Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up With Talkin' Isles Podcast Host Greg Picker, Lou Terminello and Alex Garrett 2-23-24

Transcript

One Leg Up With Talkin' Isles Podcast Host Greg Picker, Lou Terminello and Alex Garrett 2-23-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

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  Here's your host, Alex Garrett. Well here on One Leg Up with Alex
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  Garrett. It's One Leg Up on Sports once again with lou Terminello and lou
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  our next guest. You know, I had a chance to catch up with
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  him in August at the Viscarti Center and maybe those who listened to that broadcast
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  or podcast with Jake April calling the alumni from the Islanders first alumni from Viscarti
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  Well also staff were involved in that game, and one of those members was
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  Greg Picker and Greg, welcome to the One Leg Up with Alex Garrett podcast.
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  Thank you for the invite. Yeah, that was a fun event we
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  had over the summer with the Viscarti Center Islanders staff members playing alumni and it
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  was it was quite a battle on the end, but the alumni took us
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  down. Great. Good to talk to you again, Stave here, Thanks
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  lou So I guess where I want to start. This is how exciting even
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  though it was a loss, how exciting was the stadium series for you guys
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  calling that game. It ends up being one of the most memorable regular season
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  moments I think we've had in a long time, and it would have been
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  maybe towards the top of regular season moments over the last decade plus, if
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  not a couple decades, if it had turned into a win. Unfortunately,
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  it turned into a memorable loss in the end, and Rangers fans will be
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  able to cherish that memory for quite some time. But to have almost eighty
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  thousand people watching an NHL game that we were able to broadcast from MetLife Stadium
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  was just incredible. It was also pretty cool that the timing of it because
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  everything that we did as Island to broadcast and now their fans compared to ten
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  years going Yankee Stadium, that was a night game cold as could possibly be
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  a bit of I don't want to say miserable experience, because it still an
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  NHLT game outdoors, but just comparing that to three o'clock start MetLife, where
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  it was thirty five forty degrees, it didn't feel nearly as we just got
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  to get this game over with type of thing as it did ten years ago.
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  You start at three o'clock ended up being three to forty five puck drops.
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  You have the sun out to start, but by the time the game
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  ended, sun was down, so you had the lights on at the stadium
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  so you got kind of the best of both worlds from a daytime atmosphere nighttime
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  atmosphere, and it was just an amazing experience and unfortunately didn't turn into two
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  points for the Islanders, but still a night that we will never forget for
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  po positive reasons as well. Would you say it was a crucial point though
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  in this point in the season, I mean every point is crucial, but
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  when you are on the outside of the five picture looking in, you're in
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  the final quarter of the season. Now you need both points and when they're
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  sitting there for you are four ten away from picking up a winning regulation and
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  wins in regulation have been hard to come by for the Islanders over at the
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  last twenty games and only have two of them, and in an emotional game
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  like that against your r Trival in front of eighty thousand people, you know,
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  one point unfortunately wasn't really good enough. It was a tremendous until the
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  whole weekend, even Saturday night game. The NHL had to be happy,
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  regardless of I want obviously I want to see the Islanders win also, but
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  it was to me the NHL couldn't have been happier with the weekend. No
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  I mean, one hundred and fifty thousand fans between two nights, four teams,
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  and it's pretty unique here in this New York area that you could have
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  four groups of fans with such easy access to one venue between Philadelphia, the
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  Devils, the Rangers in the Islanders. You know, Gary Betman has been
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  asked or was this the type of thing that you can do more frequently,
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  whether it's back in New York in the near future or maybe elsewhere. And
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  I don't know where else you can do it so easily to have four teams
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  and two consecutive days in one venue because you don't have the close proximity.
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  But it worked out so well, And just from a New York perspective,
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  hockey doesn't get talked about a whole lot on sports radio during the regular season
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  if one of the teams has gone on a playoff run. Absolutely, But
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  I've heard more hockey talk sports radio over this past week, just following up
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  from the Stadium series game that I have during the regular season a long time,
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  and that just goes to show how excited people were and how big of
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  an event it was and hopefully will be for a long time. And just
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  coming out of that. Also, the NHL did announce the Islanders we'll get
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  the twenty twenty six All Star Games. So that's exciting news. And I
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  just haven't hosted that event since nineteen eighty three. Yeah, it's exciting news.
