Lamoriello's Obstinance is Costing the Islanders

Before I get to the main topic, I'd like to say a few words about the late, great Mike Bossy who passed away this month at the age of 65.

While number 22 was not the fastest skater in the NHL, the puck always seemed to find his stick. And though he did not have the hardest shot in the league, it was, by far, the most accurate; around the net no one was more lethal. 

Unlike a lot of scorers of his day, Bossy never hung out in center ice looking for a breakaway. He took care of his own end first. And only when his team got possession of the puck did he head up ice. Much of that is attributable to his coach, Al Arbour, who instilled a team-first attitude in all his players. But the rest is owed to Bossy who bought in.

He never wilted under the spotlight; the bigger the game, the better he played. After a disappointing performance in the infamous 1979 semifinals against the Rangers, Bossy would go on to lead the league in postseason goals from 1981 thru 1983, including an overtime goal with two seconds left against the Vancouver Canucks in game one of the '82 finals. He was the epitome of a winner.

Until Alex Ovechkin surpassed him this year with his tenth 50 goal season, he held the mark, along with Wayne Gretzky, for most 50 goal seasons at nine. And had it had it not been for a series of back injuries which forced into retirement at the ripe young age of 30, there's no telling how many 50 goal seasons he might've had. Eleven? Twelve? The sky was the limit. 

As a Rangers fan, it pains me to have to admit this, but he was in a class all by himself. And I weep at what might've been had then Rangers GM John Ferguson selected him in the 1977 entry draft instead of Lucien DeBlois. Sadly, we'll never know.

Now onto the main course. 

Forgive me for being insensitive and perhaps a bit too blunt, but I've had it with all the apologists who insist that had it not been for the rough start the Islanders had this season - 13 consecutive road games to open the season, Covid outbreaks, injuries - they would've been a playoff team. Based on just a rough analysis of the available data, that assumption simply isn't true.

The fact is this team, which was largely intact before the arrival of Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz, isn't nearly as good as many - including yours truly who, truth be told, picked them to win the Stanley Cup this year - thought they were.

Our blind spot? We confused spit with polish. Yes, the Isles have been the hardest working team in the NHL the last three years under Trotz. They had to be. After their top scorer John Tavares bolted to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2018, they were forced to play a defensive system. And it worked brilliantly. In Trotz' first season as head coach, the Isles allowed a paltry 196 goals, the fewest in the league. However, they also were 21st in goals scored; a problem that has plagued the team ever since.

Lost in all the hoopla over their consecutive trips to the conference finals the past two seasons is the fact that had it not been for the suspension of all sports in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic, the Isles would never have gotten into the playoffs. At the time the regular season was suspended, they were in 6th place in the Metropolitan Division. Only a qualifying round, in which they beat the Floridas Panthers to advance, prevented them from missing the postseason altogether.

This season, apart from Brock Nelson, who's having a career year with 36 goals, and Anders Lee, who's second on the team with 26, there isn't one player on this team who puts the fear of God into opponents. For all their blood, sweat and tears, there is a staggering dearth of elite-level talent on the roster. Mathew Barzal continues to be an enigma. After a promising rookie campaign in which he posted 22 goals and 85 points, he has struggled to become the offensive leader this team so desperately needs.

Part of the problem lies in the system Trotz employs; a system that while effective at limiting the number of scoring chances by the opposition, has had the unintended consequence of stifling many of their own. Then there's the toll that playing such a physical style of hockey exacts on the human body. Yes, it helped them beat the Boston Bruins in last year's conference semis, but it eventually caught up with them against the Tampa Bay Lightning. By game seven, they looked gassed.

But the real problem is Lamoriello himself, who since his hire four years ago has failed to address the lack of scoring. Why is that? Put succinctly, Lamoriello has long eschewed stars. Maybe it's because he doesn't like dealing with egos. This goes back to his days when he ran the New Jersey Devils. To be fair, the Devils did win three Cups and reached the finals five times. But they also had the best goaltender in the business in Martin Brodeur and one of the best defenseman to ever play the game in Scott Stevens. As good as Ilya Sorokin and Noah Dobson have been this season, they can't hold a candle to those two.

Since the beginning of March, the Islanders are 6-11 against playoff teams, and they continue to have one of the most anemic offenses in the league. But rather than cut his losses at the trade deadline by moving unproductive players like Josh Bailey and Anthony Baeuvillier (12 goals a piece) for badly needed draft capital, Lamoriello doubled down and extended perennial grinder Cal Clutterbuck another two years.

