25-26 Season Schedule

[Chris18]

https://www.nhl.com/islanders/news/isla ... n-schedule

Some interesting points.
Home games will mostly be at 7 pm again, moved up from 7:30. Season ticket holders are apparently pissed, because the traffic on LI is horrendous at that time. They say they'll be late for lots of games. Causing quite the stir. As someone who almost never gets to games, but watches on TV, I love 7 pm starts.
Season opener - Oct 9 at Pens. Home opener Oct 11 vs Caps. I like jumping right into division games!
Last away game is Apr 4 at Carolina. Last home game is Apr 14, vs Carolina. Weird coincidence.
Almost no Wednesday games. Four for the whole season. Also weird.
Two 7 game road trips, although one starts @ Rangers and @ Devils. The other is a true cross country affair, starting in Nashville and heading west.
Longest home stand is 6 games Nov-Dec, plus a 5 gamer in late March, and a 4 gamer to end the regular season.
Play Tampa three times in 12 days. I was hoping it was late in the season, aka Tampe LTIR Loophole Season, but it's in Dec, so no.
10 of the last 12 games are at home. If they're in a playoff push, that could be huge. If they're out, the arena will be empty. They'll have to be road warriors early on to be in contention.
15 Back to back sets. I feel like that's more than usual. Given Varlamov's health and the "consistency" of Rittch and Hogwarts, that could cost them big time. Sorokin wore down last year from overuse and Roy seems to think all goalies can play as many games as he and Brodeur did. So if whatever backup is there isn't playing well, Sorokin will get overplayed and be less effective.

No matter what, I'm looking forward to hockey again!

[Chris18]

https://www.nhl.com/islanders/news/isla ... n-schedule

Some interesting points.
Home games will mostly be at 7 pm again, moved up from 7:30. Season ticket holders are apparently pissed, because the traffic on LI is horrendous at that time. They say they'll be late for lots of games. Causing quite the stir. As someone who almost never gets to games, but watches on TV, I love 7 pm starts.
Season opener - Oct 9 at Pens. Home opener Oct 11 vs Caps. I like jumping right into division games!
Last away game is Apr 4 at Carolina. Last home game is Apr 14, vs Carolina. Weird coincidence.
Almost no Wednesday games. Four for the whole season. Also weird.
Two 7 game road trips, although one starts @ Rangers and @ Devils. The other is a true cross country affair, starting in Nashville and heading west.
Longest home stand is 6 games Nov-Dec, plus a 5 gamer in late March, and a 4 gamer to end the regular season.
Play Tampa three times in 12 days. I was hoping it was late in the season, aka Tampa LTIR Loophole Season, but it's in Dec, so no.
10 of the last 12 games are at home. If they're in a playoff push, that could be huge. If they're out, the arena will be empty. They'll have to be road warriors early on to be in contention.
15 Back to back sets. I feel like that's more than usual. Given Varlamov's health and the "consistency" of Rittch and Hogwarts, that could cost them big time. Sorokin wore down last year from overuse and Roy seems to think all goalies can play as many games as he and Brodeur did. So if whatever backup is there isn't playing well, Sorokin will get overplayed and be less effective.

No matter what, I'm looking forward to hockey again!

[harmfuljays]

Its my once a year foray into the Isles forum!

Chris what's wrong with this team? Why did everyone in fantasy avoid these players like the plague? To me this looks like an old team full of middle management types.

Is Barzal going to return to form? What's the deal with these guys?

I guess there is a new dawn on the horizon at least....

https://eyesonisles.com/matthew-schaefe ... k5ak0qcd5c

[Chris18]

Its my once a year foray into the Isles forum!

Chris what's wrong with this team? Why did everyone in fantasy avoid these players like the plague? To me this looks like an old team full of middle management types.

Is Barzal going to return to form? What's the deal with these guys?

