Living on Island time

[yave1964]

My take on the 013-14 New York Islanders

Were the Islanders for real or was it smoke and mirrors?

Last year in a strike shortened season proof that strange things can happen was visible by seeing the Islanders in the post season. A young team led by obscure coach Jack Capuano is searching for an identity but led by studly John Tavares they are talented and have a shot at making the post season again.

Gone this year are Brad Boys and Mark Streit who both played very well within their roles. Cal Clutterbuck brings his annoying pesky ways to Long Island, along with his former teammate Pierre-Marc Bouchard who was brought in to be the second line center.

Tavares is a stud waiting to happen and will continue to develop this season, he willed his team into the post season, combining with Matt Moulson to lift the team upon their backs.

The post season ended badly a sloppy series but they got their feet wet. Looking forward:

The forwards are led of course by the underrated Moulson and Tavares who are each nearly a point a game, the consistent Frans Neilson and the inconsistent Michael Grabner play key roles, Clutterbuck and Bouchard finish out a top six that is very talented.

The enigmatic Josh Bailey is still struggling to avoid the bust tag, Kyle Okposo slipped bad last year, and like Bailey is trying to prove himself again. Ryan Strome is hoped to make the team, if he does well the third line could do very well, the fourth line is filled with semi talented players who are okay in their roles.

Defensively this is a bad bunch, the hope is that Visnovsky will feel like playing this year, guys like Macdonald, Hickey and Hamonic are uninteresting and not a whole lot of upside. The decision to not keep Streit blew my mind.

Nabokov was the teams real MVP last year, he carried the team into the post season before they fell apart.

So where are they?

Tavares is on pace to develop as a star, he was one of the three finalists for the Hart trophy as league MVP, and he certainly has not hit his peak. Moulson gets little press but can flat out play. Bailey, Grabner and Okposo likely hold the key to the club, if the three of them develop as everyone thinks they can then the forwards will be a huge plus. The defense is boring and predictable but Capuano has them playing responsible in their own zone.

IMHO Nabokov will slip this year, he cannot possibly be as good again as he was last year.

The division includes the Rangers, Flyers, Penguins all of whom I believe are locks for the post season. That leaves one spot for everyone else to fight out. I think the fourth spot belongs to either the Isles or Jackets with it being pretty much a coin toss. If Okposo, Bailey, and Grabner can bounce back and Nabokov can repeat his amazing performance they are in. If not it goes to the Jackets. My personal opinion is the Jackets take the final spot and the Isles are on the outside looking in.

[jammer2]

@yave1964  You are just a machine, punching out these previews like there is no tomorrow, great work bro. Having owned both Tavares and Moulson in fantasy hockey, the only problem I have is Moulson seems very dependent on Tavares for pts. He's a talented player in his own right, but the fact remains that he has one point in the past 3 years where Tavares was not on the ice. If Tavares ever got hurt, how much would Moulson regress pts wise, silly little questions I ask myself....and a potential tie breaker in a fantasy draft.

 

 I've always been leery of Bailey as a pts producer. I think the Isles wrecked him by calling him up to soon, he should have come back to Windsor for his final year, with or without depth problems on the Isles, I think they stunted his creativity. I've already labeled Okposo a bust, he has shown me nothing, a high pick that went no where.