My guess--he re-signs Tavares but deals Bailey at the deadline. They might try a quick rental like Lehner, low-risk one there as that's one guy I just don't think you wanna invest in. Even by goalie standards that guy's a nut.

I follow that Garik dude, whatever his name is, on Twitter, he's a stats guy who follows the Isles, and he absolutely HATES Brock Nelson.

Garik writes for LightHouseHockey.com, and yes, he hates Nelson. Nelson was wide open tonight, while the game was still 2-1 and missed the net by like 3'.

This team sucks right now. I know they've got 2 regular D-men out, but holy shit do they look bad. The Isles have been famous for 40 minute games the last few years. Tonight was like an 8 minute effort, when it was 3-1. Final score- 5-1 loss. Pathetic. Son of a bitch! That's what I said it would be. I should have bet on it!

Next game? Fuck it. Doesn't matter, because they'll lose it like 6-2.

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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.

We're at the midway point. Very soon one of these teams is gonna officially pull the plug. Arizona and Buffalo know they're out of it, but soon I'm guessing teams like Ottawa, Vancouver, and Montreal are going to face facts. THEN the goalie market will start opening up.

It REALLY shouldn't be that hard to get adequate goaltending, yet so many teams seem to be scrambling around to get it. In hindsight I can't believe Snow went into this season with the goalies he has now, even after the whole waiving Halak and 3-goalies mess of last season. Incidentally, Jean-Francois Berube is currently with the Hawks' affiliate and has put up okay numbers for Rockford.

Berube is a good AHL goalie, but hasn't proven himself as anything in the NHL yet. He was kept around because of Halak's health issues. I'm waiting for Halak to go down any day now, because, well, he's Halak. That's what he does.

And I believe we've discussed it before, but you'd really think that a FORMER NHL GOALIE TURNED GM would put a higher priority on getting a really good goalie. It amazes me that Snow is satisfied with these guys. I was happy with Greiss after the playoff run 2 years ago. I'll admit that. But I'm a FAN. I don't get paid to know this shit. When I rant on here, most people laugh AT me. And that's great. I'm not sure wtf Brathwaite is doing with Greiss & Halak, but I'd say it's not fucking working. Same with Luke Richardson and the D. It's just not working. Sure, they've got a bunch of kids. Pittsburgh has had loads of kids playing over the last few years due to cap and injury issues. I'd say they've done alright! The Isles really need to evaluate and FIX their development system.

Apparently Weight said before yesterday's game that he got thrown out vs the Avs mainly due to his own team's lack of effort. WTF???? The coach basically quit a game because his team wasn't putting in real effort? And then he admitted it to the media. I haven't seen the exact quotes, but that's what every Isles blog is saying. The players of course, refute Weight's statement, which shows that maybe he's losing the room after a hair over a year. Holy shit sandwich, that's bad. Weight has looked permanently annoyed lately. I wonder if he regrets taking the job. He got to bring in all his own guys, so wtf could he be so unhappy about? He's also assistant GM, so he should have some amount of say in who gets called up and/or have a hand in potential trades, or at least saying they've got to get rid of someone. Fucking weird. But it wouldn't be the Isles if there wasn't a fucking side show more interesting than the actual games. Get a new arena? Bitch about the ice. Play well enough to win the first playoff round in 23 years. Had some success the prior year? Make it very public you really hate the new arena! Fire the coach... Miss the playoffs. Hire new coach, bring in all new guys? Make it clear you're trying for a new arena, largely because you need to re-sign your franchise player. Get approved for new arena?!?! Play like shit, talk about new arena, show no progress on signing franchise player, watch goalies implode, D get hurt, and do nothing but talk about how exciting the new arena is. Sure will be! JT will really like it- when he visits as a member of the Lightning.

I'm not ranting about a 3 game losing streak. I'm ranting because they don't seem to have a clue what's wrong or how to go about fixing it.

I wish Sorokin would get out of his KHL contract.

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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.

6-4 loss to the Flyers. Greiss was AWFUL. The guy is totally lost. I can only assume he & Brathwaite disagree on some technique or something, because he looks like an ECHLer out there. 5 goals against. The rest of the team got it from 5-1 to 5-4 and gave up an empty netter with 13 seconds to go. Noted tough guys ( ) Shane Prince & Josh Bailey had fights. Maybe they're sick of shit, maybe they're just trying to show Weight that they got his message.

Things don't get easier. Penguins tonight.

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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.

4-0 loss to the Penguins. Crosby with 4 points.

This game was in honor of assistant coach Luke Richardson's daughter, who committed suicide at 14 (7 years ago). How the hell do you not put in a real effort for that? His wife dropped the ceremonial puck before the game. I think that was the only faceoff Tavares won all night. Bailey got hurt on his first or 2nd shift and didn't return. Ladd left in the 3rd period. This team is fucked.

