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Introducing Our New Islanders Blogger Kenneth Rosenblatt |
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Islanders fans,
There is one main reason (and a few little ones) why I'm here. This site has a void. I'm here to fill the void. There is a great community of Islanders fans on HockeyBuzz, and you deserve to have a presence here. I will continue to provide that so long as it makes sense for me, for you, for HockeyBuzz, and for B.D. For now, my official position is that I am not replacing B.D. I am keeping the (hot) seat warm for him.
Some of you may know me from my home base, Islanders Outsider, one of the charter member blogs of the NYI Blog Box. Feel free to head over there to get a sense of what I've done with that blog over the past 18 months or so (then come back). During that time, Islanders Outsider has been quoted/linked numerous times in blogs such as Yahoo!'s Puck Daddy, James Mirtle, and The New York Times's Slap Shot. I've also made a few contributions to Illegal Curve.
If you want to know a little about my background as it pertains to the Islanders, you can read about that here and here.
Okay, that's enough with the revving up. Let's get back to hockey.
During the first period of the Islanders' 3-2 loss to Florida, I expressed both my disagreement with Scott Gordon's decision to start Joey MacDonald and my ambivalence over how much the decision really mattered. To sum up, I don't see how you deny Yann Danis the opportunity to keep rolling and to test how long he can maintain a streak of solid/winning play. The ambivalence comes from the idea that at this stage of this season, the winning doesn't matter, and Gordon is going to use MacDonald down the stretch anyway. So why not last night?
The overriding issue is that Gordon is free to play around (tinker toys?) with no fear of significant consequences. He isn't going to blow a playoff run, and he isn't going to lose his job.
The only possible dangers I see are Gordon hindering a young player's development or alienating the veteran players to the extent that the club atmosphere suffers. Let's look at these two dangers a little more closely.
Perhaps the prime example of Gordon being able to see what he has without worrying about consequences is his use of Kyle Okposo on the point during power plays. Did anyone imagine at any point until the coach put him there that Okposo would play the point? I certainly didn't.
But more to the point, what is the point of him being there? Does anyone envision that being his long-term role? I certainly don't. Which begs the question, Why put him there now? Wouldn't Okposo be better served, in this, a year of organizational development, by gaining experience down low where we all assume he will eventually be?
Maybe Gordon sees something and Okposo will be a fixture on the point for years to come. The coach has also explained that he views Streit as the sole point man, while Okposo and Doug Weight are really positioned more along the half wall. But it seems to me that both forwards spend plenty of time just inside the blue line with the man advantage.
We've seen Okposo blast a well placed one-timer home while playing point. We've also seen him rip a trio of one-timers wide of the net. Gordon is playing a delicate game of balancing what's good for the team right now and what's good for its future. Right now, he doesn't have many options to put alongside Streit on the power play. There's really no one else. So maybe Okposo is there only out of necessity. But if Gordon isn't intent on Okposo being in that spot next year, I'd rather see Chris Campoli (when Streit returns), Radek Martinek, Jack Hillen, or even a playmaker like Frans Nielsen on the point.
That being said, Okposo is showing himself to be every bit the professional both physically and mentally. He will not be ruined by playing out of place for a while.
As for the idea that the clubhouse could be poisoned by vets made unhappy by reduced roles, that's only a concern if the poison trickles down from the vets to the kids. That's not going to happen with Bill Guerin and Doug Weight around. And if they're not around? Then there's no problem to be had.
But those two have done everything the team has asked them to do, and been everything they've been asked to be. This team can continue to develop with Guerin and Weight in the fold for the rest of this year and next year.
By letting Okposo, Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, Nielsen, and Trent Hunter feed off each other, Gordon has created a level of enthusiasm that his older players are forced to match.
Just as Gordon challenged Okposo not to be content with simply being there, the coach has challenged the rest of the young players to make it their team as much as it is Guerin's and Weight's. That is a significant step in the development of the team. Don't forget it.
I imagine that Gordon will continue to make the occasional small decision that leaves us scratching our heads. But let him have his sandbox for the rest of the year. That's where kids learn to play.
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