barry trotz

coach, depth, and grit

They're not top heavy in any 1 area. Helps to have Trotz as your coach too.

The Trotz effect

Imagine how good your team could be without the Ladd, Komarov, and Clutterbuck contracts.

Barzal, 4th line that wears down the opposition's best threats, Barry Trotz, structured defense.

Center core, underrated D and Mitch korn.

I think the loss of Toews is going to be pretty big for them personally, hopefully Dobson can help fill some of those shoes

Trotz.
Most certainly not Barzal.
He got literally half as many points when JT left.

Nah. Barzal would be 90-100 pt player if trotz let him take risks.

Coming from a fan of what team?.....Oh, of course, the Islanders.

The D core as a whole will probably provide similar value as last season. Toews + boychuk = Dobson + Aho/Greene

85 to 62 points, he literally did not get half as many points as when Tavares left.

Coaching is at the top of why the Isles are good, but it is also the players buying into that structure. The roster has not had a significant turnover from the Capuano/ Weight team to today's team, except at goal. While on paper the Isles have 1 elite player and a bunch of solid players, they all contribute to the game based on what their role is. The weakest part of their overall game right now is special teams, if they can address that then they should be competing at a high level again this year.

- Best coach in the NHL
- Great center depth
- Very balanced forwards (two scoring lines, one two-way line, one checking/energy line)
- Very balanced defense (no #1 but a lot of top-4)
- Great goaltending balance (1A and 1B)

Most importantly, the Islanders have an excellent culture and bring in players with the right attitude. Trotz, Lou, John Ledecky, and Scott Malkin all deserve a ton of credit for turning around this franchise.

Also, and this is going to sound strange but also not new to anyone here, Tavares leaving was the best thing that ever happened to this team. Here's why:

- The obvious being the players all have a chip on their shoulder, especially Barzal and Beauvillier (I think Pulock, Pelech, and Mayfield feel this way too). That Tavares chose to play with other young guys vs. them was enough to drive those two to up their games. Barzal has really bought into being a two-way player (even though he still has room for improvement), and Beauvillier massively upped his game this year, particularly in the playoffs.
- Isles fans united when Tavares left. We have a very hostile, intense fanbase that is more tangibly itching for a winner than the other NY sports teams. The Brooklyn move didn't help either. Once Tavares left, we all had something to unite on. I'd say 95% of the fanbase agrees that he's a traitor and left us for dead, and it's easy for us to all rally behind that. If you watch the highlights to the Leafs/Isles game on 2/28/2019 when Tavares returned, you can see the unity in the fanbase. I think that resonated with the team and they all bonded over that as well. When Isles fans chanted "That's Our Captain!" after Anders Lee scored, that put everything on another level.

Sorry for the long post, but this team is a lot more than what's on paper.

Honestly sounds like you'd guys would rather be victims than winners.

I don't agree. With Tavares, although we had some nice teams, we had nothing to really root for. They were never good enough to win a Cup, but not bad enough to bottom out (talking around 2015ish). Now we have a legitimate contender. Part of that is a very good roster, the other part is the outside motivation.

Would we rather be victims than winners? No, but we're victims who are becoming winners.

So true about the return. Thats the 1 game i really regret not being at. We ripped tavares so much they made an unscheduled tavares night 2 weeks later.