For many years it was the BTG line (also called the Trio Grande line, but I never liked that moniker), Trottier centering for Bossy on the right and Clark Gillies on the left (Trots has lost both of his wingers in a space of three months). Later on, John Tonelli played on the left side with Trottier and Bossy. Two patches on the uniform now (#9 and #22).
Gretzky is the only other player to have nine 50-goal seasons, but Bossy is the only player to have nine in a row. It's nice that if the Isles' first game after Bossy's passing wasn't on Long Island, it could be in his hometown of Montreal tonight. They had a tribute and moment of silence for him before tonight's game.
Ovechkin joins Bossy and Gretzky as the only players with nine 50-goal seasons. Considering that he's only 36 and in good health, you have to think that he's got a good chance to break the record (no guarantees, though - at 36 he is the oldest player to ever do it).
Got my introduction to UBS Arena this afternoon. The good: - The arena is beautiful. - There are some nice food options - the Burnt Ends sandwich from Mighty Quinn's BBQ was very good. - Parking wasn't as terrible as I was led to believe it would be. - It was Alumni Weekend, and many Isles alumni were there. All of the boys with their numbers in the rafters who could be there were there, other than Billy Smith - Trottier, Potvin, Nystrom, Tonelli, Goring. It was very sad, of course, that Jethro and Boss couldn't be there (Gillies would have been there for sure). The bad: - The food is overpriced, of course. Don't pay $7 for the pretzel - what a waste of money! - The parking still isn't very good. - The Islanders didn't bother to show up for the first half of the first period and the entire third period.
My brother and his wife were there... and brought my aunt for for her birthday. said it was a great night
Not the celebration we hoped to end the season with but the Chara goal and accolades were a feel good way to end the season.
Trotz fired. (14) New York Islanders on Twitter: "#Isles News: New York Islanders President and General Manager Lou Lamoriello announced today that Barry Trotz has been relieved of his duties as Head Coach." / Twitter
No doubt it has to do with the playing time and development of players like Wahlstrom. I’m assuming Lou is about to blow the team up and go younger and it’s not what Trotz wanted to go through.
(14) Larry Brooks on Twitter: "Had started to hear chatter over last week or so that Trotz might not want to return. Was not able to nail it down. Perhaps this is a function of that..." / Twitter
I do think that he's not the right guy to coach a rebuilding team (which I think is necessary), but I feel even more strongly that Lamoriello isn't the right guy to do the rebuilding. If this was the result of a power struggle, IMO the wrong guy won.
Trotz is the right coach for any team, so if it was a philosophical difference with him and Lou it’s a matter of who wanted what? What is this team facing? Blow up the roster and try to get younger and faster, or stay the course as is. Based on Trotz’s history it seems unlikely he would want to go younger, which is what this team needs. I think there was more than we saw publicly behind the scenes with the development of Wahlstrom. If the Isles are going to rebound it’s going to be opening the game up for Wahlstrom and Barzal, and possibly Raty.
Just saw the news of Barry Trotz being fired. Why did they do that? Just because he missed the playoffs? I watched my team get dramatically worse when they let Trotz walk, so I am not sure if it is the right decision by the Islanders. I watched the Islanders get dramatically better too since he was hired. I guess something went wrong this year, but I don't know, so thought I would ask you guys.
Exit interviews must not have been very good for Trotz. As great a job as Trotz did to change the culture, if players like Barzal and Wahlstrom are underperforming under him the team was likely never going to reach their full potential. Add to that the fact that we will depend on more young players next year, something Trotz is not great with, and perhaps concern that even getting an established offensive player may not be worth it under Trotz, and you have a situation like the Golden State Warriors did when they moved on from Mark Jackson, despite their immediate success under him, then became unbeatable with Kerr who was able to fully maximize the talent of the team.
He’s been fired from some successful teams, which is actually weird when you think about it. However we know he doesn’t like playing younger players unless they can master his system. He’s not going to give any playing time to Raty, and his handling of Walhstrom was disastrous, he had an offensive answer to losing Lee and refused to play him over older washed up players. I’m glad Islanders made this move, now they need to find someone who has an offensive scheme that can help, Raty, Barzal, Walhstrom.
