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Game # 46 – Islanders vs. Hawks Q&A: With Dan Saraceni of LightHouseHockey.com

By Sam Fels 1896 0

Dan Saraceni is an editor at LightHouseHockey.com. You can follow him on Twitter @CultureOfLosing. 

We’ll start with something joyous: Mathew Barzal, the best player ever or the bestest player ever?

The best. Maybe bestest ever. Islanders haven’t had a player with this… whatever it is in a long time. Even as great as Tavares is, the speed and elusiveness of Barzal is like X-Men level. Of course, as expected, we’re now into the “stop turning the puck over” part of the program but he’s got the awareness and quickness to clean up his own messes a lot of the time. I’ll be sad if he doesn’t win the Calder but those things happen. I’m more excited about seeing what he can do in years two, three and beyond.

Anders Lee is on pace for 40 goals, after 34 last year. That would make him one of the more dangerous scorers in the league. is that what he is? Or a Tavares product? And was Lee who  Peter Chiarelli thought he was getting for Eberle and got confused?
Lee is Tim Kerr, that immobile net front beast that cleans up a lot of rebounds. He’s a little better than just that, but it’s “where his fish is fried,” as Doug Weight said. I wouldn’t say he’s a product of Tavares because he had 36 goals last year, many coming after Tavares was hurt and missed the end of the season. But what’s weird is that without Josh Bailey, that whole line hadn’t worked that well over the last few games. That might be because they had a rotating cast of nobodies on the other wing, but I think Bailey and Lee work as a tandem because of the set-up/net front dynamic. Tavares will be Tavares no matter who he’s with. I think Chiarelli thought he was getting all three Strome brothers for Eberle in a kinda weird Hockey Voltron deal or something.
The Isles are rocking three young d-men in Pelech, Mayfield, and Pulock. What’s the outlook for this trio?
The outlook is long because they’ve already signed Pelech and Mayfield to cheap, long term deals of four and five years respectively. They’re both similar: more defensive than offensive, not especially quick, prone to games of quiet competence and bouts of overt ineptitude, seem like nice guys. Pulock had high expectations given his AHL scoring numbers and big slap shot. His defense has gotten better this season but he’s been reluctant to let it rip for some reason earlier this season. He’s definitely got talent, it’s just a matter of putting it all together (and letting the coaches keep him in the lineup).
Are the Islanders gonna have to find a goalie before the deadline?
Honestly, at this point, I don’t think it’s as simple as that. This team has a lot of structural and fundamental issues that need to be addressed first. Neither goalie has had a good season. Greiss’s 50-something save performance in Montreal on Monday was his best game since October and he’s been sub-.900 the entire time. Halak was awful in November, but has shown more signs of life throughout the season. I was at the 4-1 loss to the Devils on Tuesday and it’s hard to say he was at fault for all but one goal. No goalie should have to face 40+ shots a night. Halak’s a UFA and they’ll need the savings to sign Tavares and (I hope) Bailey. Greiss will be back next year, and I hope back to the above average goalie he was when they signed him. They have some prospects playing overseas that they’re banking on, too. Typical Islanders: the answer is always tomorrow.
So how does this Tavares thing go? Barzal, new arena plans all show promise for the future. In the other hand, may miss the playoffs again.
I’ve been compiling Tavares free agency stories for almost two years now and I still have no idea. Before Monday, when he told a crowd of Montreal reporters that he wants to stay on Long Island and has never thought about playing anywhere else, he had been consistent in saying, “I like it here, I’m focused on winning and when the time is right, I’ll weigh all the information.” (which reminds me, I need to add that stuff.) Most insiders agree he’ll stay. I think that he thinks they can still be a winner, especially with Barzal now in the picture. Belmont was huge. The new owners have to know that without him, even less people will want to watch them. They have money coming off the books, which was smart. But I’ve seen them screw up so many lay-ups, it’s hard to think they won’t do it again.

 

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Game #46 – Islanders vs. Hawks Douchebag Du Jour: Here Comes Clusterf*ck And His Hits

By Sam Fels 1728 0

It’s not really fair to put Cal Clutterbuck here. It’s not his faults that the Minnesota Wild, and then the New York Islanders, felt the need to make his “hit” numbers seem like something out of a Suess book. But it is his fault that he looks like a Colin Farrell mugshot, so we’ll get on his case for that.

For a long time, Clutterbuck was actually the kind of fourth-liner you’d want. Yes, he was nuts and yes, occasionally he would go overboard and do something truly stupid. But he could really skate, he gave you 10+ goals per season and could kill some penalties for you. He was what Joel Quenneville thinks Lance Bouma is.

