3 takeaways from the Islanders' first 10 games of the regular season
The Carolina Hurricanes' Jordan Martinook battles for the puck with the Islanders' Matthew Schaefer during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday. Credit: AP/Karl B DeBlaker
WASHINGTON — Somehow this Islanders season that began just three weeks ago seems longer than that, if only for how eventful it’s been.
Ten games have featured plenty.
Most notably, there’s the meteoric emergence of No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer, already the Islanders’ most dynamic defenseman. There has been the ongoing struggles of No. 1 netminder Ilya Sorokin that led to the quick firing of goalie coach Piero Greco in favor of Sorokin’s former KHL mentor, Sergei Naumovs. There was the three-game losing streak out of the gate, the rebound of a four-game winning streak and now the 0-2-1 skid the Islanders brought into Friday night’s game against the Capitals at Capital One Arena to conclude a four-game road trip.
And first-year general manager Mathieu Darche disciplined top-six center Mathew Barzal for being late to the team bus for Thursday’s morning skate in Raleigh, North Carolina, by having him sit out that night’s 6-2 loss to the Hurricanes.
It’s been a lot. So here are three takeaways on the Islanders’ 4-5-1 start:
1. It might be Groundhog Day. Again.
The Islanders still have plenty of time to prove they are better than last season, when they missed the playoffs by nine points. Or the two previous seasons, when they squeaked into the postseason, only to be dispatched by the Hurricanes.
But getting nine out of a possible 20 points through 10 games is not a good way to start, and their inability to play a solid 60 minutes has a familiar look to it.
“We want to be more than a .500 team after 10 games,” coach Patrick Roy said. “Now we need a very good next 10 games.”
Two areas immediately stand out for improvement: Defending the crease and the slot area and being more effective on special teams. Both the power play and penalty kill ranked 31st in the 32-team NHL last season, so Ray Bennett and Bob Boughner were hired as assistants to run the units, respectively.
But even though the offensive-zone entries and set-ups have been better, the 6-for-36 (1-for-17 on the road) power play is 26th and the penalty kill, despite two shorthanded goals, is 23rd at 23-for-32 (9-for-15 on the road).
2. Goaltending wasn’t supposed to be an issue
But until proved otherwise, it is.
Ilya Sorokin (2-4-1, 3.75 goals-against average, .868 save percentage) entered Friday’s start against the Capitals having allowed four goals in five of his seven starts. David Rittich (2-1-0, 3.34, .900) was good in his first two starts but allowed three goals on the first eight shots against the Hurricanes.
The move from Greco, fired after six games after being with the Islanders since 2018, to Naumovs has not produced tangible improvements to this point, but that also is a byproduct of some leaky defense.
Roy’s system calls for the defensemen to activate up the ice, which has led to repeated odd-man rushes against. There needs to be more connectivity between the defensemen and the forwards helping on the backcheck. In the defensive zone, turnovers and chances against from the slot also have been a factor in overtaxing the goalies.
“I don’t think our execution was where it needed to be,” Anders Lee said after Thursday’s loss. “We couldn’t get over that hump that we put ourselves in. Our small-stuff execution just wasn’t there.”
3. All eyes on Schaefer
Similar to the Giants with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, much of this season’s story will be how far and how fast Schaefer develops. His average ice time of 22:47 led the Islanders through 10 games, he’s already quarterbacking the first power-play unit and seeing some time on the penalty kill, and he is tied for second on the team with eight points (three goals, five assists).
His six-game point streak to start his career made him the fourth 18-year-old — the youngest, as he followed Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby and Alexandre Daigle — and third defenseman in NHL history to accomplish the feat.
But there’s still a learning curve as he makes the jump from junior hockey to the NHL. Andrei Svechnikov skated around him cleanly to give the Hurricanes a 5-2 lead just 11 seconds after the Islanders' Simon Holmstrom scored Thursday night.
Said Schaefer, “You never want to let that happen.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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