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  It's obviously UBS is a beautiful building, and it's well deserved the Islanders.
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  We'll be hosting that All Star event, that's for sure. I was
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  skeptical Greg about the back to back outdoor games. I was wondering how many
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  people they can get. But like I said, it couldn't worked out.
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  It couldn't have worked out better. Well, let's talk about our Islanders.
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  Twenty six games left sixty points. Obviously, last year they made it with
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  ninety three. We know that they are right at the precipice of the or
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  they out I as you, as we said, tomorrow is a key game.
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  They got to get two points in regulation against against Tampa Bay, which
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  is ahead of them. They have two games in hand. They got to
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  win those two games. What's the feeling in the organization right now? I
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  think we just looked back to last season. The Sounders required a pretty similar
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  run if they were going to make the playoffs. They did it and They
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  did it without Matt Barzel during the last quarter of the season as he was
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  injured with a lower body injury. And you know, he's firing on all
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  cylinders right now. He just had an eight game point streak snap last night
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  against the Blues. Sportslanders shut out against Saint Louis, and but that was
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  the game where obviously it was lost in thirty two seconds, with Saint Louis
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  actually setting a franchise record with those three goals in thirty two seconds. But
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  there's had twenty shots ongle in the second perire fifteen for the game in the
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  power play, so they had their chances, ran into a hot goal tender
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  and unfortunately really fell asleep for those thirty two seconds and we're not able to
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  cover. But you know it starts with Tampa Bay tomorrow. That's a team
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  that Theounders played just a couple of weeks ago at Ubs Arena, dominated them
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  six to two. They were on the second half of a back to back
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  that game, so Theers were able to take advantage going up against the backup
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  goaltender. They didn't have to go against Andre Vasilevski on Saturday. It will
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  be the front half of a back to back for Tampa because they're actually in
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  New Jersey on Sunday, so wouldn't be the biggest surprise if they see Jonas
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  Johanson the backup goaltender again, although more likely andre Vasilevski than they did a
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  couple of weeks ago. But Tampa is a team that's vulnerable right now.
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  They've lost three in a row in regulation Andanders just had a three game point
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  streak snap with that regulation loss against the Blues yesterday, so it you know,
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  you could possibly say there's if the run is going to happen, it's
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  going to start tomorrow against Tampa Bay. And that's not just the game you
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  need two points. That's a game that you need to win in regulation right
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  now, five points back and have two games in hand. So if you
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  win that game, you'll be back to five games over an HL five hundred.
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  The Lightning will be only six games over NHL five hundred, and you're
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  right their neck and neck with them. They had what I thought was one
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  of the most entertaining games in a while, the three to two win against
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  against the Leafs coming out of the All Star break, and I know that
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  new coach Patrick wah had used a days leading up to that, like a
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  little mini training camp, resetting his you know, his system and his strategy.
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  And I actually thought the Islanders were going to take off after that,
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  and then they had to lack lux of loss against Calgary and the loss to
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  Seattle at home. It's just been so many starts and stops. It's I
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  don't know why they can't get more consistent with that, and especially holding leads.
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  Yeah, I mean, that's just sometimes the nature of sports, and
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  you know, teams will go through that sort of thing and you hope it
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  doesn't last for long. I think the Calgary game was maybe one of more
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  disappoint games second half of the season. It was a next Gen Day,
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  it was a matinee, which maybe the Alders sometimes fans will say they never
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  play well on matinee, But when it was next Gen Day, the first
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  mattine home game of the season, you had a lot of young fans there
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  compared to most of the nighttime games, and so that was just disappointing.