But as we all saw, and every broadcast couldn’t wait to mention because they’ve all been beaten about the head with lawn equipment, the Islanders seriously bloated his hit totals. If you go on NHL.com and look at the past 10 years, the top three hit totals for a season belong to Matt Martin. Matt Martin could never move, so how he was averaging over four hits per game is Bermuda Triangle shit. Clutterbuck has seasons 6-10, which covers both Minnesota and New York. The only interloper in the top 10 is Mark Borowiecki from Ottawa last year, further proving Guy Boucher’s genius, of course.

No question Clutterbuck is a physical player, though he’s slowing down now and even the Islanders staff can’t make up hits for him to make him seem more active than he is. But he’s still chipping in goals, with eight so far this year from the fourth line. He’s also doing that while starting 70% of his shifts in the defensive zone, the third year in a row he’s started over 60% in his own zone.

Considering that’s where he’s always played, isn’t his goal-production and penalty killing enough? Do we really need to highlight his contributions when his team doesn’t have the puck to make it seem like he’s a worthwhile player?

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Your Friends And Neighbors – ’17-’18 NHL Team Previews: Future Islands (A Band And Team You Should Have No Use For)

By 1745

Once again, almost all of the talk about the New York Islanders won’t have much to do with what goes on on the ice. There’s going to be tons of stories about where they’re going to move, because clearly sticking in Brooklyn isn’t going to work (who knew a building built for basketball wouldn’t attract a fanbase that is still mostly based an hour away, nor could they generate a following amongst Brooklyn residents who are more concerned with finding a vinyl copy of that album with the girl who plays a theremin with cat). When it’s not that, it’ll be whether they’re trading John Tavares or where he might go as a free agent if they don’t. Or if he’ll stay (he won’t). And sadly for the twelve Islanders fans that are left, the product on the ice isn’t likely to be nearly enough to distract from all of this.

New York Islanders

’16-’17 Record: 41-29-12  94 points  (5th in Metro)

Team Stats 5v5: 47.7 CF% (28th)  49.0 SF% (22nd)  46.0 SCF% (29th)  8.8 SH% (3rd)  .918 SV% (24th)

Special Teams: 14.9 PP% (28th)  81.9 PK% (11th)

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Every New York Band Is Overrated: Hawks 5 – Islanders 4

By 1292

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

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When the Hawks were shorthanded, they attempted to tighten things up a bit, though considering how many shots they gave up whenever there was a genuine NHL team across from them, I’m not sure it worked. Tonight was definitely not tightened up, as this was as open of a game as the Hawks have had in a while. It worked as just about all the rest have; goaltending finds its feet and makes some huge saves to prevent a deficit from getting unmanageable, the top line scores, and then some sort of wrinkle. The wrinkle tonight wast that the Islanders for some reason never watched tape on on the Hawks power play and kept leaving the cross-ice pass open, and the Hawks got goals from the Toews and Kruger lines.

Add it all up, and it’s just enough. Let’s clean it up.

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Isles Spotlight: Party On, Garth

By 1400

Can you believe it’s been 10 years since Garth Snow retired as an NHL goaltender and immediately moved into the GM’s chair on the Island? At the time it just seemed the latest spasm of insanity from a complete basketcase of an organization that the Islanders were under Charles Wang at times. It always felt like something that would be quickly corrected once someone with any kind of sense finally bought the Isles. Well, that took 10 years and Snow is still here (and Wang wasn’t actually the huge goof he played at being when he first arrived on the scene, though he had goof tendencies).

What became even more surprising is that Snow turned out to be not terrible at his job, or at least not every aspect of it. Which was stunning considered he didn’t serve any kind of apprenticeship or training. He basically took off the gear and there was a suit under it.

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Wednesday Mishegas

By 1417

Just a few notes to go over on this offday on the last Circus Trip ever. By the way, can we make it the last circus ever? Like, is the circus something we need anymore? I don’t think it is. Elephants are awesome and not a single one should be kept in chains. I guess that Cirque de Solei stuff is cool, there are no animals in that. But if we had to sacrifice that to have no circuses ever, I’m good. Anyway…

-So what had everyone on buzz on Twitter this morning was a tidbit from Elliotte Friedman’s 30 thoughts. If you can’t be bothered to read the thing, even though it should be required reading for every hockey fan every week and I still can’t believe they surround Friedman with a gaggle of buffoons every Saturday night on HNIC, he speculates that Brandon Saad might be available from the Jackets. Apparently he was last year too, and the Hawks at least kicked the tires on it.

