New York Islanders Scratch Anthony Beauvillier Cause, Reasons

Sometimes decisions the New York Islanders make aren’t what you were expecting, but you accept it. Other times they scratch a kid for no apparent reason.

Just yesterday the New York Islanders finally made a decision on rookie Mathew Barzal, sending him back to Seattle. After playing two games at the start of the season, Barzal has been sitting in the press box for the remainder.

Returning him to Seattle puts to bed my long shot dream of seeing Barzal hoisting the Colder Trophy for the best rookie this season. Maybe next year.

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But now the Islanders have gone and scratched fellow rookie Anthony Beauvillier, in favor of Alan Quine. Unless Beauvillier has some sort of undisclosed injury, this makes little sense.

Let The Kids Play

Islanders fans including myself were excited when both Barzal and Beauvillier we’re added to the active roster. It pushed out free-agent acquisition PA Parenteau, but the hope was that kids were an upgrade over taking a flyer on a free agent.

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But now that PA is gone, claimed by New Jersey, scoring six points, both kids are absent from the lineup. Leaving the Isles with Alan Quine.

It’s not that Alan Quine isn’t an OK player because he is. But he isn’t the player he’s keeping off the team in Anthony Beauvillier. Just a cursory look at the stats can say that.

All of these point to Beauvillier being the better player. Except maybe the goals column. Quine is better there. Getting one on the power play.

Although to be fair it’s not like Beauvillier’s 1:14 minutes of power play, compared to Quine’s 5:09 minutes time have given him much of a chance to improve that.

Maybe Quine’s just better on the power play. If that’s the case maybe keeping him makes sense. The New York Islanders power play can certainly use the help. The Isles 26th ranked 10.8% efficient power play could use all the help it can get.

Wait. Did I just make a case for keeping a player out of the lineup in favor of another who may or may not be better at a small aspect of the game like the power play? Something that, on average chews up 10% of the game?

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Because that doesn’t make sense. Why exclude a player because he isn’t as good as another for 10% of the game, but better at the other 90%?

That just doesn’t add up. I’ve been trying to figure out why Quine over Beauvillier since the news came out. And that’s the best I got. A nonsensical justification that he’s better at 10% of the game.