OffThePost.org

Go Isles!!

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As usual the Isles’ PP kills their momentum. Brutal.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Pageau wasn’t sticking up for a teammate as much as he was trying to negate a power play since theirs sucks so badly. Ref fucked him over by giving Gallagher 4 minutes.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Like I said. The PP sucks dog balls. Fucking shorty.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

3-2 after 2.

Damn. Even the Isles announcers are saying Pageau tried to negate the PP.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Holy flaming shitballs! A PP goal!!!!!!!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Congrats Chris and the Isles.....W1 for now, avoiding the B's....as a B's fan I don't want the Isles anyway! They scare me!

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No AI has been used in the making of this post

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

The Isles were boring but stuffed the Habs with shots through traffic. Good enough.

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Winning isn't boring .

Now to wait all day and see who they're playing.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Welp, shit changes in a hurry! Monday I thought for sure the Isles season was over. Instead here they are with WC1, as the Panthers lost to the Canes tonight. So the Isles finished with 93 points, the Panthers with 92. The Penguins lost in OT, so they finish with 91. I said a while ago it would come down to the last game.

Now, the Isles were 1-3 against Carolina, but the Canes had Svechnikov for those games. Supposedly Barzal and Romanov have been skating and are very close to returning. I sure hope so! They could really use both of those guys.

Playoff schedules probably come out tomorrow or Saturday.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Go Isles!

I will do my annual jump on the Isles bandwagon.

Go Isles!!

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Season over after a 6 game series vs the Canes. Shitty end to a weird season.

My suggestions for the off-season:
1. Fire MacLean.
2. Find anyone who can run a better PP than him. At league average PP rate, the Isles would have finished like 8 points ahead of where they did. They lost a whole bunch of games by 1 goal after going like 0-5 or 6 on the PP.
3. Trade or buyout Bailey. Get his money off the payroll.
4. Re-sign Engvall. He has some of the only speed on the team and they need that. He's also got some good offensive skill, which they also need.
5. Enough with the fucking grinders. Get some skill!
6. See what Varlamov wants to stay. If it's over $3.5 M, say bye. Shouldn't even pay that much but it's great to have a reliable backup and they have nobody in the pipeline.
7. Get rid of Brent Thompson in Bridgeport. He's been HC for 9 years, they've made the playoffs only 3 times and haven't won a round. You had your chance, now get the fuck out. When the Isles call up players, they do NOT look NHL ready. He's not developing anyone and he's not even winning down there. Bye.

I'd like to see them get younger/faster/more skilled, but I have no idea how to do that. The older guys are on huge contracts that nobody will want.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Is Lou Lams guaranteed to be back?

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I think his contract ends with the end of this season, but I'm not positive on that. And of course, with Lou there's nothing public about it.

There will be a lot of shoes to fill if he leaves. He's Pres & GM of both the Isles and Bridgeport. Bridgeport needs a house cleaning. MacLean needs to go too. Unless they've been quietly searching behind the scenes, I don't know if they're ready to fill all those roles. I have a bad feeling they'll extend Lou another 2 years or something like that.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Didn't get to see any of the Isles games being on this Left Coast but I hear that Horvat is being criticized for not doing more to boost the PP. Honestly, I think he'll be just fine in the LT; I think he really benefited from having defences take away time and space from Petterson on the right side so Horvat had just a bit more time to get open.

I was also surprised to hear a lot of criticism directed at Dobson. Not the number one people were expecting?

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Isles fans are NYers, and most of us are assholes. If you haven't scored in more than 2 games you're a bum, a waste of cap space, blocking some kid in Bridgeport (which has very few actually legit prospects), etc. I also think Horvat will be fine long term. He arrived and played next to Barzal and they were great together. Barzal got hurt after a few games and Horvat had a rotating cast of non-first liners, which is a huge problem that the Isles have. They have too many bottom 6 guys and not enough top 6 guys. I think a line of Horvat, Barzal and Wahlstrom could be great, especially of Horvat's veteran advice could teach Wahlstrom some hockey IQ. Dude had as much hockey sense as a potato as of when he got hurt.


Fans forget that Dobson was a playoff rookie this year. He's a good player, especially for his age, but people expect him to be a Norris contender. I don't know if other teams' fans do this, but Isles fans always point at kids and say "that's the new ______(fill in Isles hall of famer based on position)." So Dobson was supposed to be the new Denis Potvin. Last year he was on with Greene or Chara pretty much all year long, and the old guys probably helped him a lot, and maybe even covered up some of his rookie mistakes since they had veteran experience and knew when a kid would fuck up. This year with various Isles D-men missing time, Dobson wound up being the "vet" on his pairing sometimes, with guys like Aho, Bolduc or Wotherspoon. They'd both fuck up, and fans would rant about Dobson like he was veteran Nick Lidstrom and should have known some kid he was paired with would make those mistakes. All three of those guys are older than Dobson. But the Isles' PP has sucked for a few years, and early in the year when it did work, it was Dobson blasting a shot that actually got through because Lee or someone was screening the goalie. Over the course of the year, I don't know if they decided to change the PP plan or Lee and other Fs just got tired of getting the shit kicked out of them in front, but the Isles just stopped screening goalies on the PP. Their PP is as predictable as a bad movie, so they never score. Both Horvat and Dobson seemed to draw a lot of fan hatred over it. I'm not quite sure why the 2 of them in particular, but once fans find a scapegoat, it's tough for that person to change the image. Just ask Josh Bailey. He's been Isles whipping boy for like 14 years now. Fans just fucking HATE him. When he was finally a healthy scratch this year, fans who have been calling for that for 10 years were like "SEE! The org finally sees it too!" Like no dude, you just hated him because "he's soft" and if you yell the same thing for 10 years, you'll eventually be right, especially about an aging player not being as good as he once was. Duh. But fans aren't rational, are they?