Devils on Sunday before the brilliant "bye week" when they aren't allowed to practice. That should really help. Maybe they could trade half the roster during those 5 days. 27/41 games they've given up the first goal.They had a 5 on 3 PP for like 1:20. They moved the puck around the perimeter really nicely. Beautiful pattern. Maybe it was a unicorn. They sure as hell didn't put pressure on the 3 Penguins.

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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.

Garth's gotta do SOMETHING. He can't just sit on his laurels and expect the team to turn around. There's a ton of goalies worth a gamble who could probably be had for relatively cheap. It's now affecting the team as a whole. Those two top lines couldn't be expected to carry them forever.

On a side note 2016 1st round pick Kieffer Bellows had an absolute MONSTER showing at the World Juniors, breaking Jeremy Roenick's record for most goals scored by a Team USA player.

So there are two Nicklas Backstroms, one Swedish and one Finnish, and there are two Sebastian Ahos, one Swedish and one Finnish.

Tell us all how your Aho does, Chris.

Had his first 2 NHL points to help the Isles finally get a win yesterday vs the Devils. They were down 4-2 late in the third when he scored his first NHL goal on the PP. Then he set up Clutterbuck for the game tying goal. He was interviewed post-game, and looked more scared of that than of NHL players twice his size skating full speed at him.

Side note- Clutterbuck has 3 goals in his last 2 games but looks terrible- looks like he's lost 20 lbs of muscle and is deathly white. Looks like a zombie.

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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 sat in a hotel watching the Isles-Rangers game on my phone. Pain in the ass, but man that game made it all worth it. 7-2 win over the Rangers. Barzal with 5 points (2G, 3A), Beauvillier with 3 (2G, 1A), Eberle with 4A. Oilers fans were flipping their fucking lids, since that was the Isles' 2nd line. All gifts from Chiarelli. Barzal is the 1st rookie to have 2 5 point games since Trottier and the Stastny brothers (who had played pro in Europe). He's back to a point/game pace. Halak looked like a real NHL starter, stopping 37/39 shots! Pavelec chased after 5th goal, only 1 of which was a softy. Lunqvist flipped his lid on the Rangers bench, and even Isles announcer Butch Goring said it wasn't Pavelec's fault. But it screwed the Rangers, since Pav had played half a game, and then Lundqvist had to play half a game, when they had the Penguins the following night (turned out to be a 5-2 loss to the Pens). So the Isles helped the Rangers lose- twice.

Montreal tonight, Devils tomorrow.

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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.

Tavares was asked about becoming a UFA & said he's only thinking about staying on LI, likes the direction the org is going, etc.

Fucking PHEW! He hadn't said anything like that in a while. And while I know it's possibly just lip service, it's still slightly reassuring to read it.

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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.

Isles beat the Habs 5-4 in OT. JT with the winner, after he gave the puck away on the game tying goal. Barzal with 3 points, giving him 47 in 45 games. Hell. Yeah.
Greiss with 52 saves! Not going to raise his save % much, but should raise his confidence. He made 2 nice stops on a rebound sequence in OT to keep the Isles alive.
The win puts them back into WC2, although by an ass hair. There's a serious log jam in the playoff race. 3 points separate Metro2 through WC2, and 5 points between Metro 2 and 11th place in the east (all Metro teams).

Devils tonight.

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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.

Injury updates:
Cizikas out "a while" according to Doug Weight. He took a slash to the hand and left immediately, in obvious pain, against the Rangers. Last year he took a similar slash that caused him to have surgery on a finger.
Ladd to IR. No idea shat it is, other than it's upper body.
Mayfield left last night's game before the third period. No idea what the injury is, but they are thin on D!
Boychuk & Bailey should be back next week. Tavares seems to really need Bailey. Or at least, someone besides Alan Quine. He totally kills the cycling game that Lee, Tavares & Bailey typically run. Lee & Tavares haven't really done much without Bailey. And I know, Tavares had 2 goals vs the Habs, but he looked bad besides those 2 goals. Leave it to a true star to score twice despite playing a bad game.
Kulemin & de Haan both out with season ending shoulder surgeries.

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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.

Nice to see Beauvillier jump onto that second line so seamlessly. And it's also nice to see fewer people butchering his name.

Still, last night's game against the Habs highlighted why the Isles are such a frickin' frustrating team. They have two top lines that would be the envy of any team in the league, and, though banged-up to hell, a decent defensive corps. It's the goaltending that just ain't getting the job done, though I guess Greiss stopped a shit-ton of shots last night so that's probably not the best example. Still, if Snow's not burning up phone lines trying to get a viable replacement, he should be fired tomorrow.