Who’s Your Favorite Islander?
By: Geoffrey Gottlieb
Although Ted Nolan might be a great motivator, I strongly dislike and disagree with many of his in game “hockey” decisions. I know this might be overkill, but bare with me as we go back to last season. I agreed about demoting Yashin due to his poor work ethic; there were times when he didn’t back check and other times when he seemingly went through the motions of the game without any determination to score or set up a teammate. But, let’s also remember he was the reason for Jason Blake’s goal scoring explosion and the Islanders strong first half of last season. Yashin had 50 points in only 58 games last season and clearly was the most talented forward on the team. However, when it came to playoff time, Ted Nolan decided to demote Yashin to the fourth line and to significantly reduce his ice time. In turn, Nolan gave Randy Robitaille 16:26 and 18:33 minutes of ice time in the first two-playoff games. Robitaille was the worst player on the ice every night. He had a minus rating in every game of the series except one totaling a –5 in 5 games. RR constantly turned over the puck and managed to play less defense than the defensively challenged Yashin. It’s baffling that Robitaille, who had 6 goals 17 assists in 50 games for the islanders, would get over 18 minutes of ice time and Yashin, who had 18 goals and 32 assists, would get 7 minutes in the same game. It’s even more baffling that Nolan broke up the combo of Yashin-Blake, which seemed to be unstoppable all season long. Let us also not forget Nolan almost blowing the season by sticking with Dunham for 4 straight games when he couldn’t stop a beach ball.
Nolan tends to favor some players and dislike others. The players he favors can do no wrong and they receive blocks of ice time. On the contrary, the players he dislikes don’t see the ice even if their production is encouraging. Once again Sillinger led the forwards in ice time for the past 2 games. In Pittsburgh with 19:38 and last night against the Devils with 21:28. Sillinger also received 2:08 of power play time against Pittsburgh 1 second behind Bill Guerin for most power play time for any Islander forward and 2:15 last night tied for most time by a forward. Why is Sillinger getting so much time when he clearly isn’t contributing? Sillinger 2 goals on the season 2:15 of PP time and the red-hot Vasicek who can’t stop scoring 2 seconds last night? The one positive of Sillinger’s game is that he wins (barely) a majority of his face-offs. Although winning face offs is very valuable, Sillinger doesn’t provide anything but that. He looks every bit his age and most nights is one of the worst players on the ice. Simply put he is too slow and can’t score.
Further, Nolan would rather play Tim Jackman than have MAB available for power play time. When you have been scoring 1 or 2 goals for the past 3 games, and losing two heartbreaking games, don’t you think you need MAB to spark the power play and provide some offense to a team that is recently having trouble scoring? It just doesn’t make sense. If I were the coach, I would combine Satan, Vasicek, & Hunter. Vasicek has been awesome recording a point in 8 of the last 9 games. His 6-5 214 frame is very difficult to defend. I would also combine Comrie, Guerin, and Tank as another line (Nolan finally reunited this line against NJ). This would leave you with 2 solid lines. The other 6 would obviously depend on whose in the roster tonight but should look something like- Bergenheim, Silinger, Bates (a pretty decent checking line) and thus leaving us with the overly skilled group of Hilbert Jackman and Simon on the 4th line. To be honest I would like to completely get rid of that entire 4th line and see more of Tambellini and Walter, and perhaps one of either Simon or Jackman.
On to another one of Nolan’s favorites: Andy Hilbert. Now 0 goals and 0 assists in 16 games. But yet is averaging 14:24 of ice time? Zero points but yet 14:24 of ice time? Why won’t Nolan give Tambellini a chance when Hilbert hasn’t produced? As Justin has repeatedly said, since we have an enforcer in Simon do we really need Tim Jackman? I think Nolan really needs to look at his ability to set lines and proportion ice time.
Stop playing favorites your job is to win games. We are 10-6 but if Nolan was making better coaching decisions we might be even better.
Posts
14 comments:
I have a question for all of you that keep harping on Nolan riding Dunham. Had Dubie lost 4 out the 5 games he started, and the Islanders had missed the playoffs, would you still be questioning the move? When faced with starting a proven NHL goalie on the downside of his career or a career minor leaguer, 9 out of 10 coaches would have gone with Dunham.
As far as Hilbert goes, he may have no points, but he is easily one of our most consistent forwards. He comes to play every game. He is always the first guy in the offensive zone to take the body and start the cycling. And he's always the first guy back in the defensive zone. He's also one of our best penalty killers. He averages about 12 minutes of even strength ice time, which is about right for a 3rd liner.
As far as Tambellini is concerned, he had almost 9 minutes a game to prove he belonged on the top 2 lines and didn't get it done. You don't develop prospects by putting them on the fourth line.
Shink The answer is that Dubie DIDN't lose the last four out of five games. Dunham was clearly overmatched and even the most casual fan could see that. All you had to do was look at the players faces everytime Dunham flubbed a shot.
"9 out of 10 coaches would have gone with Dunham."
Can you back that up? Or is that just speculation on your part?
