Isles Enter the Season with More Questions than Answers

Going into the season, how are you feeling? What are your expectations for the Isles? Is there something you wished for that was not granted, or something that was not up to your satisfaction? I had a conversation with my contact from the New York Islanders the other day. His message: “Zero expectations going into this season. Roy should be on the hot seat.”

We discussed the significant concerns and expectations that we have from the Isles. It mainly was concerns, frankly; we had no observations. Mainly, we’re not sure how the boys will perform. The boys, of course, are the New York Islanders. My source, of course, is Paul Kriescher of Isletalk. Come to think of it, he is the founder of Islestalk. You can reach him on Twitter. I will leave his Twitter handle at the end of the blog.

Now that we’re on the record and everybody knows who I was talking to, let’s move on to what we don’t know about what we will get from the Isles. We do not understand what Patrick Roy wants. There were flaws last year. How far is he gonna go to fix them? How is he gonna fix them? How will he make up for the loss from the Dobson trade? Let us clarify what we mean by that. There was no defence required in that Dobson trade.

Does that mean that we didn’t like to trade? No, not at all. This means that it was a different kind of trade than we had expected. I expected we would at least get a defenceman back instead of a forward. Paul makes a good point here, and I quote, “What this trade does is put undue pressure on Tony DeAngelo and Matthew Schaefer. It is not fair to the team, especially to Tony and Matthew.” As I wrote a blog for Matthieu (you can find it here) and Paul concurs that Schaefer should not be rushed. Tony is a 5th/2nd pairing power-play quarterback, meaning he is mainly used on the second Power Play. Don’t get us wrong; he’s a quality NHL defenseman, but he’s just not as good as Dobson. Expecting him to be a power-play dman will disappoint you and ruin his confidence. The coach must place his players in the best position to succeed. Putting Tony first, PowerPlay does not do that.

Last word 

So, how’s the defence gonna be without Dobson? Lotta question marks there. Hopefully, someone on the roster can take the next step; if not, there are some significant concerns. Roy is a good coach. He is capable of making players better than they really are. I just worry about the expense. What will this cost? My concern is again using Schaeffer all season. 

Paul’s info here

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