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  It turned into a five to two loss in regulation. You had a defenseman
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  and Mackenzie Leager score hat trick. You don't often see a defenseman scorer hat
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  trick. But that was the case for the Flames that afternoon, and like
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  we said, tomorrow another next Gen day exactly two weeks later, as it'll
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  be another matinee start at Ubs Arena. Yeah, I was at the Calgary
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  game and I was surprised that they came out so flat, But hey,
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  you got to put that behind you and just try to broom the best of
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  Kaffany's next twenty six games. Greg. Besides, obviously Tampa is a team
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  that they are targeting. But Philadelphia has surprised everybody this year. I did
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  not think they'd be anywhere near this competitive and obviously in a playoffs spot.
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  Now Detroit is watched seven points a Hey, of the Islanders, which one
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  do you think which one of these teams do you think would fall back if
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  the Islanders do get in. All right, now you're closest to Tampa and
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  they're in a just the wildcard race because the difference is Tampa's and the Atlantic
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  Division Flyers are in the metro. So if you get you can catch fly
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  the Flyers, and like you said, seven points back, you do have
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  one game in hand, then that's great. You could be a top three
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  spot in the Metsch, you don't have to worry about the Atlantic teams that
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  you're battling with. But just for Philadelphia, know John twarder Allah hasn't playing
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  his brand of hockey, and the entire first half of the season, it
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  was kind of okay, when is uh, when is this all going to
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  fall apart for Philadelphia? Right? It didn't happen. Then they did have
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  a five game losing streak in January, all in regulation. Yeah, you
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  thought, you know what? Okay, you know, they had a great
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  first half and now the time has come. But the All Star break came
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  at a perfect time for them because they came out of it with four straight
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  wins and have gone back on an ice run to put a gap between themselves
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  and the other teams in the metropolit Division chasing them. We're talking about the
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  Islanders, Capitals, Devils, and Penguins, because those are four teams all
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  separated by two points, all the outside looking in fourth through seventh place in
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  the Metro Caps and the Devil's and Islanders all tied at sixty points. But
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  Capitals have played one fewer game than the Devils an Islanders. That's why they
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  technically sit in fourth place with the tiebreaker. Greg. When I originally booked
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  you, you know, I was thinking, the boy, this mystique of
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  Patrick Waugh as the head coach. Has that mystique worn out a little bit?
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  Or is he still got his hindle on this team? Like, what
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  what's your take since they hired waw to be the coach, Well, he's
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  still Patrick Waha, will always be Patrick Wahs, So there'll always be a
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  mystique behind Patrickawall one of the absolute legends of the game. And it was
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  just amazing that first weekend when he was hired, because it felt like the
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  Montreal Canadians were in town. And I say that because there were so many
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  Montreal based media members that came down for the first practice, the first game,
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  and you weren't growing up against Montreal, even though the Isers are actually
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  going there later that week, and used the line that one of them had
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  said that Patrick is royalty in Quebec and that's what happens when you win two
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  Stanley Cups as their goaltender and just become a legend in your own right.
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  So playing a little bit more of an aggressive style of hockey, you talked
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  about the fact that maybe he wanted to use that off stretch as a mini
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  training camp, but that's still not a true training camp, so you can't
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  necessarily get your entire system down pat without, you know, extended practice time
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  that you have during the course of a training camp. But it's still amazing
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  to say, Hey, Patrick wah is the head coach of the New York
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  Island Greg. You know, I look at the roster right now in bo
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  Harved the big acquisition last year. What's his performance been like from last year
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  to this year? For a year in your eyes, I think he's been
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  fantastic. I mean him and Barzel have developed such chemistry, and I shouldn't
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  even say developed, because it was evident immediately. The problem last year was
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  that, as we alluded to, Barzel got hurt just six and a half
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  games after the acquisition of both Horbets. We didn't get to see them at
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  their best together. But you look at Barzel, He's over a point per
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  game. We told you, he just had an eight game point streak Staft
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  fifty nine points in fifty five games so far this season. Warbet's just a
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  little bit under a point per game at forty nine points and fifty five.