Much has been made of the Rangers offseason acquisitions of Barclay Goodrow, Sammy Blais and Ryan Reaves. But while they may have stiffened up their spine a bit, this is still a team that relies on stars like Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox to carry them. The sad truth is there isn't a single Islander capable of doing that for this team. Not one. There is such a thing as having too much grit.

Ironic, isn't it, that the Islanders are wearing numbers 22 and 9 on their jerseys in memory of Bossy and Clarke Gillies, who also passed away this year. Those two hall of famers were members of one of the greatest dynasties in NHL history. They won four consecutive Cups from 1980-83; the last time a team won more than two in a row. Yes, they outworked their opponents; but they also dominated them, as well. I oughta know, one of those opponents was the Rangers, who had the misfortune of losing to them in '81, '82, '83 and '84.

At the end of the day, talent counts, even in a league as backwards as the NHL. It's time Lou Lamoriello woke up and smelled the caffeine.

Dissecting What's Wrong With the Islanders

There have been a number of surprises in the NHL so far this season; some pleasant, some not so pleasant. Two of the more pleasant surprises have been the Minnesota Wild and the Calgary Flames. Both are leading their respective divisions; the former with the second-best offense in the league and the latter with the stingiest defense. The Flames might be the biggest surprise of all; last season in a realigned North Division, they couldn't even beat out a Montreal Canadiens team that had no business being in the playoffs. As things stand now, they are the early odds-on favorite to emerge from the Western Conference.

Heading up the not so pleasant surprises are the New York Islanders, a team that last season was five wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup, and the year before fell six games short. As of this writing, they are tied with the Canadiens for the third fewest points in the league with 15; only the Ottawa Senators (13) and the Arizona Coyotes (12) have fewer.

Many have speculated as to what happened to this team. After careful consideration, I have come up with three things:

1. The early schedule. There's no getting around it. Opening up with thirteen straight road games to start the season was a tactical blunder. The moment management - and by management, I mean Lou Lamoriello - knew that UBS Arena was not going to be ready in time for the beginning of the 2021-22 season, there should've been a backup plan in place. You can't tell me that Lamoriello couldn't have arranged to play a couple of games at the Barclay Center or the Nassau Coliseum until UBS was ready. Forcing this team to play away from home for a month took its toll on the players. At one point, they were 5-2-2; then the roof caved in on them. Inexcusable.

2. The injury bug and Covid outbreak. As if the road trip from hell wasn't bad enough, the injury bug bit them, and right after that a Covid outbreak hit. When they finally did open their season at UBS, almost half the roster was either on IR or in quarantine. Not even the deepest of teams can overcome that many players being out of the lineup. In all fairness, the league should've postponed their games against the Maple Leafs, Rangers and Penguins. They looked like a minor league team out there against those opponents.

3. The offense has been MIA. Even before the start of their eleven game skid, the Isles were hardly an offensive juggernaut. Over their first nine games, they scored 25 goals, an average of 2.8 goals per game. Indeed, during the Lamoriello / Barry Trotz reign, this team has consistently ranked near the bottom of the league in goals for while finishing near the top in goals against. The problem with relying on a formula that puts so much emphasis on defense at the expense of offense is that your margin for error is already slim. During this losing streak, they scored a paltry 13 goals. That's an average of 1.2 goals per game. No matter how good your defense is - they currently rank 6th in the league - you still need to put the puck in the net in order to win. Players like Matt Barzal, Brock Nelson and Anders Lee are simply not good enough to carry this team. Anywhere else, they'd be second or third liners, at best.

Throughout his long and brilliant career, Lou Lamoriello has eschewed stars for underachievers who were willing to check their egos at the door for the good of the team. When he ran the New Jersey Devils, his teams specialized in employing the trap, one of the most boring systems ever thrust upon the NHL. It led to five finals appearances, three Cup championships and universal scorn from more talented teams who were often frustrated by the discipline Lou's players exhibited.

Since Lamoriello and Trotz arrived on the Island, no team in the NHL has been more difficult to play against than the Islanders. Their patience and brand of physicality are tailored made for deep playoff runs that over the last two years damn near paid off. So successful was their strategy, I picked them to win the Stanley Cup this season.

