OffThePost.org

Bortuzzo off IR. Crap. More watching him lay on the ice in the starfish defense position.

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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.

Roy interviewed yesterday, said he’s not 100% happy with Sorokin. Quickly added that Sorokin hasn’t been happy with himself.
Hopefully he’s the type to get pissed and go on a shutout run after that. They will need shutouts to even make it interesting.

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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.

They started the game vs the Canes pretty good. Played well for the first half of the first period, then seemed to let up a bit. Imagine this, the Canes scored two quick goals. On the first, Jarvis was by the front of the Isles net with FOUR Isles around him, while Skjei headed behind the goal line with the puck. All 4 Isles seemed to relax big time, and Skjei centered the puck to Jarvis, who despite being surrounded by Islanders, managed to receive the puck and score. Fucking incredible. If you changed the uniforms, you'd think it was my C division beer league team defending that play, not a combined $20M annual salary on the play. Just incredible. Third Canes goal was after Pelech took a penalty in front, which was kinda dumb, kinda a bad call. Puck came through the crease and he just dumped Jarvis instead of playing the puck, but the puck was there, so I'm not sure it really should have been a penalty. But down 2-0 it looked like a make or break PK with 1:45 left in the first. With 1.3 seconds to go, it broke them. I turned it off and went to do more exciting things, like fold laundry.

This team doesn't seem to want to play in April. Unless we're talking golf. Dicks.

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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.

Huge game vs the Red Wings tonight. Lose and it's pretty much goodnight for this season. Win and it's pretty much "well, there's a slight chance".

Roy said the Isles are having trouble with shift length. Well no shit. When you're stuck in your own zone for over 2 minutes, yeah, that's going to be a problem. Not just because of shift length, but you've been stuck in your own zone for 2 minutes. Tired or not, it says your breakout isn't quite working. This seems to happen to them several times per game.

Line blender seems in effect again as Roy tries to recreate some magic with different combos. Maybe something will work. Maybe they'll lose their 6th straight while looking like stir fried dogshit again.

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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.

If we had a "throwing in the towel" smiley, I'd use it. I'm done with this Islanders team.

Lou needs to go. So does CLam, his son, who has fucked Bridgeport up even worse than it had been before his arrival. They're dead last in the AHL, and totally unwatchable. I've had free ticket offers and declined. I used to love going to games there.

Time for a GM who understands the modern game. Time for an AHL GM who understands anything besides surviving on daddy's name.
They have to let Martin and Clutterbuck go this summer. I fear Lou signing them to 2 year deals or something dumb like that. Hopefully a new GM can figure out how to move some of the shitty contracts Lou gave out. Going to be tough with all the NTCs.

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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.

1 pm loss to the Jets incoming. The Isles have sucked in day games for a few years. They've also sucked for their last 6 games. 0-5-1 with the OT loss to Ottawa. Roy is now 10-10-4 as HC. I know he hasn't had a lot of practices to change things, but I really expected a lot better out of this team with him behind the bench. They still have games where it looks like nobody gives a fuck.

I expect Roy to demand a house cleaning this summer; trying to get rid of guys who seem to be fine with losing. I fully support it. "You have to hate to lose"-Shoresy.

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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.

The Jeckyl and Hydlanders beat the Jets 6-3 yesterday. They were up 6-1 and took their foot off the gas until Roy called a timeout and probably reminded them that they're in 10th place because they usually played only 2 periods all year long. At least that's what I assume. I didn't see the game.

Weird 5 pm start for today's game vs the 11th place Devils. Isles haven't won the second game of a back to back all season long, so that looks grim. But until yesterday they hadn't won a matinee game all year, and the Jets hadn't had to change goalies mid-game all season long until yesterday, so maybe they'll break the back to back shit streak too.

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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 didn’t bother watching today’s game. Glad about that. Isles continue to bewilder, losing 4-0 to the Devils. End the season. Shed salary in any way possible besides Sorokin, Barzal, or Dobson. Lots of NTCs but maybe guys will want to leave after this year.

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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.

Saw a replay of Lee hitting Hischier. That should be a game or two. I don't think Lee has been suspended before so maybe he gets off with a fine, but that was bullshit.

Another loss on the tail end of a back to back set. Time to fire the strength & conditioning coaches. As soon as Roy arrived he said the players weren't in game shape. Clearly they still aren't. Not that I expect them to get into shape towards the end of the season when there are barely any practices. But clearly the S&C coaches let the players off too easily for a while now.

On pace for 85.5 points. Nice job guys. Good thing there are so many (M)-NTC/NMCs! Nice job Lou. How's Bridgeport doing? Oh, dead last. Great job by your son!



Thursday at the Panthers, Saturday at the Lightning. That should go well. Monday at the Flyers, which I'd hoped would be a playoff position battle. Then another back to back, with travel to boot, as they're home for the Blackhawks next Tuesday. Expect a Bedard hat trick in the first period.

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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.

Ohhhhhh, I didn't know Paddy said that. He absolutely savaged a first-round pick because he showed up to rookie camp looking like a bean bag chair. The Avs dealt his rights later that season at the deadline for a rental, and the team that got the prospect chose the compensatory pick. His name's Conner Bleackley and he's toiling in the ECHL somewhere.

But yeah it's a more common occurrence under a bad coach than one might think.

