Can Islanders make the playoffs? Chris Botta says yes!
The caveat: they must finish 37-21-8, he thinks. "Even with some key injuries, that’s not impossible," Botta says here.
Uh, I'm going to go on record saying, yes, that's impossible.
Still, Botta uses that post to once again endorse a full-fledged youth movement, and I'm also on record saying that's the only choice for the Islanders right now.
If they don't trade Guerin and Weight at the deadline, they're silly.
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Comments (9)
So let me get this straight. They've won five of their first 16 games, but the kid Okposo finally scores a goal, and because it was actually assisted by the other kid Bailey, now this team suddenly is going to win almost 70 percent of its remaining games? Someone's been drinking too many L.I. Iced Teas over at that team-sponsored blog.
(See, RG hates those time-tested Kool-Aid references).
GO RIEBER !!
Jim, is that overly simplistic? If the best you're offered is a 5th round pick for Weight or Guerin, do you make that move just to make it?
I think that's what happened last year. The trade market was depressed and the idea of trading someone for the sake of trading them is a bit silly. So, yes, your honest opinion, if the Islanders are sellers at the deadline (which I think they will be), do you think they should trade Weight, Guerin, et al for the best (Only?) offer, or the right offer?
RG - I think you missed Botta's point to some degree. Subtracting Comrie and adding Bailey has led the team to play better, so why not keep getting younger and see if you can catch lightning in a bottle?
Unless you move Comrie to Chicago for a certain Russian goalie ... you hang everything upon the shoulders of Joey MacDonald. Do Islanders coaches have something against the two-goalie system? Even Al Arbour understood that ... two goalies in the regular season, then ride one in the postseason.
But then I don't think the postseason's a concern for the Islanders this year.
Hey Nick,
No point missed, not at all. I agree with you, there is no reason whatsoever for geezers like Weight and Guerin to be getting key playing time (PP, shootouts, etc) over the kids. Nielsen is improving, and guys like Comeau and Hillen definitely should be taking their lumps at the NHL level. My bone of contention was this notion that all of a sudden these kids maybe can make this a playoff season off of one goal by the Bailey/Okposo combo. Absurd, no?
RG
GO RIEBER !!
Botta has to deal in optimism - his background is PR.
However, I have to say that Bailey and Okposo looked like they'd been playing together for years, and it was their first game on the same line. I think that bodes well for the FUTURE.
Forty five or so days into the most recent Presidential election season...which was approximately 1 year, 11 months and 14 days ago, could a junior Senator from Illinois who was a black man with an Arabic middle name been elected President?
Never underestimate "The Audacity of Dope".
Jim: is it possible you could have taken my quote any further out of context? LOL...Chris Botta
He needed something to write CB.
In Jim's Islander world, Context is the Capital of the State of Delusion.