Author Archive for MattandDan
We are two long time hockey fans who certainly have our own opinions and points of view. Feel free to share yours. Follow on twitter @joshbarely
Well, That Was Fun. Now Back to Work!
We know it’s been a while since we posted, but we wanted to bask in the rare light of an Islanders playoff appearance by taking in the games, atmosphere, and enjoyment that came with a series that ran one game longer than we predicted which included two embarrassing shutouts, yet somehow left Islander fans with the feeling that [...]
Wow, with a capital W!
In the words of George Tekai, “Oh my.” While the Islanders certainly did not answer the playoff bell or to some specious coaching decisions in game one of this series, both games two and three were something else. Capuano and Isles fans alike have been saying that for the past two months there has been [...]
Ten versus One
Ouch. There was no other way to describe game one if you’re an Islander fan. Sure the referees called some very iffy penalties in the first period leading to two Pittsburgh goals – with the help of a linesman blocking an Andrew MacDonald clearing pass directly leading to a Pittsburgh goal – but when you [...]
Enjoy the Extra Two Weeks
To start off, if you have been reading our blog this season, thank you. We appreciate the time you take for such, and the comments left on the page. Especially the combative ones, because it shows the passion that Islander fans have for their team. Also, if you have been reading this blog this season, [...]
Crow For Two
For half a season, the Islanders were making us look like prophets. We even wrote about it in a previous piece, which the prolific writer at Islanders Optimism – a site where the Islanders can do no wrong- called very fair. Our stat projections were largely dead on. Our team point projections were within 1 [...]
Mission Accomplished! Now What?
At the end of the 2006- 2007 hockey season, the Islanders were facing a crossroads as a team. They had made the playoffs with a degree of consistency since the 2001-02 team, only missing in the 2005-06 post lockout season (a team, ironically, with Jack Capuano and Dan Blysma as assistant coaches – divergent career [...]
Can They Pull This Off?
Here we stand, in relative disbelief. As previously noted, we expected this team to miss the playoffs by a fairly wide margin. We expected that 53 points made a playoff team, and we expected the Islanders to be limping in at the end at the 46 point level. So bully for them, they shut us [...]
HOW Did We Get Here?
It all seems surreal. At the halfway point, the Islanders were playing one point better than our midterm predictions. The scorers were all pretty much on pace to hit the benchmarks we expected. Okposo we mentioned was failing in ways we never imagined, as was Hamonic. Roughly 12 games later, and they’re in 8th place, [...]
Here are your 2013-2014 New York Islanders!
With the trade deadline over, fans can complain or cheer the Islanders easily predicted lack of involvement. Regardless of your opinion on whether or not the Isles should have done something, this is now the team they will go to battle with for the remaining 12 games. The talk has no shifted to playoffs and [...]
Bill of Rights, Islander Style
The Islanders are not an original six team, but they do play in an original colony- one of the oldest, as the Town of Hempstead- where the Islanders play-was established way back in 1640. That’s 20 years after Plymouth Rock, so it’s definitely old money here- check out the North Shore for proof. Or the [...]
A Capuano Easter
NHL hockey is a sport covered by many major media outlets. Players moves are instant YouTube videos. Every team has a post game show. Players and coaches are interviewed between each period. Print media and internet media are filled with quotes. But what happens when the games are over and these people lead their private [...]
How Are We Doing?
The late former mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, used to like to ask people “How am I doing?” It’s doubtful that anything anyone said to him became a public policy, but at least he wanted to know if the people of the city had a pulse. We’re looking to do something similar at [...]
Is This Their War Face?
Before we take a look at are what may be considered success by some- and more of the same by others- let us state this: We very much want to see this team win. We have been fans of this team for as long as we have been alive. We have seen this team win, [...]
The Rebuild Needs Better Blueprints
When Garth Snow announced the rebuild before the 2008 season, somehow his terrible draft of 2007 was expunged from his resume, and he was FINALLY able to build a team with first round picks that would be a representation of his vision. Nitpickers like us will argue that Snow actually got a 2007 lottery pick, [...]
Mid Term Progress Report
When we were younger, if we knew we were going to get a bad report card, we’d run home and try to intercept the mail so that our parents didn’t see it. If we were Bailey, Okposo, Reasoner, Aucoin, MacDonald, or Hamonic, we’d give the mailman the Bronx Tale treatment. Like every other blogger in [...]
Hockey Myths Exposed – Small Players are a Detriment to a Team
As we’ve pointed out numerous times, people say odd clichés when speaking about hockey that aren’t really accurate, and they go unquestioned. Usually, you hear sports announcers say these stupid things. It’s not their fault entirely, as sports broadcasting in general has become more visual and less “theater of the mind,” so what you get [...]
The Invisible Guests
“Charles Wang and Garth Snow were sleeping upstairs, pretending that Jack can make players care!” OK, so it’s not as good as King Diamond, but we’re trying to make a point in stealing a line from his song, “The Invisible Guests,” because if there is a team with invisible guests, it’s the Islanders. Check out [...]
We Think Snow Drafts The Wrong People. On Purpose
Imagine you had a job with zero accountability. You went in to work when you wanted to, you did whatever you wanted to all day, you reported all of the nothing you did to your boss and he approved, and you got paid. You’re imagining the life Garth Snow leads. A general manager of [...]
Eulogy for the Fallen Goaltender
To use a phrase uttered by the man himself, Mike Milbury is depriving a small village somewhere of an idiot. It’s beyond provable that he has failed each and every time he has been involved with a hockey organization. It goes beyond the silly, inane things he says about the sport from his present analyst’s [...]
Great Expectations
There are great questions that man has tried to answer in various meaningful ways throughout the years. Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? What are the limits of human exertion? And then there is the great question that Islander fans have to wonder: How much longer will John Tavares put up [...]