IMO Lou just seems to be trying to recreate the Devils of yesteryear. He never had a gamebreaking talent on that team, unless you count Patrik Elias (and he was or at least damn close) or Marty Brodeur (I don't think he was, however, sue me). He wants a team that grinds the opposition to a pulp and has just enough scoring punch and goaltending to win close games. Unfortunately I don't think he quite knows what provides that in today's NHL. A team that does that and does it well (though lately they've been struggling) is Vegas. Los Angeles does it too, but they also proved you need gamebreaking talent or at the very least, very good goaltending. The Isles have that, though Sorokin has looked pretty bad IMO during this stretch.

It's just basically a team where way too many things have to go right in order to be successful. Also, Lamoriello's cap management is pure amateur hour even now. He just seems to think the way to do it is to sign as many mid-level players to long-term deals with a relatively low cap hit as he can. And he's never learned from this.

I sure hope Ledecky and Co. have a conversation about where to go next, but I'm guessing they're too scared to send a legend packing. And if that happens, the drama could be juicy if Lamoriello and Roy begin to not see eye-to-eye, which I think is likely.

Yeah, 40 minutes into one of the first skates he ran the players were panting like dogs. He supposedly yelled "you're tired after 40 minutes? Only 40? Last I checked a game is 60 or more!" Fans have seen it for 2-3 years now. They rarely put in a full 60 minutes.

I disagree on Brodeur being a gamebreaker. Saw him a lot, the bastard. You'd think your team had a sure goal and he'd shoot a leg pad or glove out of nowhere to save it.

I fully agree that Lou has no idea what he's doing with the current roster, and you're right that he thinks locking up middling talent long term is the way to go. All the NTC/NMCs alone are mind boggling. Nobody else was going to sign Mayfield or Engvall for 7 years. He competes against himself on contracts and it's going to bite this team for a long time. I thought he'd get it after having to pay to trade Ladd away. Instead, he gives out NTCs like Tic-Tacs.

I seriously hope they tell him to just focus on being Prez of Hockey Ops. Or that he retires. What I DON'T want to see is his son get the GM job. He's made shit of Bridgeport, which was bad when he got there, but he's made them far worse. They're unwatchable. I've turned down free tickets.

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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.

When you talk about long term contracts and over paying..............it sounds a lot like Benning. He'd throw out $3 to $3.5 million dollar contracts for supposedly character 4th line FA's, who "were good in the room". GIve them 3 year deals, after they were past the best part of their career, and then add limited NMC's as a sweetener.

I don't hate the Isles, and kinda like you Chris, so I hope whomever your next GM is, its not Benning. Its going to be messy just trying to off load crap contracts that no one wants. You need to give up picks to do that, and rebuilding teams needs lots of picks. A prospective rebuild maybe long enough your team may need to sell of Barzal. I just seems to be a team with too many problems, not enough young assets that even best case it takes 5 years to be competitive again. Barzal would be 32 at that point.

And I'm still fond of Horvat, I feel bad as it looks like he jumped from the cess pool to the septic tank. What a sad way for his career well not to0 sad, he'll make over $100 million so there is that.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

This is the Islanders cycle since the late 80s. They suck and get good draft picks, and trade them for older vets who don't get it done. They commit too much to those vets, and watch a little success, and then it crashes down on them, so they suck and get finally get good picks again, only to lather, rinse, and repeat.

I thought Lou would have learned from his bad contracts in Toronto. Funny! Dude is like Oprah with the NTCs. You get an NTC and YOU get an NTC! You get a NMC!

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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.

My bet is if they usher Lou out to pasture, his successor will be Mark Hunter. He could be good as he's got a rep as one of the best eyes for talent in hockey. But he's also insanely old-school, quite possibly even more so than Lamoriello ever was. Also, IIRC he's a bit of a hothead like his brother Dale (I'm sure Isles fans remember that guy fondly) and putting him with Roy might be akin to moving your family-friendly smoked meats operation inside a fireworks store.

Also, here's an old article about Chris Lamoriello joining the Isles.

https://www.thescore.com/news/1086168

Um...that's funny, he sure looks familiar.

I didn't realize Mark and Dale were bros. Ew. Wasn't there another brother who played in the NHL?
Roy has embraced analytics.
Lou never will.
No clue what his son thinks, other than it's obviously wrong because Bridgeport is far worse than when he took over.

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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.

Yes there was Dave who won 3 cups with the Oilers. He also played for Pittsburgh and the Jets.

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And Tim Hunter is not related, in case anyone was wondering.

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That I knew. Tim was constantly asked that when he came up with the Isles. Poor guy had to defend himself about it.

Trevor Gillies was asked a lot if he was related to Clark, and he had to say that sadly, he wasn't. He could fight like him, but certainly not score.


Mayfield is out for the remainder of the year after successful "lower body surgery". The whole thing? Everything from the waste down was operated on?

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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.

He absolutely could not fight like Clark Gillies

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

If Roy's finally embraced analytics that's a sea change for sure. He wasn't vociferously opposed to them but seemed very dismissive. It was upon his departure that the Avs really took a deep dive into analytics and built the team they have now. Sakic spoke poorly about them too at one point but he's obviously on-board with them (got word from a friend who shall remain nameless that the push to embrace the fancy stats may have come from above him).

This isn't directly-related to the Isles but I figured it's interesting to note that Friedman and Marek dedicated a few minutes to the Columbus Blue Jackets and their GM search, and speculated that AGMs Rick Nash and Basil McRae might be pushing hard for Mark Hunter as both guys have connections with the London Knights. So maybe Hunter goes there, I don't know. I know which market/franchise appeals to me more, and despite the fact there's probably a lot more young talent in the Lumbus system, I'd still pick the Isles.