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The New York Islanders made a major change when they brought in Peter Dubor to take over
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as head coach, but which players will benefit most from this change and how will that impact
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We'll talk about that next.
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Your Lockdown Islanders, your daily podcast on the New York Islanders, part of the Lockdown
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Podcast Network, your team every day.
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Gilmorton here, welcome everybody to the Friday edition of the Lockdown Islanders Podcast.
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Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.
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I want to thank everyone who makes Lockdown Islanders, your first listen every day.
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Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss
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We have got a lot to discuss on today's show.
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We will lead with this who benefits the most from Peter Dubor taking over as the islanders
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Obviously, there are changes the dust has settled a little, and we're going to break
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We'll talk more about Cole Eiserman and his timeline to join the team and we continue
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our player by player analysis of the New York Islanders with Cal Richie.
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Peter Dubor coming in as the new head coach of the New York Islanders, who does this
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help and who does it not benefit so much?
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I think this is an important question as we move forward into what the team is going
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to look like and how they're going to approach things, all of this critical to whether or
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not the islanders will have success next year and how much.
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We know the team is limited somewhat by the poor roster construction that Lulamorello
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introduced and that unfortunately Matthew Darsh re-emphasized late in the season but ultimately
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this team has to figure out who is going to fit into the Dubor system and who is not.
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I'm going to start with two players that I think Islander fans will appreciate and feel
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like it's very good news that these players will be among the biggest beneficiaries under
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this coaching change.
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One is obviously Matthew Schaefer because Schaefer wants his elite defenseman and we've
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seen it with Miro Heiskenen and we've seen it with Brent Burns.
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He wants them to be able to jump into the play offensively.
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Now he had, Schaefer had that ability obviously under Patrick Law but I think the fact that
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the team will be playing a more structured defense behind Schaefer will benefit Schaefer.
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It will allow him to take some more chances.
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He'll have a better idea as to what, you know, when he can take those chances and the fact
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that if he does, there will be some players behind him who really can, you know, cover
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for him when he makes those moves.
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So I think Matthew Schaefer benefits a lot.
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To a lesser extent, I think assuming he's back, Tony DiAngelo also will benefit DiAngelo
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another player who really does skate, step up into the play and is effective when doing
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So I think again, as a secondary offensive defenseman, Tony DiAngelo will benefit if he
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can also improve his defensive game at least positionally.
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I don't want to see DiAngelo get into hot water because he's not back checking adequately
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and not doing the things he needs to do in his own zone, which as every day or snow
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has been something that has been an issue for DiAngelo on and off mostly on throughout
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I think the player who may also benefit the most is Ilja Sirokin and whoever the Islander's
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backup goalie is, if Varly is healthy, if Riddick is back, if they bring in another backup
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goalie next year, some combination of those things, because even if they plan to try
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Varly, I don't know if they can guarantee his health.
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So I think Sirokin and the goalies in general will benefit from this change.
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Because one thing that the Boer likes to do is play a structurally sound defense and
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emphasizes that transition from defense to offense.
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I don't have to tell Islander fans who have been watching this show and who have been
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watching this team really for the last few years, how much of an issue transitioning
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from defense to offense, getting the puck out of the zone has been for the New York Islanders.
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And clearly, cutting down on those high danger chances allowed.
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I think will help Ilja Sirokin.
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And it's two ways, number one, it makes Sirokin's job easier.
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And if he's facing, if the Islanders go from near the bottom of the league in high danger
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chances allowed to average and under the Boer, they could even be better than average.
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But let's just say they get to like 16th, which is right in the middle in the NHL in high
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danger chances allowed.
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The fatigue factor, the stress factor, the workload reduction for Ilja Sirokin and other
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Islanders goalies would be significant.
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And if you reduce the workload and the stress level, maybe instead of him starting 50 games,
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he can give you a 55 because he's in a better place both physically and mentally.
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So I think that is a critical component of what Peter De Boer is going to add to the
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mix for the New York Islanders.
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As far as other players who I think could benefit, Bo Horvat, I think very well could benefit,
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Simon Holmstrom could, if and again, it's if he is willing to dedicate himself to the
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system and allow himself to play the way that De Boer wants him to play both offensively
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I don't think it's unrealistic that we will see more productivity from Simon Holmstrom
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under Peter De Boer.
