They fired one of the best coaches in the history of the league. I know most Islanders fans were onboard with that but it wasn't a great call. On paper their team has great goaltending. Great defence and very lackluster group of forwards. Several of which are making too much money on too much term.

I was making a lot of Islander agms in the offseason and they really focused on getting 1-2 star forwards. Unfortunately Lou didn't do anything to solve that.

I did like the Romanov pickup though.

My predictions for their division going into the year were:

1. Carolina
2. New York Rangers
3. New Jersey
4. Pittsburgh
5. Washington
6. New York Islanders
7. Columbus
8. Philadelphia

We will see how I do at years end.

Trotz was one of the worst coaches in the league last season. He’s a compiler , not a great coach. 1 Stanley cup in 20+ years of coaching.

Aho was terrible tonight, but he’s been one of the bright spots on the team.

He was working with poo most years in Nashville and made them competitive. He didn't have a great team to work with last year either.

This team just isn't good enough. You can be mad at the coach all you want, but until you give him a better group of forwards, they won't be good enough.

Their dcore is masterfully crafted and they have a very good goalie tandem. But they are getting killed by the Bailey and Palmieri contracts. That Palmieri contract was a head scratcher to me the moment it signed. Also I like Pageau. But he really should be making 3.5m-4m a year.

They have no super stars on forward. They have a very good star in Barzal, Nelson is a good player, borderline star and then things fall off a cliff fast. They need 1 super star and one more star in my mind.

the only reason why I am not giving Barzal super star status is because he doesn't score much. Career high of 22 is just not enough. But he is super talented, so no disrespect to him.

Anyways, my point being... you can change the coach all you want. The best coaches in the history of the world couldn't lead this team to a cup. They aren't good enough. But they do have some great pieces to build around.

i didn’t have that big an issue with them firing trotz since he clearly had some personal stuff, that said lambert does not appear to be that guy. the larger issue is the terrible roster and forward group. i agree, they needed to get ONE of the top forwards moved last offseason and they got literally none of them. just horrible

Trotz had good teams with Nashville his last 5 years, they didn't start playing to their potential until lavoielette got hired.

Last year trotz chose to be a bad coach by playing Zdeno chara in the top 4. That was his decision - my point is he can't be called a great coach when his career is filled with mediocrity,

I am not arguing that the isles are a contender. Theyre not , the point is it would be the same , if not worse if Trotz was still the coach