I guess there is a new dawn on the horizon at least....

https://eyesonisles.com/matthew-schaefe ... k5ak0qcd5c

What's wrong? Hopefully they've fixed the issues, but the PK & PP were both 2nd to last in the league last year. New Assistant Coaches will hopefully make a difference, although they brought in the one guy who ran a PK worse than theirs last year. How the fuck you can pick the only guy worse is beyond me. But they also never worked on the special teams in camp last year. Roy felt they needed conditioning more than special teams, which he said he was changing for this year. So hopefully that's fixed.
Fantasy- I have no idea. I don't play fantasy so I'm not sure how it all really works, but the Isles haven't had any real standout players in any positive aspect for a few years.
They are working hard to get younger and faster. Lou gave out too many long term contracts, which is making it harder, but Darche did a nice job in one off-season of starting to stock the prospect cupboard. About the best he could do, besides a full fire sale/rebuild, which would send the fan base into a tizzy. Might be what they realistically need, but NY fans aren't known for patience.
Barzal- played only 30 games last year. Two different injuries to his knees. Says he still doesn't feel 100% which may just mean he doesn't trust them fully, but he's looked like himself in pre-season games, cutting back, circling, losing d-men...

My outlook- I almost hope they are out of a playoff position and begin selling off guys like Lee and Pageau for prospects or young players. Get some cap space, stockpile draft picks/prospects. Darche needs to jettison some of the bad contracts but it's going to be difficult. Mayfield and Engvall come to mind. Both given 7 year deals with M-NTCs. WHY??? The money amounts were fine, and you can say the cap is going up so they'll be better value, but the players are not getting better. Fans hate both those guys, especially because of their contracts. Five years to go for both. Lou was loyal, to the detriment of the team. He knew he'd be gone before those contracts were "real" problems, but he should not have offered them.
I always hope they win every game, but in a way I think missing the playoffs for them would be good this year. I fear they'll be just good enough to compete for a spot on the last few days of the season. But if they make it, they'll probably do so as a WC and be out in the first round. I have no Cup aspirations for a while. Maybe they'll surprise me! I doubt it.

Bridgeport, the AHL affiliate, has been a shit show forever. This is their 25th anniversary season. They went to the Finals in their first year, the 2nd round the following year, and HAVEN'T WON A PLAYOFF ROUND SINCE. They've missed the playoffs I think 12 of those other 23 seasons. Maybe "only" 11 times. When they call a player up, they look totally lost on the system. When the same people own both teams you can have two schools of thought: Run the AHL team as a clone of the NHL team so players are developed able to jump right into the NHL systems and feel at home. OR, run the AHL team as a standalone team that wins and competes for the Calder Cup every year. They've done neither of those things. The AHL team has always done its own thing and has almost always sucked dog balls. At least for 23 years now... Darche said he was going to concentrate on that, but the problem is, right before he was fired, Lou extended his son who is the Bridgeport GM, and had been for 8 years prior. He had overseen shitty teams, which got worse almost every single year he was in charge. 2nd to last place finishes the last 2 years, and you extend him??? Seems kind of like a final FU from Lou to the owners. No word on how long the contracts are, but even a single year is bullshit, and I'm sure it's longer than that. Darche brought in Ryan Bowness to "help" with Bridgeport. Rumor is Bowness is really running the team, and the younger Lamoriello and Pelligrini (the Bridgeport assistant GM) are pretty much neutered figureheads: In charge on paper but get no say in reality. New coaches down there, again. So we'll see what happens. I haven't gone to one of their games in like 5-6 years, and I've had offers for free tix many times. For a while, I had access to free suite tix. I never went. They suck that badly.

There's a lot that can go wrong this year. Varlamov is out again. Rittich and Hogberg have both looked like guys who are getting a "prove you can still play in the NHL" shot. Neither have proven it so far. Not terrible. But certainly not this year's Jonathan Quick-like resurgence. Sorokin is great, unless he's overplayed. He's not a work horse. With a shitty backup, Roy overuses him and then he is very beatable. With rest, he's a Vezina candidate.

[harmfuljays]

Thank you...Yikes!

[Chris18]

Hogberg waived. Rittch wins the NYI backup job while Varlamov continues to rehab whatever his most recent issue was.
Matthew Highmore also waived.

Last pre-season game Thursday night vs Philly. Lee expected to play. I assume they will send down some guys today or tomorrow. Foudy, Gauthier, MacLean... I ASSume.