Ok, first of all, the idea that the Jackets would even consider this makes me weep for the state of the human race, and I’ve done enough of that already in the past week. There’s no question that Jarmo and especially Torts have little idea what they’re doing. Saad is somehow fifth in ice time amongst their forwards, even though he’s the best forward they have. I don’t even know how this is open for debate. He’s also their best possession player once again, because that’s this thing that he does.

While this rant really shouldn’t go on any longer, Saad scored over 30 goals last year. Only 28 players managed that feat last season. That’s 7% of all forwards who laced them up all year. These are valuable fucking commodities. Somehow goals, y’know, the thing we measure who wins and loses by, are not nearly as valued as they should be. Seeing as how hockey’s scoring is starting to resemble soccer’s more and more, maybe guys who can score should be valued in the same way. If you score 20 goals in a season in soccer, they honestly don’t give a fuck what else you do. Christiano Ronaldo hasn’t seen his own half in like six years. Does anyone care?

Rant over. Now to Saad.

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We Like To Watch – May 9th: The Business End Of Round 2

By 1287

Getting down to it now. Let’s go through it:

Lightning v. Islanders – This series… is… OVAHHHHH!

Well we didn’t get this one right. Both Feather and I thought the absence of Stamkos and the presence of Tavares would tell the tale on this one. We kind of forgot about nuclear Victor Hedman, which we shouldn’t have given what we saw last spring. Hedman carried a 56.0 CF% for the series, without his normal partner, and essentially left the Isles scorched and limbless in his path. We saw this last year but the Hawks had Duncan Keith to counter. The Islanders don’t… have one of these, do they Jack? Hamonic is a fine player but he’s not in that class and neither are Thomas Hickey or Nick Leddy. The Isles have basically a bunch of second pairing guys.

Throw in some brilliance from Ben Bishop and the Lightning getting goals up and down the lineup, and that’s how you have something that goes this quickly. Whoops.

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We Like To Watch – May 4th

By 1293

Let’s do it again:

Lightning 5 – 4 Islanders (OT)

While there are some crusty old guys who love the fact that officials become a personification of a urine puddle late in playoff games and overtime, I’ve always thought it was dumb and contradictory to the sport. As I’ve said many times, “Letting the players decide” is a phrase that makes no sense. When one commits a penalty to stop another, the players have decided. They’ve decided that one got beat so badly or made a mistake that the other should be rewarded with a power play for his team. While the refs may say they don’t want to decide games, they are deciding them with inaction. They’re just coming out way worse on the other side.

Brian Boyle’s hit on Thomas Hickey was late and it was to the head. The ref was about as close to it as I am to my coffee table right now which I have my feet up on at the moment (thug life). And he couldn’t locate his spine to make the right call. The Bolts get a 2-on-1 because one of the Isles’ defenders who would be defending was trying to pop his nose back out of his brain. Boyle scores from the exact spot Hickey would have prevented him from getting to. Sure, you could argue it’s karma from what the Isles got away with in Game 6 against the Panthers. But I doubt that went through anyone’s head at the time.

Anyway, this game was awesome and it sucks it was decided on this. The Isles seem to be discovering that you need more than a top line and a good 4th line to win.

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Playoff Weekend Wrap And May 2nd Preview: It’s Shaping Up

By 1261

As we will do through the rest of the playoffs, just wrapping up the other action and previewing what comes tonight.

Islanders 1 – 1 Lightning

The East’s stepchild series, as no one seems to be paying any attention. And yet it has the potential to be as good as the other one. Game 2 was seemingly the only one that John Tavares didn’t simply grab in his hand and wield it however he saw fit. That’s been the most exciting thing about the Isles’ run so far, obvious as it is. There’s something about watching a player simply transcend all those around him, and Tavares has done that through his team’s first eight games.

There’s also something pretty satisfying about watching a coach have to eat it over previous treatment of a player, like Jon Cooper and Jonathan Drouin. The latter has been crushing it when finally given a scorer’s role, which you might think would come pretty naturally to a #3 overall pick. But in a league that looks to stifle creativity it took this long. But don’t worry, Cooper is still a genius who will get all the plaudits for making Drouin “earn it.” Though considering Tyler Johnson was broken last year and Stamkos misfiring, might Drouin made a bigger difference last spring?

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Back For More: Islanders at Hawks Preview/Howling At The Moon

By 1231

the+island vs. williambdavis_480

PUCKDROP: 7:30pm Central

TV/RADIO: WGN for both

HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPSTERS: Lighthouse Hockey, Islanders Insight

I remember the days when these home-and-homes were played between teams in the division, not wrapping up the entire season series between teams in the opposite conferences. Oh well. Either way, the Hawks and Isles will wrap up their season obligations against each other tonight on Madison St. after opening the Barclays Center to NHL hockey last night (though some there couldn’t see it).