Expecting a major change

New York Islander Fan Central | 11/19/2023 02:13:00 AM |
Fair or not, and I do not see it as fair, my guess is Lamoriello will fire Lane Lambert. He walked out after the teams first scrimmage in September, and his first two words were "Too Slow". He knew day one, and that's how it's gone as so many forwards are poor defensively, on the boards, backchecking, and frankly most of them are even scoring below their 2022-23 norms which in some cases were terrible. Despite Dobson being last season/first half again carring the offense/powerplay this year for now, old has gotten much older shorthanded as #44,15,17,53,21,27 are beaten all over the ice and I don't see them clearing waivers. For this to work Lee has to get his twenty five goals, he's been invisible. Pageau can't score to save his life, and is awful shorthanded, and so slow in passing lanes with his stick. Pelech looks hurt or playing hurt and faces too much pressure.
Do I think a coaching change fixes anything? No, you can't make slow faster, but it has to at least be what it was last season where they can gut out some ugly wins. Even at the worst of the Trotz era they would allow 80+ shot attempts, last week it was 102/95 which is unheard of, and reflects how this team simply cannot keep up as other teams make a push, and tilt the ice in a league even bad teams get thirty wins most years.
Answers? Not many. Fasching needs more minutes, Holmstrom/Wahlstrom need more minutes to go with their mistakes, another winger from Bridgeport who can skate needs a call. Romanov looks like he's playing hurt, and slow also. Aho is not doing much offensively, and Bolduc did not look ready. Mayfield is lumbering around off his injury too much, Engvall looks like a journeyman with a seven year contract no team will touch, and the team is so slow it's not giving Sorokin much of a chance.
I don't see an invisible owner who just authorized a contract extension to the man who runs the show top to bottom in terms of hockey ops getting fired. If you thought Barclay's was cold wait until this team returns to the road at the failed Belmont experiment on Wednesday in front of an announced 13k which will look like 9k.