wow, to see a forward 3rd in goals for the team with only 9 mins of ice time....
perhaps cappy will give him more ice time now that he hasnt scored

wow, to see a forward 3rd in goals for the team with only 9 mins of ice time....
Capuano singled out Grabner for a soft play before the Pens' 1st goal -- didn't get puck out, watched Kunitz fly past him to start play.
On Staple's twitter he posted a few thoughts this morning post-game and one thing had to do with Grabs and Cappy:
Could be a reason (in Caps warped brain) to reduce his ice time.
https://twitter.com/StapeNewsday/status/311132882724864000
Just a little question......what does giving too many minutes to a breakaway artist accomplish? What if he benefits from limited time rather than ample?Listen, Grabner is a goal scorer, Only Tavares and Moulson have scored more goals than him on the Isles the last 3 years. Only a moron gives him 9 minutes a game. Grabner gets a breakaway a game, causes other teams to take penalties, is an excellent penalty killer, what more can you ask from a guy ? So he made a mistake against Pittsburgh, so what ? So did 99% of the team. Capuano is a moron.
Tavares 76 goals
Moulson 78 goals
Grabner 64 goals
That's the totals the last three year, up to now. Yet Grabner gets half the ice time of those two, AND his friggen center is Marty-1 goal a season-Reasoner. Anyone who watches hockey, knows how talented Grabner is, and that he needs to be playing top 6 minutes. Hopefully our next coach realizes that.
Listen, Grabner is a goal scorer, Only Tavares and Moulson have scored more goals than him on the Isles the last 3 years. Only a moron gives him 9 minutes a game. Grabner gets a breakaway a game, causes other teams to take penalties, is an excellent penalty killer, what more can you ask from a guy ? So he made a mistake against Pittsburgh, so what ? So did 99% of the team. Capuano is a moron.
Tavares 76 goals
Moulson 78 goals
Grabner 64 goals
That's the totals the last three year, up to now. Yet Grabner gets half the ice time of those two, AND his friggen center is Marty-1 goal a season-Reasoner. Anyone who watches hockey, knows how talented Grabner is, and that he needs to be playing top 6 minutes. Hopefully our next coach realizes that.
Ask yourselves this, and be serious in your analysis...
Do you truly, truly, truly feel Grabner scores more goals and this team has better results if he is getting, say, 16 minutes a night as opposed to 9 or 10???
I mean, we are talking about an incredibly incomplete player and one whose weapons are only put on display a good 15-20% of the time he is playing...
As an aside:
Have noticed something lately that is driving me nuts. Grabner is given the puck and leads the rush, then slows down as he's entering the zone to wait for his teammates to catch up and, while floating, ends up throwing an errand or hardly obtainable pass to one of those charging teammates. While slowing down, this also allows for opponents to get back while the guy dealing with him also manages to find his bearings better.
I find this to be very disappointing.
If I'm the coaching staff, I'm telling him to challenge that defender to the outside every single time. NO exceptions.
Ask yourselves this, and be serious in your analysis...
Do you truly, truly, truly feel Grabner scores more goals and this team has better results if he is getting, say, 16 minutes a night as opposed to 9 or 10???
I mean, we are talking about an incredibly incomplete player and one whose weapons are only put on display a good 15-20% of the time he is playing...
As an aside:
Have noticed something lately that is driving me nuts. Grabner is given the puck and leads the rush, then slows down as he's entering the zone to wait for his teammates to catch up and, while floating, ends up throwing an errand or hardly obtainable pass to one of those charging teammates. While slowing down, this also allows for opponents to get back while the guy dealing with him also manages to find his bearings better.
I find this to be very disappointing.
If I'm the coaching staff, I'm telling him to challenge that defender to the outside every single time. NO exceptions.
You say that as though the Isles top-6 isn't absolutely littered with incomplete players.Ask yourselves this, and be serious in your analysis...
Do you truly, truly, truly feel Grabner scores more goals and this team has better results if he is getting, say, 16 minutes a night as opposed to 9 or 10???
I mean, we are talking about an incredibly incomplete player and one whose weapons are only put on display a good 15-20% of the time he is playing...
As an aside:
Have noticed something lately that is driving me nuts. Grabner is given the puck and leads the rush, then slows down as he's entering the zone to wait for his teammates to catch up and, while floating, ends up throwing an errand or hardly obtainable pass to one of those charging teammates. While slowing down, this also allows for opponents to get back while the guy dealing with him also manages to find his bearings better.
I find this to be very disappointing.
If I'm the coaching staff, I'm telling him to challenge that defender to the outside every single time. NO exceptions.
Not for nothing, but all you did was prove that sihift length was a main factor in his icetime. It was not so much the number of shifts, but the length. I wasn't trying to say this was his fault.Shifts are absolutely not a factor because they are relative.
Grabner needs top 6 minutes. That is the entire point of the argument - after I posted this -
Islanderspointblank had a feature about it and so did lighthousehockey the very next day - even Staple commented on his reduced minutes.
It got reduced once Bailey was reintroduced into the lineup. I am all for giving Bailey a shot at some top minutes, but not at Grabner's expense. Why are the Isles paying him 3 mill a season to play 10 minutes a game?
Here are Grabner's shifts during the Caps game
Grabner 16 shifts with a TOI of 9:22 - Josh Bailey had 23 shifts to Grabner's 16.
Looking at the shifts closely -
He had 6 shifts in the third period - 4 of the 6 shifts clocked in at:
:03 (can you really count this as a shift?), :09 (this shift ended with Nielsen's goal), :16 (ended on a whistle with PK2 coming out to take a draw), :14 (shift ended the game)
None of these short shifts ended with Grabner huffing off the ice.
Grabner had 4 shifts and a total of 2 minutes of TOI in the second period...
one of those shifts was an abbreviated :13 seconds that ended with a whistle.
This has everything to do with Grabner not getting enough minutes.
He has produced more than any other Winger not named Moulson.
Hell we won the game, so no complaints here, but Grabner needs to be paired with Nielsen and get top 6 minutes.
Do I think that the Isles would be better served with Grabner playing more minutes, and Kyle Okposo playing fewer? Absolutely.
1) of course he would have more chances with more ice time. 15 mins should be the target for him.
and 2) tell me time, period and game of an example of this slowing down when entering the zone. i seriously dont know what you mean.
This is the Isles. Capuano is probably telling Grabner to wait for his linemates to set up. Monkey, meet football. Have at it.Ask yourselves this, and be serious in your analysis...
Do you truly, truly, truly feel Grabner scores more goals and this team has better results if he is getting, say, 16 minutes a night as opposed to 9 or 10???
I mean, we are talking about an incredibly incomplete player and one whose weapons are only put on display a good 15-20% of the time he is playing...
As an aside:
Have noticed something lately that is driving me nuts. Grabner is given the puck and leads the rush, then slows down as he's entering the zone to wait for his teammates to catch up and, while floating, ends up throwing an errand or hardly obtainable pass to one of those charging teammates. While slowing down, this also allows for opponents to get back while the guy dealing with him also manages to find his bearings better.
I find this to be very disappointing.
If I'm the coaching staff, I'm telling him to challenge that defender to the outside every single time. NO exceptions.
Is it me or the next time Grabner gets a breakaway, he should just wrist the puck at the top of the faceoff circles(inbetween both)
In reality though, the goalies are much further out when Grabs has a breakaway vs. when he has the puck in the slot.
But, I do wish he would just shoot, or stick to one move (it doesn't have to be fancy Michael).
His hands are made of stone, he has zero moves, it's so embarrassing. Imagine how many more points/goals he'd have if he finished a fraction of his breakaways.