9:18
Guys who I think could be in for some rude awakenings though, guys who may have issues.
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If again, if we don't know the full roster at this point, I think Horvat will benefit,
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Holmstrom will benefit.
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Emil Heinemann could very well benefit, Anthony Duclair, maybe not so much.
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I think Duke, if the criticisms that Patrick Wah has had about Duclair and the way he doesn't
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go to the net, doesn't back check consistently, the things he doesn't do, I think that if
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he keeps on playing the same way, we're going to have issues.
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And whether he's still a New York Islander when the season starts and the fall remains
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to be seen, but ultimately, ultimately, I don't think Duclair is a great fit.
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And then I think guys like Kyle McLean and maybe Mark Gatcom who I happen to like may
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not be as good a fit in this system, the way that Duclair runs it, he is less of a dump
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and chase kind of a coach and more of escape the puck in, pass the puck in, kind of a guy.
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So we'll see again, how all of that plays out.
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But it is going to be very interesting this off season.
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And once we get to training camp.
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The off season, it's going to be interesting to see if Matthew Darsh is able to add some
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players, maybe at the request of Peter De Boer, who are De Boer types.
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And maybe you look to the Dallas stars who were his last coaching stop to add a player
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or two from that roster, who knows what it's like to play under De Boer and who played
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well under De Boer.
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And does he, is he able to bring in a couple of guys who would benefit from playing under
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De Boer and is he moving out some of the guys who probably don't benefit from the system
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that Peter De Boer runs and we will continue to update this story and this angle as the off
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season progresses, players are moved on from or resigned and how everything kind of breaks
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down when we start to really see what the roster construction for next season is going
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It's critical, it's subtle.
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But I think I'll just sort of finish this segment with this thought.
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The fact that you're two best players who right now are Ilja Sirokin and Matthew Schaefer
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and you could argue the order for whatever you want to do, but the fact that those two
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players were both at the top of the list for players who would benefit under De Boer
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is extremely encouraging when you start looking ahead to next season and what this new
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coaching staff and new coaching system could mean for the New York Islanders.
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We have got a lot more to get to on today's show.
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Cole Eiserman, we've gotten a look at him in Bridgeport.
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What's his timetable?
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What have we learned from Eiserman's appearance?
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We'll talk about that plus we continue our player by player analysis of the Islanders
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with Cal Richie and for our Islanders birthday of the day, a player known as the Great
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Dane who the Islanders could use if only for his shootout skills.
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Let's see if you can guess who this popular Islander was.
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He played with the team from the mid to late 2000s to the mid 2000 teams.
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All that coming up on today's Locked On Islanders podcast.
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chat with me and other listeners of Lockdown Islanders.
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Just tap the link in the show notes or go to Lockdown Islanders dot supercast dot com for
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Let's talk a little Cole Eiserman.
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I think it's important we've gotten a glimpse of Cole Eiserman and maybe what he's capable
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We know that he is the most skilled goal scorer right now in the Islander's organization
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and in their prospect pool.
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And after another solid season at BU, not as good as his other season statistically,
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but he was injured.
16:58
The team wasn't as good around him.
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Still 18 goals in 32 games, not bad.
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He went down to Bridgeport and played 12 games for Bridgeport.
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Had two goals, nine points, so seven assists, two penalty minutes, yeah, the plus minus
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a minus four far from ideal.
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But here's the good news.
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First of all, in the last eight games of the regular season, he scored nine points.
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All nine of his points came in those last eight games, two goals, seven assists in eight
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He had a point scoring streak, which is really good.
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But here's the thing that I liked.
17:47
If you watched footage of what Eiserman did in Bridgeport and hopefully continues to
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do, if Bridgeport can extend their season with a win on Thursday night, we'll talk about
18:04
that certainly on Monday's show.
18:09
He is being physical at times, which you like to see.
18:14
He is throwing his six foot, 200 plus pound frame around.
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Had a big hit in game one of the series against the Hershey Bears against Jalen Leipin.
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And I hope I'm pronouncing that right.
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That was a beautiful hit.
18:36
And I think the fact that, yes, he has nine points in his last eight games, but seven
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of them were assists was definitely a good sign.