[Pokecheque]

Ritchie hurt.

Drouin hurt.

Welcome to life as an Avs fan!

[Chris18]

Ritchie hurt.

Drouin hurt.

Welcome to life as an Avs fan!

I get it. But where'd you hear Drouin is hurt? I haven't seen that.

Tell you what I do see- that I'll miss almost the entire season opener due to my daughter's practice, and then most of the home opener due to her Saturday game. Our scheduler's husband is an Isles fan. I think she did it on purpose so he wouldn't be yelling at the TV as much.

[Chris18]

Game 1 tonight.
Pens are 1-0 after a 3-0 win vs the Rainjizz. Tonight is their home opener.

Time to see if the special teams are at least league average with their new coaches.
We'll see if Rittch and/or Hogberg can handle the backup duties while Varlamov is "skating on his own". He's been doing that for a while now. Waiting to see how long before he's on LTIR.

The Darche era really begins.
The Schaefer era beings.
Should be an "interesting" year.

[Chris18]

0-1-0 after 1 game. 4-3 loss to the Pens.
PK allowed 2 goals on 5 chances, the 5th coming with 14.2 seconds left in the game when Drouin took a dumb penalty for crosschecking a Pen in the face. He seems a bit over-reactive. Got hooked a little early in the game and went after the guy. Guess he thinks he needs to set the tone in the Metro that he's a tough guy and not to be messed with? He scored, so I'll cut him some slack. Schaefer assisted on the goal. Nice rush play, give and go. Shabanov scored too. Palmieri had the other goal. His beard power is back with Lou gone. A bunch of Isles have beards now. And longish hair.
Schaefer looked totally comfortable all game long. Was on the ice for the losing goal but it was really Mayfield getting burned that cost them. Not much surprise there. He's as fleet of foot as a statue.
Oh, and the PP went 0-3. So special teams are in standard form going back to last year.

Saturday at home for the Caps.

[Chris18]

Drouin getting an in-person hearing for the crosscheck. 2-5 games, coming up.

[Chris18]

Drouin getting an in-person hearing for the crosscheck. 2-5 games, coming up.

Drouin got one game. Already served.

Game 2 was a 4-2 loss to the Caps. Shockingly, the Isles seemed to right the special teams ship, going 2-3 on the PP and killing both penalties they took. But, they still lost. Schaefer had 26:04 of ice time and was the best player in the game according to a Caps fan friend of mine. He scored a controversial PP goal. Goal mouth scramble and Horvat swiped the puck towards the net with his hand while on his knees, the puck bounced off the Caps goalie and Schaefer then poked it in. The Caps screamed for a hand pass call but it held up after review since it hit the Caps goalie in between Horvat's hand and Schaefer's stick. When asked about the goal, Schaefer said his mother must have slipped the hockey gods $20. Hell of a kid to think of his late mother after scoring his first NHL goal. That makes him the youngest player to score a PP goal. Apparently there was a 17 year old who scored in the NHL back in 1923. I hope Schaefer is built for a ton of ice time. Kind of worry about a kid who only played 17 games last year jumping into the rigors of an NHL 82 game schedule playing over 20/night, and probably a target for all opposing teams.

https://www.nhl.com/news/matthew-schaef ... -islanders


Jets in town for a matinee today. Drouin returns, and Roy is already shuffling the lines.

Jonathan Drouin - Bo Horvat - Emil Heineman
Anthony Duclair - Mathew Barzal - Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee - JG Pageau - Max Shabanov
Simon Holmstrom - Casey Cizikas - Max Tsyplakov

Press box line- Marc Gatcomb - Kyle MacLean - Calum Ritchie (still injured)

[Chris18]

Never mind. Ritchie is off IR and was sent to Bridgeport. I think he was good enough to make the NHL roster, but he needs some time in the AHL. If someone gets hurt, he should be called up and played over MacLean. Gatcomb is fine if it's a short term, bottom 6 forward who needs replacing, but Ritchie should be up if it's a long term injury. He earned it in camp.