But the rash of injuries and Covid cases has exposed a fatal flaw in Lamoriello's method of madness. At a time when the team desperately could've used an elite player or two to carry them through this period, the plethora of gritty players he has assembled have been badly overmatched. When you live by the sword, you sometimes die by it. And right now, this team is hemorrhaging.

However, it's still early in the season. This team should be back to full strength before Christmas. If they can get back to the .500 mark by the end of December, there's still a chance they can sneak into the playoffs as a wildcard. And if they do sneak in, they will be very difficult to beat.

How difficult? Just ask the Tampa Bay Lightning, who needed all seven games in last year's semifinals to dispatch them, what it's like to play against the Islanders. Or the Boston Bruins, who got the shit kicked out of them in last year's quarterfinals. The only thing harder than losing to the Islanders, is beating them. Of the last four games they lost, all were by one goal, three in overtime. Does anyone think for a moment that with a healthy lineup those couldn't have been wins?

They have the goaltending, they have the defense. The only thing that might trip them up is that they happen to play in the Metropolitan Division, the best division in hockey, and they've already lost a lot of ground. If they don't turn this thing around soon, they will eventually run out of time.

But if I were a betting man, I wouldn't place any significant amount of money on that happening.

True Grit

In the end, the Islanders didn't have quite enough to pull off the upset of the decade. The Tampa Bay Lightning were simply too much for them to overcome. Credit Barry Trotz for getting this team - a team which on paper didn't belong on the same ice with the Lightning - as far as it did. Full disclosure, I had them losing to the Boston Bruins in the second round. Indeed, the Lightning looked more like those legendary Islander teams of the '80s than this Islanders team did. Apart from Mat Barzal and Semyon Varlamov, there wasn't one player on this roster who could've cracked that lineup. I know; as a Rangers' fan, I watched them win four consecutive Cups. It was the most painful period of my life.

I hope Chris Drury was watching this series, and I hope he was taking notes. Because this series was a textbook example of what is needed in order for a team to contend in today's NHL. I've been saying this for a while but it bears repeating. Talent alone isn't enough. To win in the postseason, you need grit, and tons of it. 

Question: What do Auston Matthews, Conor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin all have in common? Answer: They were all playing golf after the first round of the playoffs because their teams simply weren't tough enough to advance to the quarterfinals. Two years ago, the Lightning ran away with the President's Trophy, posting a record of 62-16-4 and leading the league in scoring with 325 goals. Yet they were swept in the first round by a Columbus Blue Jacket team that checked the hell out of them and limited them to a paltry eight goals in four games. How did the Lightning respond? They added size to their lineup and, lo and behold, the following year they won the Cup. Lesson learned.

Look, I am no fan of the style of play the Islanders and teams like them employ. Truth be told, I miss the good old days when the most talented players in the league were afforded the space they needed to create scoring chances. Back then, you never knew which player might go from one end of the rink to the other and score a dazzling goal that brought the crowd to its feet. Those days are long gone. Blowouts like the one we saw in game five of the Lightning - Isles series have become something of an anomaly. Scores like 3-2, 2-1 and, yes, 1-0 are now the norm.

The sad truth is that even Wayne Gretzky himself would have a hard time scoring today. Yes, he'd still get his points, but he would hardly be called the Great One; more like the Good One. And those Oiler teams that won five Stanley Cups in seven years, might not even have had one if they were forced to play in this league the way it is currently structured. And anyone who thinks that's acceptable should take a gander at the NBA, where the stars rule and the officials do everything in their power to keep it that way. Trust me, a lot of really stupid people in this league are literally running the game into the ground, and they don't seem to give a shit about it. But that's another topic for another day.

As the old saying goes, when in Rome do as the Romans do. You don't have to like the NHL of today, but if you want to succeed in it, you'd better adopt to it. The Islanders may not have had the most talent in the league - they were 20th in goals scored - but they had the heart of a lion, and any opponent that took the ice against them this year was in for the fight of its life. 

I can assure you that had the the Islanders faced off against the 2019 Lightning, the boys from Uniondale would've beaten the pants off them. But with players like Blake Coleman, Pat Maroon, Ross Colton and Barclay Goodrow on the roster, the Bolts outlasted the grittiest team in the NHL. In the final analysis, the Lightning were able to play the Islanders game, but the Islanders were unable to play the Lightning's game, and that was the difference in the series. 