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  But I think, really where it stands out as the power play because this
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  has been a top ten power play all season long, even higher than that
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  at some points of the year, and that's not something that we've necessarily become
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  accustomed to. On the flip side, we have become accustomed to the Islanders
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  always having a top ten penalty kill and that hasn't materialized this season. So
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  it's kind of funny how sometimes that works out. Okay, you finally develop
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  a really solid power play you can count on, and the penalty kill is
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  not at its peak that we've seen over the past few years. As why
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  readjusted the line, Uh, you know the first you know, second line,
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  what's the line's been like since he joined, since he started coaching this
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  team. I mean, for the most part, he's kept the similar combinations
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  Horvat, Barzel and Andersley on the top line, Engvall Paul Mary Nelson second
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  line. Gig Pago is still the pivot down the middle on the third line,
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  and you know, he's had that chemistry with Simon Holmes from even short
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  handed this season and it's mostly been Oliver Wallstrom as the third member of that
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  trio because Hudson's fashing has been hurt, but Fashing is going to go down
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  to Bridgeport have at least one or two conditioning games, so it looks like
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  he might be nearing her return. And then you know, on the fourth
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  line, that identity line, it's been the usual Czekas Martin Clutterbrook, although
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  Casey's had some injury woes and Kyle McClain has come up and had to fill
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  that that role for a bit and he's been fantastic and playing that case Taseka
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  style of game. We've seen some some in game juggling, you know,
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  when the team was not producing offensively last night, even if they did get
• 14:03
  the chances, couldn't bury him. Wants change up a little bit in the
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  third period with Oliver welsteron Matt Bartell swapping spots, so you know, any
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  coach is gonna do that type of thing when you want to jump start some
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  offense. Unfortunately, didn't materialize into any goals last night. Jordan Bennington was
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  fantastic for the Blues, but he's kept the relative same lines that we've come
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  accustomed to over the last year for the Islanders, from from top to bottom.
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  Greg, Let's just talk about some of the great things that are happening
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  in the league in general real quick. Obviously, Austin Matthews is going to
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  go over sixty goals this year. The kid is just amazing. I guess
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  what in the last twenty years or so twenty five years, only five players
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  I've think sixty goals. I mean, he's a tremendous player, and he
• 14:56
  has so many great players in this league. I mean he is I mean,
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  obviously him and McDavid probably are two candidates for UH for m VP,
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  for for winning the Heart Trophy. Anybody else that's going to get in in
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  that hard trophy mixed that I'm missing, probably Nathan McKinnon in Colorado at the
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  time. Nikita Kutrev in Tampa's certainly a candidate, but with Tampa just teetering
• 15:26
  on the playoff picture, no guarantee that that he'll be there. But Austin
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  Matthews well on his way to a third Maurice for Shared Trophy for most goals
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  in the NHL. It would be his third in the last four seasons.
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  I have a feeling it's gonna be a very active NHL trade deadline, so
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  that'll be interesting and we'll see what the Islanders what they what they do obviously
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  at the trade deadline, whether it's for this season or for next year,
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  they have a chance maybe to add somebody. Now that really would be for
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  looking towards towards next year. But Greg, thanks for joining us. I
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  appreciate it, and you, Chris Kane, Corey Wright are tremendous. If
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  anybody wants to know about the New York Islanders, these are the three guys.
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  Nobody does a better pre intermission, postgame show, play by play analysis
• 16:18
  then than the New York Islander broadcast team. Plus the fact that you and
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  Corey have that great Talking Islanders podcast tremendous so much. Those are really kind
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  of words. And always love the appreciation with plugging Talking Isles because that's been
• 16:36
  a blast. We're fifty eight episodes in. You know, we've characters from
• 16:41
  day one of Islanders hockey that are telling us stories from nineteen seventy two and
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  beyond. So thank you again for having me and Greg thanks for joining Yeah,
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  thank you for joining us, and thank you for always supporting the Viscardi
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  Center as well. Got to strap them out also, Yeah, no,
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  absolutely hope we can have another one of those those FUNDA First Alumni games.
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  Again this upcoming summer. That was Greg Picker one leg up on Sports,
• 17:04
  Talking Islanders Today with Greg Picker. Thanks so much, Greg, thank you,