[Chris18]

0-3 after a 5-2 loss to the Jets (en). Isles started the game on fire, then had ice thrown on it when Lee was called for slashing the stick out of a Jet's hand. PPG against. Later, the Isles had some good zone time, then somehow Q'Anangelo lost or broke his stick and Romanov just fell at the point and suddenly it was a 2-1 going back against the stickless Q'Anongelo, who is a shitty defender even with a stick. 2-0. Pageau scored on a nice deflection and then Sorokin looked like a 10U goalie with big oaf Stanley putting one 5-hole on Sorokin. Fuckng weak as hell and it was 14 seconds after Pageau's goal so it sucked the life right back out of the crowd.
Heineman scored on a nice shot but that made it 4-2. Jets hit the empty net. Schaefer got an assist on that goal, so he's got 3 points in 3 games.

Maybe the Isles signed to long term deals really like McKenna? 0-82 still in play.

I am so sick of watching bad hockey already. They play Thursday, which I'll miss thanks to practice. Thank you, youth hockey scheduler.

[Chris18]

Tsyppy Cup is scratched for tomorrow and former nepo-baby Kyle MacLean gets a chance to show that he belongs in the NHL without his dad there for bias. Spoiler alert- I don't think he belongs in the NHL.

Roy has announced that the Isles intend to go 0-4, by starting Rittich vs the Oilers. Okay, so the 0-4 part is my conjecture, but does anyone disagree?
Sorokin to play Saturday vs the Sens, who are now missing Brady. Better chance to win that.

[Chris18]

Isles win with Rittich in net, 4-2 over the Oilers. Rittich played really well. 1-3-0. Horvat with an odd one- natural hat trick by going SH, PP & EN. Schaefer with an assist on the PP goal, so he's got 4 points in his first 4 career games.

Nice to get a win.

[E.L.]

How’s Schafer?

[Chris18]

How’s Schafer?

All that was promised, and more. Better hockey IQ than I expected from an 18 year old. I knew he was a smooth skater but he's much faster than I thought. Ray Ferraro joked last night that he'd hate to have to do any skating drills after Barzal and Schaefer. Schaefer isn't afraid to go to the net in the O-zone. I fear it'll burn the Isles sometimes, but Roy said he likes the aggressiveness, so he's not going to tell Schaefer to stop. He's had some good scoring chances because of it. I'm sure teams will start to figure out a way to burn him on that, but then we'll see how he counters. I'm psyched to get to watch him play. Now, if they can just tank for McKenna!

[Chris18]

Schaefer had been living alone in a hotel room. No less than 10 teammates asked him to move in with them. He chose Special Assistant to GM, Matt Martin's house. The Martins already have 4 kids, and have now "adopted" Schaefer as their 5th, according to Sydney Esiason Martin. The Martins hosted Mitch Marner while Matt Martin (too many Ms in this sentence already) was with the Leafs, so they're used to this. Schaefer said Martin has already helped him with some tips on how to be a better pro.

Rittch was asked about Horvat "helping him" with the hat trick the other day. Rittich replied that Horvat drove him to the rink, so he'd already helped big time. In a world full of such dry hockey replies, the Isles goalies are at least amusing. Now for Sorokin to get back on track to playing like a Vezina candidate and not just giving amusing replies.

Sens today. Matinee.

[Chris18]

Isles with a nice comeback win vs the Sens. 2-3-0 now. Schaefer with an assist on Shabanov's goal, so he starts his career with points in his first 5 games. He was also the 2nd last player off the ice after the game, as he and Lee high fived everyone else as they left. Schaefer probably had a few minutes of big stress. Breakaway for a Sen, and Schaefer dove and swiped his feet out from under him, but appeared to get the puck first. Ref called a penalty shot. Isles broadcasters were confused about why the Isles weren't arguing, since he got the puck first. Not sure if they missed a new rule, or the Isles just didn't argue... Either way, the PS wasn't successful and the Isles came back to win it. Lee with a nice move to score the winner with 1:03 left.

Team looks to be believing in themselves now. Nice to see Sorokin get a win, but 4 goals allowed again. WTF dude?