Before lockers were even cleaned out, they re-signed Hudson Fashing to a 2 year league minimum deal. Fucking great! Guy busts his ass every shift and he may have the most awkward stick handling methods ever, but he actually manages to drive possession, even if it's ugly.

I expect them to trade or buyout Bailey. $5 M for another year, and he was a healthy scratch for like 8 of the last 10 games, plus all 6 playoff games. They basically let him hit his 1000th game as an Islander, play a few more so it wasn't obvious, and then were like "and here's the press box Josh. Get comfy!"

Parise isn't sure if he'll play another year. His family is out west so it's tough for him to be here. I hope he gives another year. He's been great, especially at the bargain rate. Dude always moves his feet.

Maggio signed his ELC today too. Lou is getting his work done early so he can nap all summer long. Or find his replacement.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Fasching said he'd like to re-sign while packing up his locker. A few hours later, lou offered him the 2 year deal. Nice.

Parise said if he plays it will be with the Isles. Even with his age, I'd like to see him back on another 1 year deal for near league minimum.

Bailey said he isn't sure what the plan is for him. He's got 1 year at $5 M left on his deal. Said he respects Lambert but that being scratched early in the season was telling and he should have known he'd be scratched more. I'd say his time with the Isles is done. If they buy him out they get hit for $2.666 M this coming year and $1.166 M the next year instead of $5 M this coming year. Saving some space, but not exactly saving a ton. If that $2.6 M is enough to keep Mayfield or Varlamov I'd do it. Shame to buyout the longest tenured Islander in a long time, but you're usually going to buyout an older guy so I guess it's not unheard of, even if it seems disrespectful. I guess being assigned to the press box regularly isn't exactly respectful either from the player's side.

Engvall will likely take upwards of $3.5 M to sign. Said he liked the Isles but claimed he hadn't thought about next year yet. That sounds like a guy about to test free agency to me, or threatening to so he gets a bigger offer.

Both Mayfield and Varlamov said they'd like to return. That makes me happy. But Mayfield took a team friendly deal last time so I'm not sure he would again.

Romanov likely needs surgery. Played through a torn labrum. Yikes.

Wahlstrom is not only alive, but said he'll start skating very soon and should be ready for training camp. Still no word on what happened to him but I'd assume knee surgery after that hit and that he's not skating yet. I really hope he used this time to learn the game. Fucking potato head.

As of now, the roster going into next year has 13 F signed (including Fasching)
Barzal, Lee, Nelson, Bailey, Pageau, Palmieri, Horvat, Cizikas, Clutterbuck, Martin, Johnston, Holmstrom, Fasching. I expect Bailey to be gone, one way or another. Parise possibly brought back on the aforementioned 1 year, league minimum deal. It's just too many bottom 6 types. Engvall and Praise are UFAs. Wahlstrom is an RFA. They need some actual skill up front. Engvall brings some speed and skill.

As of now, the roster going into next year has 5 D-men signed. Pulock, Pelech, Dobson, Romanov and Aho. Mayfield is a UFA, Wotherspoon a Group 6 UFA, and Bolduc is an RFA. Bolduc was overmatched in the playoffs but with less stress could turn into a serviceable D-man.

Sorokin is signed for 2 more years and Varlamov is a UFA. I could see Varlamov coming back on a more realistic backup contract, like 2 years at $2.5 M/year. He knows he's a backup now and said he wouldn't mind the reduced playing time. Skarek is an RFA and hasn't impressed anyone in the AHL. Schneider is a UFA again. It would be a very Lou thing to do to let Varlamov walk and promote Schneider to the Isles backup. He had a 0.913 save% in the AHL this year. It would save them some money and cost them some games. Especially if Sorokin were to get hurt.

I assume Lambert will be back. Doug Houda (defensive/PK coach) will return. I hope MacLean (offensive/PP coach) is slapped with a shitty shoe before he's told he's fired for further destroying an already shitty PP. But I have a feeling he'll be back with a lather, rinse, repeat type of approach.

I don't have much faith in the Isles draft pick spots. Shit, I don't even remember if the Canucks get their pick this year or next year now.

Lots up in the air this year. Hopefully it all comes down in order.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.