New York Islanders Doug Weight Scratches Josh Ho-Sang

Is it 2016-17 again? The New York Islanders have announced that an aging veteran has been named to the roster in place of a promising young player? Tell me I’m sleeping!

Just a few days ago New York Islanders coach Doug Weight told us exactly what we wanted to hear. He said that he won’t shy away from inserting youth in the roster if they outplay veterans.

This sounded like a 360 from his predecessor Jack Capuano. Capuano was notorious for playing veteran players when he had perfectly good and more talents young players on his bench. Remember Nino Niederreiter? That’s the perfect case of ageism against Jack Capuano.

When Capuano was fired we thought those days would be over. And then comes the comment from Doug Weight. And we finally had the confirmation we all wanted.

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Ho-Sang Out

And then Isles fans get word from Newsday’s Arthur Staple that Josh Ho-Sang will be a healthy scratch in favor of Jason Chimera. And then everything we thought is undone in a single tweet.

It’s mind blowing I know. Ho-Sang has been nothing but outstanding in training camp. And yet here he is being sat on the bench for Jason Chimera. Don’t get me wrong Chimera is a fine player. But would I rather Ho-Sang in the lineup over Chimera? YES! A thousand times yes.

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Looking back at Weight’s comments I can see them for what they are now. Rather than them being about his desire to play young players, it was an even harder stance than his predecessor.

Young players had to unsettle veterans from their roster spots. Meaning that it was the veterans spot to lose. And to a certain extent, I get that. Guys like Lee, Bailey or Ladd aren’t going to be scratched on account of Josh Ho-Sang.

But Jason Chimera? It’s not that Chimera is a bad player, but I think we can all agree that Ho-Sang is a better player than Jason Chimera.

This move makes little sense to me outside of the fact that Jason Chimera is a veteran player and the coach likes a guy with 1000 NHL games under his belt than he does a kid with 21. Which is depressing as a thought.

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It’s depressing because we thought we were getting something different with Doug Weight. But instead were getting more of the same. I’m absolutely willing to walk that back if Weight says that Ho-Sang was acting like some sort of entitled kid and needed to be knocked down a peg. I get that. But from what he’s said so far, it’s just more the same Capuanonsense.