18:52
I am less worried about Cole Eiserman's ability to get shots on goal, to put the puck on
19:02
He's scouting believes that he will not have difficulty scoring goals now, whether that's
19:09
25 goals a year, 30, 40 more.
19:13
We don't know that we still have to see and hopefully it's 30 or more consistently.
19:20
But the fact that he is also setting up teammates, because in college, he didn't always do that
19:29
as much as maybe you would have preferred.
19:32
He had 25 goals and 11 assists in 2024, 2025, 18 goals, 10 assists in 2025, 2026 at BU.
19:46
The fact that he is able to also set up teammates and that in 12 games in Bridgeport, he had
19:52
seven assists, whereas in 32 games at BU, he had 10.
19:58
I think that speaks well to the fact that his game is not just, hey, I can shoot the
20:08
There are still things to work on.
20:11
The minus four plus minus obviously is a little bit of a concern if you are looking at
20:17
what he can contribute to this team.
20:20
No doubt about that.
20:22
And what he does away from the puck is still going to have a major impact on how ready
20:30
he is to start playing in the NHL.
20:34
I still believe based on what I've seen and based on what I've read and people I have
20:40
spoken to, Iserman starts the next season in what will now be Hamilton of the AHL.
20:50
And then the question is how well does he adapt, how well does he play, how well does
20:57
he do, not just the things we think he's good at like scoring, but how well is he positionally,
21:06
does he back check, does he do the other things, is he coachable?
21:11
So far, he looks to be doing the things you want him to do, but he's got to do them
21:17
consistently, game in, and game out, and for the long haul.
21:22
And then obviously how healthy are the islanders, how are some of the players on the big club
21:27
But I could see, Cole Iserman coming up to the big club mid season maybe sometime
21:35
between American Thanksgiving and the all star break.
21:41
That would be sort of my optimistic forecast and if he's struggling a little bit more or
21:48
if the team is doing better, whatever, if it's a slower process than we would like, maybe
21:56
the same way that we saw, you know, excuse me, Iserman step up and play the last 12 games
22:09
for Bridgeport this year, maybe he plays the last five, seven, whatever it is, games
22:16
for the big club next year on Long Island, we'll see, but I think it's realistic to expect
22:24
that if things go well for Cole Iserman, he will be a New York Islander at some point,
22:31
even if it's just a few games as an injury replacement.
22:35
I think he will make his NHL debut regular season NHL debut, but in the second half of
22:43
the 2026, 2027 season, we'll see how it all plays out, but some encouraging signs and
22:49
some work to be done from Cole Iserman.
22:53
We have got more to get to on today's show, Cal Richie, how did he do on our player by
22:59
player analysis and what will his role be?
23:03
We're going to talk about that coming up next on today's Lock on Islanders podcast.
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We continue our player-by-player analysis of the New York Islanders with the one and
25:41
only Cal Richie, one of the up and coming players on this Islanders roster and again,
25:51
Cal Richie, 6 to 200 pounds, he is 21 years old, just turned 21 in January.
26:01
This was his rookie season, he had only played seven NHL games prior to this year, played
26:08
in 65 games with the New York Islanders after starting the season down in Bridgeport.
26:16
13 goals, 30 points, a minus 14 plus minus 22 penalty minutes, five of his 13 goals came
26:25
on the power play as did six of his 17 assists, his shooting percentage, 16.5, he had 79
26:37
shots on goal in the 65 games, that is a number you want to see increase and he averaged
26:45
13.5, a little less than 13.5 minutes on ice per game, only 17 hits, I think that's
26:53
a number you want to see more of 34 blocked shots, so a blocked shot a little more than
27:00
every other game and I think the good thing that we saw from Cal Richie was that as the
27:12
season went on, his play got better, his confidence grew by the end of the season, his performance
27:21
on the power play was very, very good, he still has work to do defensively, improving
27:30
in that area, he's responsible but he needs to be better, I think the whole team kind of
27:35
needed to be better compared to last year, the grade I'm giving Cal Richie is a B minus.
