GDT: GDT #11 New York Islanders @ Buffalo Sabres| November 1st | 7:00 PM | F/W 4-3

Rehabguy

In ROY I trust
Oct 2, 2011
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interestingly enough....it was such during the whole game.
Maybe a symptom of his teammates expecting too much from him and not enough individual effort. They are proving to themselves that they can score if they just get back down to basics. Passing, shooting, skating. It’s not like Barzal’s playing on every line for 60 minutes. We need him some to come through at pivotal times during a game but he shouldn’t shoulder the entire offensive load.
 

crashthenet

Registered User
Jul 9, 2004
6,114
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Hockey Falls
McLean piloting the helicopter line.

JGP will have his best game of the season.

Isles win 4-1.
McLean was, JGP definitely did. Should have been 4-1. Not bad.

Dobson on the ice for all 3 against? He is not good net front and so slow to move the puck below the goaline.

Tsyplakov looked almost dominant as did Lee.

Horvat is a better player than Barzal. Perhaps he should be driving the offense.

Out of all the centers playing wing, JGP is the best suited and played there in the past. Hopefully Roy sees that.

Would be kind of interesting to see Barzal center Duclair and either Holmstrom or Engvall.

I was wondering if Wahlstrom figured out that fighting Greenway might be the type of thing that could keep him om the line-up?

At point it looked like all 3 left side D might be gone. Good to see Romanov back.

Did Fasching come back after taking one in his giant teeth? He really sucks. Would have been better off dressing 11/7 anyway.

Officiating so poor in this game.

From the condensed game they looked better on both the PP and 5 on 5 without Barzal.
Bombs away on the PP.
 

Chockey22

Registered User
Jul 12, 2022
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McLean was, JGP definitely did. Should have been 4-1. Not bad.

Dobson on the ice for all 3 against? He is not good net front and so slow to move the puck below the goaline.

Tsyplakov looked almost dominant as did Lee.

Horvat is a better player than Barzal. Perhaps he should be driving the offense.

Out of all the centers playing wing, JGP is the best suited and played there in the past. Hopefully Roy sees that.

Would be kind of interesting to see Barzal center Duclair and either Holmstrom or Engvall.

I was wondering if Wahlstrom figured out that fighting Greenway might be the type of thing that could keep him om the line-up?

At point it looked like all 3 left side D might be gone. Good to see Romanov back.

Did Fasching come back after taking one in his giant teeth? He really sucks. Would have been better off dressing 11/7 anyway.

Officiating so poor in this game.


Bombs away on the PP.
Agree with a lot of this - given that they were down to 4 Dmen, I don’t want to be too hard on Dobson, but on two of those goals he just gets plain outmuscled. Romanov staying in because others went down is impressive, he’s proving to be a warrior.
But, I’m not sure I agree that Horvat is better than Barzal, though I do think they are better separated. Too much deference to Barzal, when Horvat needs to have the puck and drive offence on his line, rather than waiting for a pass from Barzal
 
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seafoam

Soft Shock
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May 17, 2011
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I found that Anders Lee's postgame comments were telling. "We made the plays that were in front of us."
Yup, Barzal’s once supposed strength of being able to hold onto the puck and skate around the o-zone has become a detriment to the offense because his teammates are just standing around trying to stay out of his way.

He needs to give up the rover act and just fit into an offense based around getting the puck the scoring areas using quick passing both horizontally and laterally.
 

Throttle

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Sep 22, 2020
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And the 2024 season evidence is as follows:

- Anaheim, Columbus, and Buffalo - three crap teams in the same week, Barzal played in 2 of the 3.
- the isles lost two of those games, Barzal scored in the 3rd period when the team was down by two goals (essentially, useless)
- the isles won the game that Barzal did not play in (on the road)
-the power play was simple and it scored
- the isles won in buffalo with 2 defensive injuries too boot.

Add this to his 20 game absence where the team was under pressure in March/April and they made the playoffs without him. What happened when he returned?

All the evidence is there, fans and the organization are just in denial. Anders Lee is not.
 

MJF

Hope is not a strategy
Sep 6, 2003
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Yup, Barzal’s once supposed strength of being able to hold onto the puck and skate around the o-zone has become a detriment to the offense because his teammates are just standing around trying to stay out of his way.

He needs to give up the rover act and just fit into an offense based around getting the puck the scoring areas using quick passing both horizontally and laterally.
I don’t think there is a player in the NHL who could thrive with Barzal playing the style he’s played since he broke into the NHL. He must stop taking sweeping routes that end with him near the perimeter looking to dish.
 

BrockLobster

Registered User
Feb 11, 2013
9,952
8,390
Long Beach, NY
And the 2024 season evidence is as follows:

- Anaheim, Columbus, and Buffalo - three crap teams in the same week, Barzal played in 2 of the 3.
- the isles lost two of those games, Barzal scored in the 3rd period when the team was down by two goals (essentially, useless)
- the isles won the game that Barzal did not play in (on the road)
-the power play was simple and it scored
- the isles won in buffalo with 2 defensive injuries too boot.

Add this to his 20 game absence where the team was under pressure in March/April and they made the playoffs without him. What happened when he returned?

All the evidence is there, fans and the organization are just in denial. Anders Lee is not.

Id just release him at this point
 
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Chockey22

Registered User
Jul 12, 2022
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Again, I get the frustration with Barzal, but it seems to be a way over the top at this point; he’s puts up .88 pt/game over his career and helped Horvat to his second best offensive season in his career last year. He definitely needs to drive to the net more and cut back on the endless circling, but to suggest the team is better without him is ludicrous. yeah, they won without him last night, but they played the Sabres. And if you watched that game last night and compared it to their previous ten, they looked less impressive last night.
 

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