Hilbert stinks, PERIOD. If he started so much cycling, then he would have loads of assists. He has none. Let's recap. Hilbert has played every game and has no goals and no assists. Enough said.
As far as Tambellini goes, 9 minutes a game is 3 minutes a period. Hardly enough time to break a sweat.
At least he produced a few points when he was up compared to ZERO for some forwards.
Since you say he doesn't belong on the top 2 lines and he can't be developed on the fourth line, I guess that leaves the third line. I'm fine with that. He can take the place of the slug with ZERO points.
As for this article, it looks like you've been reading my posts, Mr. Author.....Bill
9 out of 10 coaches would have gone with Dunham for the first game. Heck 8 out of 10 would have stuck with Dunham after a dreadful first game. However, 1 out of 10 coaches would have played Dunham for a third consecutive game after observing a goaltender who was (1) unable to stop regular shots from the blue line, (2) unable to move from post to post to thwart a wrap around, and (3) clearly unable to maintain his focus for an entire game. Nolan was that one man.
Dubie was heroic during the Devils game, but pretty much just gave the Isles consistent goaltending over the final 4 games. That's all we needed, just a chance to win every night. Nolan might have been able to justify coming back with Dunham after one poor outing, but when a goaltender is HORRIBLE for two straight games, you pretty much can't do any worse than pick another goaltender in your organization to give it a go.
Shinkdew,
I agree with you about Hilbert. He doesn't bother me as much as he used to because he is a consistent player who works every shift. He is responsible defensively and is a very effective penalty killer.
I agree bringing up Tambellini to play on the 4th line would be a waste. But Tambellini was not given a fair chance to prove he can play. He was given what 9 minutes a game twice? Give the kid a five game stint to see what he an do. He could handle playing with Hunter and Silinger on the 3rd line. Hilbert could continue to see 4th line action as well as PK time. Even though Hilbert is a good PK'er, the 3rd line needs to score on occasion, and Hibert isn't getting the job done in that regard.
Shinkdew,
Dubie didn’t loose those games. Instead he won his last 4 games of the season to carry us into the playoffs. As for Dunham he was absolutely horrible. Of course experience is always a good thing, however Dunham was clearly not the right choice. With the Islanders in such a tight race and Dunham not producing Nolan should have pulled him sooner. The numbers don’t lie. In Dunham’s last 5 games of the season he allowed 24 goals. 5 goals to Montreal in 43 minutes, 5 goals to Ottawa in 43 minutes, 6 goals to Florida, 3 goals to New Jersey in 46 minutes and 5 goals to Buffalo in 20 minutes. Dunham had a nice 11 seasons but clearly he was done and his last few games showed just that. Its impossible to deny. Dunham looked absolutely awful and everyone seemed to notice he was done except Nolan.
Hilbert definitely works hard I have never knocked him for that. Unfortunately he just isn’t very talented. The word “consistent” is definitely not a word to describe Andy Hilbert. The only thing Andy Hilbert has been doing consistently as an Islander is not being able to put the puck in the back of the net. 12 minutes of even strength time is way too much for a player that has 0 points in 16 games and is a –4.
You are correct so far Tambellini has averaged just over 9 minutes a game this year, but he only played in 3 games.He is 23 years old why not give him a chance to play? I definitely don’t think he should be on the second line, but I do think he should get a chance to play on the 3rd or 4th line. Personally I would much rather have Tambillini on the roster every night then Tim Jackman. I would rather see a first round pick in Tambellini make some mistakes and learn how to play in the NHL then see Jackman and Simon in the same line up every night.
-Geoff
Wow Bill, get out of my head.
Without weighing in on the difficult question of whether or not to bring up Tamby, a defensively irresponsible player who may end up scoring 15 goals at most, even when given the opportunity to play in every game, I will say this.
Everyone is up in arms about getting rid of Jackman, yet last year I do recall most people yearning to bring back Steve Webb. We had no toughness last year, and clearly, Simon is no longer up for that task. Jackman is willing and able to throw down, which we all know is something we've been missing since, dare I say it, Eric Cairns. No one likes to fight anymore in the NHL, but those teams that have one or two guys who can, and will, given the opportunity are tougher to play against. We were getting roughed up during regular play all last season, and I have not seen that nearly as much this year.
Of course, that might be because we had a bunch of prima-donnas last season in Blake, Yashin, Poti, and Kozlov- none of whom I have ever seen hit, or take a hit to win the puck. Tank, Vasicek, and even Comrie all take and give hits. Its refreshing to see..
Nyisles,
Then the clear response to your line of thinking is to get rid of Simon. If you prefer Jackman, fine, but having both is simply strange.
NYISLES Steve Webb was part of the old clutching, grabbing, holding NHL. He would never be able to keep up in todays game.
Fans may have chanted his name last year because of the soft play of many of the Islanders, but that doesn't mean we should keep Jackman to take his place.
Jackman and Simon are dinosaurs in todays high speed game. Give me Tambellin and Walter and day.
Hilbert does work hard, but so what? You get paid to work hard. Results are what count.