27:44
If I was to grade the first half of his season it would probably be a C, if I graded the
27:49
last six to eight weeks of the season it'd probably be a B plus, so I go with B minus with
27:56
the arrow pointing up, whereas yesterday for example I did JG Pazzo, gave him a B but
28:03
I think the arrow was kind of pointing down as far as his future physicality and offensive
28:09
contributions, I think Cal Richie, given a full season, given power play time which he
28:16
has to earn obviously, given the way his game has been developing is capable of a 20 goal
28:24
season, this coming year with the right line mates, if he fits in well to Peter DeBoer's
28:31
system and I think he will, where he plays next year though is going to be interesting
28:39
and every day or no, the Islanders have a surplus of centers, natural centers, you've got
28:44
Richie, you've got Bohorvat, you've got Matthew Barzal, you've got Braden Shen, you've got
28:49
JG Pazzo, you've got Casey Sisekis, now it may very well be that Richie continues to play
29:01
the wing which is where he played more after the Islanders acquired Braden Shen, he did
29:07
seem to learn from Braden Shen which was encouraging, let's see whether he plays center
29:13
or wing, I get the feeling he'll play both at various times but his development is crucial
29:22
because the Islanders need their younger players to step up and be the future of this team
29:31
and the sooner that future begins the better. Time now for our Islanders birthday of the
29:38
day and well today is the 42nd birthday of former Islanders center Franz Nielsen, Nielsen
29:48
the great day as his nickname was 6186 pounds, a third round pick of the Islanders in 2002,
29:56
played in the Swedish elite league before joining the Islanders organization in 0607, stayed
30:04
with the team through the 2015-2016 season and then finished his career with the Detroit
30:13
Red Wings for five seasons and one year with the Berlin Polar Bears in Germany, played
30:19
in 925 career NHL games, 167 goals, 473 points, 166 penalty minutes, add four goals 10 points
30:33
in 24 playoff games, always was a big Franz Nielsen fan responsible two way center, great
30:42
on the third line elite in shootouts he had a patented backhand move, one of his better games
30:51
as an Islander, October 25th 2014 Islanders hosting the Dallas stars at the old barn,
31:01
Anders Lindbach, is the goalie for Dallas Chad Johnson the goalie for the Islanders and in this
31:13
game with the Islanders trailing in the third period Franz Nielsen our Islanders birthday of the day
31:23
scores his second goal of the year Nikolai Kulemon and Mikhail Gorbowski get the assist,
31:29
that pulls the Islanders closer and then six minutes a little less than six minutes later Nielsen
31:35
scores again Gorbowski and Kulemon again with a Gorbowski and Kulemon with the assist and then
31:44
that puts the Islanders up by a score of six to four and in the closing seconds Nielsen gets
31:51
an empty netter to complete his only hat trick as an Islander Islanders win the game by a score
31:58
of seven to five for Franz Nielsen three goals he was a plus two in this game he had six shots on
32:08
goal and was on the ice for 16 minutes and change and yeah Franz he potted the game winner in this game
32:17
Franz Nielsen a great two way center for the New York Islanders for more or less a decade he is
32:25
our Islanders birthday of the day don't forget to check out the every day or club you will get
32:34
add free episodes of locked on Islanders plus access to a group chat with me and other hardcore
32:40
Islander fans who listen to this show so tap on the link in the show notes or go to locked on
32:46
islanders.supercast.com for more information if you have a question a comment maybe a topic you'd
32:56
like us to discuss on a future episode email us at locked on Islanders at gmail.com if you'll leave
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your first name and where you're from we're happy to mention you on the show only discuss whatever's
33:07
on your mind you follow the show on X at locked on Isles you could follow me Gil Martin on X
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at ice wars NYR vs NYI we'll keep you up to date on all things islanders all year long
33:20
and it's always great to talk islanders hockey with you game time or anytime I'm Gil Martin I've
33:27
been covering the islanders for two decades and I wrote the book ice wars on the history of the
33:31
islanders rivalry with the Rangers from 1972 till the modern era so glad you could join us to talk
33:38
a little islanders hockey today every dayers we're back Monday we will update you on bridge port
33:45
hopefully they're still alive by then we will continue our player by player look at the islanders
33:51
from this season with the one and only Kyle pal Mary so make sure you join us for that until then
34:00
have a great weekend everybody stay safe and of course let's go islanders