That's why it's imperative that Drury and new head coach Gerard Gallant have the courage to make the changes that are necessary in order to transform this Rangers' team from the jellyfish they are into the warriors they need to be if they ever expect to drink from the Stanley Cup again. The operative question next season will be can Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin adopt their style of play the way Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov were forced to? If so, the Blueshirts have a chance; if not, this rebuild that was started four years ago was all for not and it's back to the drawing board.

You can dismiss the Islanders all you want, but with the exception of the Lightning, no other team in the NHL has been as dominant in the playoffs these past two seasons. The Bruins, the Carolina Hurricanes, the Colorado Avalanche, all were legitimate contenders with imposing lineups, and all failed to make it past the second round. Believe me, this is not a game for the faint of heart; in fact, it's the closest thing North America has to Rugby. You may hate Casey Cizikas, Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck all you want, but know this: Drury would give his eye teeth to have all three on his team. And deep down so would you.

To those who are clamoring for the Rangers to trade for Jack Eichel, you better pray you don't get your wish. Even if he's healthy - and that's a HUGE question mark - he's the last thing this team needs right now: another skater who loves to shoot on the fly. The smart move would be to spend the $10 million Eichel would cost on some wingers who can inflict serious pain on opposing defensemen. They're out there; in fact, it looks very much like Coleman and Goodrow will be available if for no other reason than the Lightning won't be able to afford to keep them. That's what happens when you're in cap hell.

Yep, July will be a busy month for the NHL. For the Rangers, it will be the most consequential month quite possibly in the franchise's history.

Drury Goes With Gallant

In the end, Chris Drury went with the bird in the hand. Before we go any further, let's get something straight. Gerard Gallant is no Barry Trotz, nor is he John Cooper or even Rod Brind'Amour. But with the first two gainfully employed for the foreseeable future and the third likely to remain in Raleigh, he was the best available option on the market. And to be fair to Gallant, it's not like he's the second coming of Jean-Guy Talbot. The man has won everywhere he's gone. His resume speaks for itself.

This is a good move for the Rangers; the smart move. The reality is that had Drury gone after Brind'Amour, not only would he have most likely struck out, he most assuredly would have lost Gallant. And with the Seattle Kraken still looking for a coach, that was a risk Drury was not prepared to take. So he played it safe and got himself one hell of a good coach. As I wrote in my last piece, I wouldn't have a problem if Drury inked him to a contract. Well, he did.

So now that the Rangers have found their head coach, they need to find his assistants. While Gallant has an excellent track record dealing with players, he's not terribly good with the X's and O's. And in this conference, with coaches like Trots, Cooper and Brind'Amour, having someone on the bench who can make adjustments on the fly is critical. Fred Shero had his Mike Nykoluk, so Drury and Gallant will have to find theirs.

Then there's the issue of input. How much of it will Gallant have with regards to the roster? The sad truth is that for all their talent, there is a dearth of size and grit on this team. In short, they're soft as hell, and no amount of coaching can overcome that. Even if Gallant manages to get players like Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin to buy in, Drury's going to have to get him the horses he needs to turn this ship around. Rangers' fans may not want to admit it, but the team playing in Uniondale is a far better representation of what a contender looks like than anything the Blueshirts bring to the table, and if they manage to win seven more games this postseason, they will hoist the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1983. Imagine that nightmarish scenario.

But regardless of what happens over the next few weeks, we can honestly say that Drury's first hire is an unqualified success. With his coach in place, the President and GM can now focus on the Expansion Draft, the Entry Draft and free agency, all taking place next month. It would behoove him to find an assistant GM to help lighten the load. Remember, the reason Drury had so much on his plate to begin with is because his boss fired everyone else.

That's what happens when you work for an owner like Jim Dolan.

Coaching Matters

Chris Drury will be making a lot of important decisions this year. Who will the Rangers protect going into the Seattle Expansion Draft? Who will they select in the Entry Draft? Which player or players will they add to or subtract from next season's roster? But the decision that will have the biggest impact on the fortunes of this franchise, and the one Drury can't afford to screw up, is who will be behind the bench when the season starts?

As any trainer knows full well, you can have the best horse in the world, but if you don't have the right jockey, you're not going to win many races. Since Barry Trotz departed the Washington Capitals for the New York Islanders, the Isles have won five playoff series in three seasons, the Caps have won none.