Is there any other team in the NHL that has a guy playing over 15 minutes a night with ZERO points?
Shink, I can tell you this. 9 out of 10 coaches would have benched Hilbert 5 games ago.
Nolan may be a great motivator, but he is not a great coach. He lets his bias for older players get in the way of what's best for the team.
Did everybody hear Al Arbour urge him to play the fourth line in the 3 rd period last week when Walter was playing well? Listen up, Ted, Arbour forgot more about coaching than you will ever know........Bill
I don't think it's necessarily silly to have both Simon & Jackman. Simon brings more than his fists- leadership and (some) hands. Someone like Jackman is replaceable however, by anyone who can bang. Look at Georges Laroque- the guy plays 4 min/game, and intimidates the heck out of the other team. We need a guy like that. I'm not saying Jackman is the best, but for a 4th line player, I'd rather have a guy who hits hard, can fight, and intimidates vs. a Tamby who is a risk on D and is likely to get hurt if he tries to fight. If we're bringing Tamby up, we need to put him on the 3rd or 2nd line, not the 4th, and therefore can only do so if he's defensively responsible. At this point, he hasn't shown that. MAB is benched for that exact reason.
Steve Webb wasn't as big as Laroque, but he threw his body around harder than anyone we've had in a long time. Thats what we need. We need a player who we can put out there for at least 1 shift per game against the other team's top performing line who makes them skate around with their head on a swivel. Crosby, Jagr, Gionta, Parise, Briere etc etc will always be tough, but if they skate around against Tamby, they'll blow right by him. If they get hit by the Steve Webb Express just once (see: Jagr last year against Witt), it evens the score.
That type of play is NOT the old NHL- that is the new one. A Scott Stevens hit will get anyone's attention, especially those prima donnas like Jagr and Briere who are enjoying skating around without someone touching them. One big hit and the playing field is once again leveled.
NYISLES.........In order to hit someone you have to be able to catch them. Jackman is not that person. Both he and Simon are to slow to really catch any of the quicker players in open ice. This IS the new NHL with then accent on speed and skill. Not plodding, slow footed, bangers who can't score.
Besides, neither one would ever be on the ice with Jagr, Brierre or Crosby. Even Nolan is not that foolish to put Simon and Jackman aginst another teams top skaters, so you really have no point.
You keep saying tha Tambellini is a defensive liability. What do you have to back that up. Hilbert has a worse plus/minus and Tambellini is a plus 5 for his NHL career.
Walter and Tambellini are offensive threats. Simon, Jackman and Hilbert are not. This team needs some help scoring goals. It's time to give someone else a chance, since the above trio has ONE GOAL between them...Bill
Walter showed in his brief sting that he is NOT a defensive liability and he IS willing to crash the net in order to score. He is much faster and more agile than either Simon or Jackman. I like having Simon in the lineup--he's willing to fight, he has some scoring ability, and works hard every shift. Now do I want two Simons on the same line? Probably not. Do I want a weaker version of Simon on the same line? Absolutely not.
I'm having trouble finding any validation why Jackman is still up with the team. Walter played well and he should have been allowed to stay.
My favorite Islander is Brendan Witt. He brings it all to the game every night and does whatever it takes to win.
He's not flashy or ever going to make anyone forget Bobby Orr, but the guy has heart and talent.
He reminds me of Dave Langivan (the Bammer) in that he plays defense, hits hard and blocks shots.
He should have been named Captain instead of Guerin....Bill
Big game tonight, we better be focused and ready, this is going to be a different rangers team then we have seen the previous two games this season.
Not sure if any of you read Logan's blog but, he seemed to suggest that we may see Park on the 3rd line instead of the 4th with Simon and Jackman. Could Hilbert's days of overextended ice time be coming to a close? It starting to look like that.
ISLES 2 RANGERS 1
Boy, I like the look of that. Outstanding TEAM effort tonight. This was the best game the Isles have played all year. Some thoughts:
Why can't DP play Lundquist or Broduer every night? If he played with the focus that he brings to these games he would be unbeatable.
Snow needs to sign Vasicheck to a long term deal on Jan 1 st.
Hunter was everywhere in the offensive zone. So was Satan.
Witt took Jagr out of the game completely. He and Martinek were great in the corners and in front of the net.
The Rangers really miss Straka. They are a different team with him in there.
Not to beat a dead horse, but did you guys count the times Berard missed the net on the PP? Bring back MAB.
Campoli is not the answer on the point. When we had a 2-0 lead and were on the PP we could have burried them right there. Instead we give up a shortie and let them right back in the game.
The PP needs to work on the 5 on 3.
Winning teams convert those chances.
Simon played his best game of the year. Hopefully, he is rounding into game form.
That little punk Avery tried to land on DP again. DP slugged him and got called. The refs blew that call. It is obvious that Avery attempts to injure the opposing goaltender whenever he can.
Good for DP. I guess he remembers last year all too well.
Enough of the "Ranger Hangover." Let's knuckle down and take two from the Canadiens......Bill
Post a Comment