The way this busy week’s three-game Central Division started, you’d not have expected the Islanders to come home with a 2-1 record on the road trip. But the Garry Bettman “The People Demand A Winner” era giveth, and sometimes it giveth some more.
The Isles got bonus points in Nashville and Minnesota for shootout and 3-on-3 “wins,” which are totally every bit as equal in achievement as a regulation win. Hahaha to those Preds and Wilds, “losers,” those “loser point” getters. What did those guys do to deserve
a point, other than play another team evenly for the standard 60 minutes?
Oh, anyway, the Islanders are back home this afternoon for a spooky 2:00 Halloween start, so good luck getting to the game and back in time for costuming and trick or treating. The Isles offer incentives for you to stick around. If you have young kids, what are they doing for Halloween? Mine are Alvin and the Chipmunks (coordinating with friends) and Willy Wonka (the Gene Wilder version).
The opponent is Connor McDavid and Other Fellas. First Islanders Goal picks go here. Heads up that this might serve as our game thread with the early start.
Islanders News
This of course made the rounds a lot. Intuitive praise from Quinn Hughes, who sounds like he wants to sign with the Islanders, right? Hughes on our starboy Schaefer: “He’s really impressive. I mean, when I was 19, I was a sophomore at Michigan. And when Cale was 19, he was a freshman and did one more year, or two more, I forget. But same with Fox, he did three years. Werenski, too. Like, all those guys I just mentioned were in college at this kid’s age. So he’s obviously really good. Yeah, really like his game. But I think for him being 19, this is all gravy right now. Like, when he’s 22, 23, 24, 25, all the way up, I mean, those are the years where he can really — he should be a top-three, top-five player in the league. So he’s just got to keep climbing. But it’s obviously impressive with where he’s at at 19.”
- The recipe for the Isles against top teams is clear. (But is it repeatable?) [Newsday]
- Ya, so, celebrate Halloween at Belmont. [Isles]
- Or, watch Episode 2 of On The Island. [YouTube]
Elsewhere
Nikita Kucherov has requested a trade, so Islanders followers are going to dupe ourselves into think it’s us again, aren’t we? [THN] Elliotte Friedman reported the non-speculative part. [Sportsnet]
This was long and involved considerable violence:
