Infusion Of Young, Skilled Islanders Is Paying Winning Dividends
The Islanders’ infusion of young, skilled talent is driving offense, depth, and confidence — and it’s paying winning dividends as they continue their strong start.
“You think you can win on talent alone? Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.”
No, of course not, Herb Brooks. No one, at the NHL level, can win on just talent alone. But, boy, does having talent help.
You can pick a few words to describe this Islanders team through the quarter-mark of the season: hungry, gritty, fun — the word is talented.
Coming into this season, if you looked at the Islanders’ forward group, you probably thought the same thing many thought — this is the deepest this team has been in quite a while.
And, it turns out, you were right.
Now, that’s not a knock on physical, defense-first bottom-six, bottom-nine forwards. Just look at the team under Barry Trotz. But those teams couldn’t get over the Eastern Conference Final hump because when they needed the offense, they couldn’t get it.
When Trotz returned to Long Island for the first time since becoming the GM of the Nashville Predators, I asked him why he adopted a defensive structure with a team that was the worst defensive team in the league when he took over.
He chuckled.
“What I found was that the defense wasn’t as bad as they were made out to be, and the forwards weren’t as good as they were made out to be.”
He wasn’t wrong, but times have changed. The Islanders’ offense is a force. With the emergence of the Casey Cizikas — Calum Ritchie — Maxim Shabanov line, Patrick Roy can now roll four lines until a change is needed, if needed.
It’s a game-changer.
But it’s more than that. If the fourth line can be productive offensively at a consistent rate, the Islanders would be rolling a deep offense, with each line having the potential to dominate on a nightly basis.
Maybe the Jean-Gabriel Pageau line is the line that’s more defensive, so that makes it even more important for the fourth line to pull their weight in the Goals For department.
All that, on top of having top-pairing, 18-year-old Matthew Schaefer, who is building some real strong chemistry with Ryan Pulock. We’ve seen Tony DeAngelo reboot alongside the sturdy Adam Pelech — he’s healthy, crazy concept — and the Islanders have the talent to beat anyone.
Ilya Sorokin is also a game-changer. He’s on fire, posting a 2.15 GAA and .929 SV% in six November starts (4-2-0). He’s 5-1-1 since Oct. 31, with a 1.69 GAA and a .941 SV%. In his two starts on this road trip, David Rittich went 2-0-0 with a 1.96 GAA and a .925 SV%.
The Islanders’ offense ranks sixth in goals this season (69) and ninth in 5-on-5 goals (44). They’re eighth in goals per game (3.29). Bo Horvat was tied for the league lead in goals (14). Nathan MacKinnon (16) scored twice against the New York Rangers to lead the league. Schaefer (7) is one behind Cale Makar (8) for most goals by a defenseman this season.
Horvat and Schaefer make up a list of eight players who have 10 or more points through 21 games:
Not shown is Ryan Pulock with nine assists, which ranks fifth-most on the team.
When the offense is flowing, the pressure to be perfect is lifted, especially given how the PK has been PKing. Roy always talks about wanting his players to play free, and it sure looks like they’re free out there, trusting the system and their linemates to get the job done.
You can point to every game on this road trip and have every reason to believe that, if this were last season, they would have found ways to lose all of them.
But this team isn’t last season’s team. This team has that umph, swagger — and the talent — to get the goal when they need the goal.
They have the talent in goal to make the big save when they need the big save and the penalty kill to get the job done in the critical moments. And even, at times — not regularly yet — the power play has its moments.
The power play against the Red Wings was tremendous when it came to snapping the puck around and Matthew Schaefer opening up the flanks for one-time tries.
Talent.
Once the skill quotient reaches a certain level, goals and wins just happen.
When Roy took over, he said that he didn’t want to be a defensive team. But he wanted the fans to be proud of the way they defend.
To start this season, the Islanders were a solely transition-based offense that couldn’t defend the rush, nor were they getting the pivotal saves they needed. Then, they started to defend the rush a little better, one game at a time, with some growing pains in the middle. Then they got Sorokin back, and the combination of his stellar play — and David Rittich’s — and the defensive-zone structure, the Islanders would just need to keep their potent offense going to find success.
The offense got even more dynamic by the tail end of the road trip, as they implemented more of a forecheck in their game, with the fourth line setting the tone the last few nights — none bigger than Thursday night.
Now, the Islanders can create their own offense consistently without having to just rely on opponent mistakes.
This road trip was important, making this homestand even more critical. The Islanders play their next seven games on home ice. Can they mimic what they just did on the road in front of the UBS Arena crowd?
They have the talent to beat the St. Louis Blues and the Seattle Kraken, their first two opponents this Saturday (3:30 ET) and Sunday (5 PM ET), respectively.
