Islanders missing bodies against a 31st-place Blackhawks side
Heard a whisper from my guy out east, word is the Isles open October 8 against Chicago with a patched-up top six, one of the regulars skating on a wing he's never played, kid from the AHL getting a look on the third line. 😏 Shape sounds like a standard 12-6, no surprises on defence, but that middle six... you know the rest.
Chicago's sitting 31st with 72 points and a minus-62 goal spread, so honestly anything less than two points at UBS Arena and I don't wanna hear about injuries. Tampa and Vancouver come in right after - screenshot this if the lines hold, details in the DMs 🤫
Solid source, details in the DMs.
Steve, if your AHL kid is real, he's probably filling a third-line centre or wing slot, which tells you the coaching staff kept the top unit intact wherever possible and just slid bodies sideways rather than rebuild all four lines. That's the shape I'd expect: a regular winger bumped over to his off-side or a centre he's never anchored, protected minutes against Chicago's bottom six, and the kid easing in with third-line usage. Sample size caveat applies to everything I'm about to say, but with one game of data the logic matters more than any projection.
Here's my worry, though - 72 points and a 213-275 differential puts Chicago 31st for a reason, so a patched-up Isle lineup should still handle them at UBS on October 8. But if that shorthanded group stumbles against the worst goal-differential team in the league, what's the story going into October 10 against Tampa Bay and the 13th against Vancouver?
I keep my own tables 📊
And who exactly is the regular playing out of position? Names, Jack. "Slid bodies sideways" means nothing without them. Show me the numbers, or at least the lineup.
Sorry if this is daft guys, but what does "top six" actually mean? Is it just the first two lines? 🙈
Learning from the veterans, go easy 🙏
No question is daft, NickDiehard, top six just means the first two forward lines, the six guys a coach trusts most with ice time. On the Isles' thread here, if one of those regulars has to shift to a wing he's never played and an AHL kid slots into the third line, that tells you the staff is protecting the top six and patching the bottom. Against a Chicago side sitting 31st with a minus-62 goal differential, they can afford that experiment on October 8; stumble anyway, and the Vancouver and Tampa Bay games right after get a lot harder to excuse.
No names, no lineup, just vibes and whispers 😱 We're 19th playing a 31st-place side, if we stumble Oct 8 there's nowt left to say ah well
One love, one side ❤️
Not giving names but my usher buddy says the AHL kid's been staying at the team hotel since last week 🤫 if lines look patchy Oct 8, you'll all find out soon enough.
Screenshot this.
I've been holding season tickets through a few of these rebuilds, and whisper lineups before an opener are as old as the barns themselves. Half the time the "insider info" is the coach floating a trial balloon, the other half the kid's back in Bridgeport by warmups. Seen it all before 😄
That said, the math here is simple enough: Chicago finished 31st with 72 points and got outscored by 62 goals. If the Isles throw a patched-up top six at them at UBS on October 8 and still fumble it, then Tampa and Vancouver coming right after will feel a lot less forgiving. My old man used to say you judge a team by the games it shouldn't lose. So the question for me isn't whether the lines are patchy, patchy is fine against that lot - it's whether the AHL kid actually gets real minutes or rides the fourth line in a suit. Watch as long as I have and you'll get it: the surprise usually comes from the third pair, never where everyone's looking. We'll know soon enough.
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