New York Islanders’ Coming Schedule Raising Playoff Concerns
By Santagata JJ
The New York Islanders Are Confidently Running Towards a Playoff Position, But the Team’s Coming Schedule is Throwing Some Setbacks in Their Plan to Claim the Spot.
New York Islanders, what a turn of a events it has been for this team. After the horrid start and firing of former head coach Jack Capuano, this Islanders team has been more consistent. Once interim head coach Doug Weight took over this team went a little bit of a streak, recently cooling off and coming back down to earth. The Islanders have found themselves 1 point ahead of Toronto for the last wildcard spot.
I remember at times this team was a complete bust with no shot at the playoffs. Growing up ten minutes from Nassau Coliseum (what used to be the Islanders home rink), I have seen and heard my fair share of Islander fans in the beginning of the year. And if not all of them counted this team out when they were in last in the conference.
The Way it Looks
In the beginning during the Isles poor start, their offense was non existent, they struggled to score goals. With the recent Islanders success, they’ve managed to get their offense going and captain John Tavares has picked his part of the slack over the past month, tallying 11 points, 4 goals and 7 assists.
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Along with Andrew Ladd finally being put in the right spot in the lineup found his scoring touch this past month, with 6 goals. Islanders young guys have chipped in their fair share, between Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Ryan Strome the three have combined for, 13 goals and 14 assists over the last month. Not too shabby for these three.
Solidifying a #1 goaltender has been the biggest successor for the Islanders, letting go of Jarsolav Halak, only worked in the Islanders favor, allowing goaltender Thomas Greiss to take the starting spot. Greiss has good enough, to allow the Islanders pick up some timely wins. Greiss has not been lights out over the last month, but over the course of this season, sharing the net for a portion of the year Greiss is finding his rhythm. Greiss has 21 wins with a 2.57 GAA on the year.
The remainder of the season is not in the Islanders favor being on the road for 11 out of the remaining 17 games is not favorable for a borderline playoff team. The Islanders wild card spot right now is not in lock, over the past month Toronto and the Islanders have swapped spots. Now with Florida playing great hockey as of late, the Islanders playoff chances are bleak. The Islanders road trips are important, every point will count leading up to playoff time.
Being on the road for four straight in the last week of regular season play raises some concerns. The only this team finds their way in the playoffs, is if Greiss plays phenomenal or their offensive stays explosive for the next month.