The job Trotz has done since arriving in Uniondale has been nothing short of extraordinary. Not since the glory days of Al Arbour have the Islanders had a coach with a resume like this. Consider that going into the 2018-19 season, the Isles lost their captain and best player, John Tavares, to the Toronto Maple Leafs in free agency. Not only didn't they miss him, they went from 7th in the Metropolitan division to 2nd, and from 31st in the league defensively to 1st. Last year, they were two wins away from going to the Stanley Cup finals.

This year's team struggled to score goals and finished 4th in the pandemic-constructed East division. Their best offensive player, Anders Lee, went down with an ACL tear. And yet, even with all that, they managed to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Boston Bruins in consecutive series. The latter team was considered a legitimate contender for the Cup.

The reason for this is simple: Trotz has gotten his players to buy into a hard-nosed, defensive-style of play that frustrates opponents and forces them into making mistakes. And those mistakes then get converted into scoring opportunities. This team clogs the passing lanes better than any team I've seen in years. Wayne Gretzky would have a hard time scoring against the Islanders.

Despite not having a single player on his roster finish in the top 40 in league scoring, Trotz was able to role four lines this post season - a testament in large part to Lou Lamoriello's predecessor Garth Snow. That proved to be the difference maker, particularly against Boston. While the Bruin's top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak had a good series, the other three lines were completely ineffective. By contrast, Trotz got significant contributions from every line. Part of that is talent; the rest is simply great coaching.

The Rangers are a team with a lot of talent; some would say more talent than the Islanders. What they don't have is the right coach who can get the most out of that talent. David Quinn was a good teacher, and that no doubt was beneficial on a team with so many young players. But he struggled to reach veterans like Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, and with the former entering his walk year, it is vital that the next coach be able to get through to those players.

Gerard Gallant might be that coach. Like Trotz, he has an impressive resume; he came within three victories of being a Stanley Cup-winning coach. Yes, he was fired from his last two gigs, but apart from that he checks all the boxes. Good with young players, connects with veterans. I wouldn't have a problem if Drury inks him to a contract.

But it would behoove him to at least put in a call to Rod Brind'Amour. With the Carolina Hurricanes having been dispatched by the Tampa Bay Lightning in five, Brind'Amour is now a free agent. Reports are that owner Thomas Dundon has an offer on the table worth $1.8 million per year for three years. That's a lot of bread for Raleigh. In Manhattan, it's practically minimum wage. 

Bottom line, James Dolan has the resources to make Brind'Amour a very wealthy man. By wealthy, I'm talking $5 mill per year guaranteed over five years. The question is does Brind'Amour really want to leave a situation where he's laid down roots and has a team that is a player or two from winning a cup?

That's why Drury needs to feel him out and see where his head is at. Perhaps Brind'Amour takes a look at the Rangers roster and thinks maybe this could be the next Lightning in the making and he wants in. Or perhaps he sees what happened to John Davidson and Jeff Gorton, wants no part of that circus and just uses Dolan's money to entice a better offer from his owner.

Either way, Drury has to find out. Gallant will still be there, especially since the Columbus Blue Jackets have opted to promote someone from within their own organization to fill their head coaching vacancy. What Drury can't afford to do is pass up an opportunity to get what I believe is the third best coach in the NHL. The first two are Trotz and John Cooper of the Lightning.

Larry Brooks has an excellent piece in the New York Post about just how far away the Rangers are from the Islanders that's required reading.

You watch the Islanders and you see that three of their four lines can be utilized as checking units, every one other than the Leo Komarov-Mat Barzal-Jordan Eberle trio. Brock Nelson, between Josh Bailey and Anthony Beauvillier, can center a matchup line. Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s unit with deadline expatriates Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri can handle the assignment. And we know that the Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck Identity Line can take on any line on any team.

Three checking lines for the Islanders.

Not a one for the Rangers.

Of course, Brooks left out one very important detail: with the exception of Pageau, Martin, Zajac, and Palmieri, all of the above forwards - plus Tavares - were here four years ago, and as I pointed out above, they finished an abysmal 7th in the division and dead last in defense. The reason why this team is now eight wins away from a Stanley Cup championship is because of the man behind the bench. If Drury doesn't get that, than everything we've read about him over the last few weeks is good for shit.

During the 1980s, I was forced to watch an Islanders team reel off four consecutive cups while the team I rooted for spun its wheels in futility. The hard cap will probably prevent the Isles - or any team - from doing that again. What it won't do is save a Rangers organization with a long history of screwing up from a repeat performance.