The New York Islanders: Relevant and Elite
It’s taken nearly three decades, but the New York Islanders are finally back amongst the NHL’s elites.
Yes, that probably looks as weird reading it than it did me writing it, but it’s true: a quarter of the season has passed and the Islanders’ 30 points accumulated through 21 games is only bested by two other clubs so far. The team is off to its best 21-game start in franchise history (albeit, with some shootout help), and things are looking up at the Nassau Coliseum this season.
It’s been an incredible quarter of the season for the previously beleaguered franchise. The team hasn’t won a playoff series since 1993. It has only made the playoffs once since 2007 (in the strike-shortened season no less.) After years of nasty battles between ownership and local politicians about a new arena, the Islanders finally threw their hands in the air and gave up before signing a lease to play its home games in Brooklyn next season. Despite all of this, there is something special happening with the New York Islanders now.
Yes, I’ll be the first to admit: I haven’t always been general manager Garth Snow‘s number one fan (here’s the rant that I published shortly before he signed Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin on July 2nd.) And to be fair, every word in that piece was true and was a release of pent up frustration after years of irrelevancy. Those two signings didn’t make up for years of ineptitude, but it was a step in the right direction.
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Of course the coup de gras on the off-season were the acquisitions of defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy. For a few draft picks and prospects, the Islanders shored up their most glaring deficiency a week before their season began. The two have been nothing short of great for the Islanders and were a brillant stroke of genius by Garth Snow (there, I said it.)
And while not even the most ardent Islander fan will expect them to finish with 117 points (currently on pace for), there’s also no reason to believe that the team will be going away anytime soon. Whereas last year the analytics community were shouting from their computer tops that the Maple Leafs and Avalanche were destined to fail (one for two there folks), the Islanders appear legit. Whether you’re a Corsi or Fenwick guy, the Islanders are among the league leaders in both at even strength. This club is fast and built to possess the puck. When you have the puck more than the other team, your opportunities to score are increased and the other team’s decrease. It’s that simple, yet when it’s executed well, it looks so beautiful as it did Monday night when the Islanders outshot the Flyers 46-21 before securing a 1-0 victory in the shootout.
Plenty of people who don’t follow the team will say that the club is a one-man band, and that man is John Tavares. While the Islanders’ captain is leading the team in scoring (8 goals, 12 assists in 21 games), the team has quality depth throughout the forward group. Brock Nelson leads the team with 9 goals, and he and Kyle Okposo are tied for second on the team in scoring with 19 points each. Second-year center Ryan Strome has 15 points and has helped form a “Kid Line” with Nelson and youngster Anders Lee that has size, speed, and offensive awareness. After years of watching the team run out veteran retreads, it’s nice to finally see the many years of drafting and developing pay off.
While the offense is predictably humming along with the fifth most goals scored per game in the league, it’s the goals allowed department that has turned a perennial lottery team into a legitimate playoff contender. While they are 18th in the league allowing 2.71 goals per game, that pace is nearly a half a goal better per game than it was last year. And new goaltender Jaroslav Halak has upheld his end of the bargain with a .922 save percentage and 2.23 goals against average. The Islanders haven’t had quality goaltending like this since the days before Rick DiPietro began getting injured every season.
There are still question marks with this team. The biggest is the man behind the bench, Jack Capuano. “Cappy” as he’s affectionately known (or disparagingly mocked, depending on your preference) is actually the franchise’s second most winningest coach behind the legendary Al Arbour. Of course that probably is more of an indictment on the team beyond the Arbour days, however, somehow Cappy has managed to survive the ax and has to be in the discussion of Jack Adams Award possibilities at the quarter pole of the season. As someone who watches this team on a nightly basis, I would have said there was a better shot of me flying across the Atlantic than Cappy be a Jack Adams possibility. But here we are, and I still don’t have wings. Maybe he’s learned, or maybe it’s the influx of talent. But lately it seems like Cappy is pushing the right buttons and the team is firing on all cylinders.
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Eyes On Isles
There’s no more proof of this than the November the team is currently enjoying. The “November Swoon” in Islander land hasn’t just been some made-up phrase in Nassau. In its previous three Novembers, the team went a combined 9-24-6, which is somewhat unfathomable how a team could continually fall apart at the same time. Things looked to be heading in that direction again after the club dropped its first game of the calendar month (plus the last two in October.) However, Cappy has managed to keep the team together and find the right combinations of lines as the team has won 9 of its last 10 and is a tidy 9-2 overall in the month. Yes, they probably aren’t going to win 82% of their games each month, but psychologically there is no doubt the team needed to have a strong November after its recent failures. Hell, the fan base needed it too.
And about that fan base? Well, we’ve been through plenty of ups and downs in recent years. Actually, that’s not really true. We’ve been throw a handful of ups and countless number of downs. It’s really amazing that the team has any loyal fans at all considering the garbage we’ve dealt with the last two decades. But we are passionate. We are loud. I think anyone who has been to a game at the Nassau Coliseum will tell attest to how loud the barn can get. Those same people can also attest to the inconvenience of where the arena is and lack of mass transit to get there. But average attendance is up through 9 home games from last year’s first 9 home contests (which also included a game against the Rangers which generally sells out.) Longtime fans are still upset about the team’s move to Brooklyn that will deprive Nassau County of its only major league professional sports franchise. But slowly and surely they are coming back more frequently to Nassau Coliseum and despite what some radio hosts may think, there’s no shame in it. The old barn rocks with every home game and the locals are taking notice.
In fact, everyone in the league is taking notice and with good reason as these New York Islanders are for real. I’m not going to sit here and predict all kinds of playoff success this year just yet. One, there is still three-quarters of a season to go and two, playoff success is highly dependent on matchups. The only thing I will predict is that this team is a legitimate threat and will be heard from in the Eastern Conference this year. Time will tell if the Islanders can be more, but as a fan, I’m just happy to enjoy the ride.