I’m sure many of you guys noticed the line combinations the other night.

What did you think?

I personally loved the “New Kids on the Block” line of Josh Bailey, Kyle Okposo and Blake Comeau. They definitely had the “right stuff” out there. Wow, did I just say that? Okay… moving on.

I was also a fan of the “Money for Nothing” line of Mike Comrie, Bill Guerin and Doug Weight line. Alright, so maybe that’s not exactly fair, considering that Comrie has been injured for a big portion of the season and Guerin will score 25 goals this season and Weight has been mucho excellente. But I’m on a roll here, play along.

At any rate, the combinations seemed to get the Islanders offense going the other night and while we know the playoffs are completely out of the question,unless this team wants to win 30 of their last 34 and get help from every other team in the league, these new combos will make the games a little more interesting.

“I think the whole second half here, we’re probably going to experiment with some things—obviously, with our younger players—to see if they can develop some chemistry over the second half of the season,” Gordon told the AP the other night. Whether what we go with remains the same down the stretch or we change from game to game will be decided by the success they have as lines. Given the younger players we have, if we can develop some chemistry over the second half of the season, maybe there’s something we can build on going into next year.”

Exactly, Flash. Put these kids in a situation to show what they have and earn their bumps and bruises. Let Bailey create and let Okposo shoot. Give Comeau an opportunity to get in front of the net and work in the corners. It’s exactly what the fans of this team want to see. Nothing against Guerin, Comrie and Weight, but the fans of this team know that while they are important to helping these kids develop, they won’t be around to see what this team hopefully will become. Young veterans like Chris Campoli, Bruno Gervais and Trent Hunter will.

So if these kind of combinations have to continue the rest of the season, I say keep ‘em coming. If Bailey continues to pass like Craig Janney and Okposo keeps firing those one timers, this offseason could become an interesting one and one that can continue the movement of building a consistent winner on Long Island. If not, it’ll just be plain old good for these youngsters, which isn’t a bad thing either.

Posted under 2008-2009, Isles Thoughts 2009