The Islanders are in Carolina tonight to square off with the Hurricanes. Despite some success on the road this season this is one building where the Isles have struggled mightily in. Overall the Islanders have lost seven straight games against Carolina. Starting in goal tonight will be Anders Nilsson and the lineup itself will remain the same as the one that defeated the Blue Jackets on Sunday.
The center of conversation on these boards and the world of social media has been around the ice time of Ryan Strome. Strome has been playing on the third line with Matt Martin and Colin McDonald and his role right now reminds me of the role that Brock Nelson had with the club earlier in the year. It appears that Strome is buried.
I do not believe center Frans Nielsen should be moved right now from the top line and I firmly believe that until Strome starts to stand out; Nielsen should remain on the second line next season as well. Many people, including Nielsen himself believe that Frans is a third line center. However; numbers don’t lie and right now there are only four second line centers in the entire league with more points than Frans.
With Nielsen playing the role I believe he has earned we could take a look at Brock Nelson. You could argue that Nelson could center the third line right now and Strome could center Cal Clutterbuck and Josh Bailey. With the way that Bailey has played this season I’m not sure that’s any improvement. The way I look at it right now is that regardless if Strome is centering Martin and McDonald or Clutterbuck and Bailey he is essentially centering bottom six forwards.
Given the rash of injuries that the Islanders are playing through I don’t really have an issue with Strome’s current role. The only place where I feel that Strome is not getting enough ice time is on the powerplay. They need to find a way to get him more ice time when the Islanders have the man advantage. Strome is still getting his feet wet and finding his way. Let him play out the stretch here, work his tail off with Tavares and company in the offseason and have him come into camp stronger and more adapt to the NHL game. If we are talking about Strome in the bottom six forwards this time next year; then I think there will be something to really debate.
Finally with only 10 days left; I need the help and support of the Hockey Buzz family. I am raising money to help my friend Lisa Berlinski who will be running in the 2014 Boston Marathon in support of the Boston Bruins Foundation. The Boston Bruins Foundation is an amazing charity and for those interested in learning more on what they do I have provided a link to their site.
This is an all hockey auction with many amazing pieces generously donated. There are auction items from such hockey legends as Mike Bossy, Martin Brodeur, Guy Lafleur, Ray Bourque and much more. Please copy this link below into your browser window and press enter. These items are all reasonably priced but if they are too much for you please consider making a donation to this great cause. I appreciate the support of the hockey community and I really need your help for this great cause.
http://www.32auctions.com/berlinski
Here is a link that provides information on what exactly the Bruins foundation is.
http://bruins.nhl.com/club/microhome.htm?location=/foundation
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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