I am not crying, in fact, I am here pointing out a fan base for being classless babies for quite literally crying because an athlete left after 7 years of losing. There is literally video proof that Islanders fans (grown adults, seemingly with careers) crying over Tavares leaving. The funniest part is the video I am talking about was filmed months afterwards. MONTHS, and still grown adults crying over a hockey player going to a different town. Just think about that for a second, Literal tears because a hockey player left. Babies throwing temper tantrums. If you don't feel embarrassed by that, you are probably exactly like the rest of the babies throwing tantrums, you just don't have the maturity to understand why a grown adult crying over a hockey player leaving is never reason to be emotional distraught.

the news12 video was tough but its no different than tavaresdayto. "We DO need you John, We DO!"

Appreciate that , but 1. Toronto fans (actually any fanbase) would act the same way given the circumstances and any objective fan would admit to that. 2. Any boos/chants are fair game, just no throwing things on the ice/threatening the player making his life miserable off it. 3. Wouldn’t call islanders band of misfits , there D core is one of the best in the league and that is as they are implementing a future star in Noah Dobson, who has the potential to be a franchise defenseman. The islanders have a lot of underrated players that do not get much attention like Jordan eberle, Anthony beauvillier , Brock nelson, Josh bailey.

You know what, I am beginning to think most fans of sports are just babies. I'll let you off the hook because obviously its just people these days. A bunch of idiots who need to be hurt so they can lash out at things. Its all so embarrassing.

I am going to make a change here.

Only positive words from me now.

I hope you have a terrific day, I hope nothing bad happens in your life and I hope that one day we both enjoy a cup win. Obviously at different times.

toronto gave you guys marcus stroman, stop being mean to us

There are like 10 teams you say they have the best D core in the league and probably none of them are really right or wrong. The thing about defensive play in this league is that it's a 5 man unit at 5v5. You have have the 6 best defenceman in the league but if your forwards don't commit to playing proper defence, you can often get lit up. I say this because TO on paper should have one of the best in the league as well but the forwards just don't do their job enough (apart from Ceci, he isn't the worst player in the league like many on here like to say but he definitely isn't a top PK guy or a top pair guy capable of playing against the leagues best, too bad Babs can't figure that out as well). Like the game last night, TO for the majority of the game was the better team but when they made a mistake (Johnsson give away led to the first goal, and there was another one there where the Leafs had 4 guys leaving their zone before a turnover led to another goal against that was a 3 on 1 the other way.

I'll say that is the crap that makes the Leafs so frustrating, they can steamroll teams for 50 minutes but those 10 minutes where they aren't focussed they usually give up a few insane chances that the other teams just capitalize on.

Back to the Islanders defence, they are good and the system the team plays maximizes their skills. Trotz is definitely the best coach in the league right now and he has you guys all buying and doing their roles. Babs has probably this regular season to figure out how to get his guys to buy into his strategy or he's going to get fired.

I do have a question, does every line on the islanders play the same way? Its an idea I have just started thinking about but perhaps coaches need to start coaching lines on their own team differently. For example, the Barzal line do stuff a lot of other lines just can't do so does Trotz let them have a little more leeway to maximize their talents? I ask because Babs coaches everyone the same and I think that doesn't work. I wonder if having different lines play systems that work for their talents is wiser than getting everyone to buy into one system.

The leafs had a lot more zone time yesterday, but that’s all a part of the Barry trotz system. I believe the leafs had 60% of the shot attempts, but the islanders purposely let them move around the offensive zone and push them to the perimeter forcing them to take shots from there. Even though leafs led in short attempts, the high danger chances were even, and the islanders capitalized off of turnovers and when leafs players were out of position.

What makes the islanders defense dangerous is each one of their pairs has a fast skating puck mover and a shutdown D. Pelech-pulock are surgical - I mean I talk a lot about pulock, but pelech is arguably just as important . Pelech had the 7th best defensive impact among defenseman with tough usage last season. Sean tierney on twitter updates charts last week had them as a top 10 D pairing in the NHL. In terms of quality, Devon toews-mayfield, Leddy-boychuk are both 2nd pairing caliber which also helps. The islanders definitely play as a 6 man unit and the forwards know their role, but there is a lot of skill on the back end.

I would say every line plays the same way defensively , but trotz main thing is “you do what I want you to do when you don’t have the puck but you are free to do what you want when you have the puck on your stick”. Last season trotz separated barzal and eberle so he can develop their defensive game. That has really paid off for barzal, who is developing into one of the better two way centers in the game. A lot of his high danger chances come from turnovers. Barzal line has two players that are great at zone entries (him and eberle) so yeah they can maximize their strengths. What has really made the islanders more dangerous this season is the emergence Anthony beauvillier. He’s only 22, but I actually wanted to trade him this summer because of his lack of confidence last season. He’s been our most consistent forward and now I see him as borderline untouchable. Funny how that works. He’s one of the best forecheckers on the team, I think he’s the fastest north south forward, and has a great shot. He’s given the 2nd line a legitimate threat on the wing. Barry trotz often matches that line against opposing teams top players because of Brock nelson. He’s always been a consistent 20 G scorer, but his work defensively is great, and that kind of goes unnoticed especially from media. The athletic wrote a piece on his underlying numbers and labeled him a low end caliber 1C.

The Casey -cizikas line is collectively the best defensive line on the team and they get most of the tough defensive matchups. They are labeled a 4th line, but they aren’t a true 4th line. They don’t have the most skill offensively, but because of their work ethic, it leads to high danger chances and after every game it seems like that line is one of the leaders in expected goals percentage. Each line has their own way of generating offensive but Barry trotz mentality of continuously moving your feet, being a puck hound , and just out working your opponent has done wonders for this team that keeps improving