The puck has dropped on the new season and while there have been some positives (Duclair, Tsyplakov), the Islanders have stumbled out of the gate. Jonny Lazarus joins Sean & Stefen in studio at Floored Media to take an early look at how things have started and where things might go!
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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Soooo…about that fast start.
The Isles have put themselves behind the proverbial eight ball the last two seasons because of mediocre first halves that required furious finishes to eke their way into the playoffs in the season’s final days.
For that reason, coming out of the gate quickly was emphasized throughout training camp, and it was part of the motivation behind Patrick Roy's conducting intense practice sessions to emulate regular-season game action.
It hasn’t worked as envisioned through two games. After blowing a pair of third-period leads in the home opener on Thursday, the Islanders were better overall on Saturday night against the Dallas Stars but were plagued by a sloppy second period, poor puck management, and an inability to finish their chances.
“I thought tonight [Saturday] we had better jump and were moving well on the ice,” Roy said. “If we could just fix our turnovers coming out of our d-zone we’ll be fine. We had a lot of good looks, couple posts here and there, so if we keep playing like this I know we’ll win our share of games.”
It’s early enough to still start fast and to make you feel a bit better, there are five NHL teams that lost all games they’ve played in regulation so far - all five of them were playoff teams, including the 0-3-0 Edmonton Oilers.
It’s best to look at the season in 10-game sprints, but the hope that Roy’s training camp would launch them to early success is teterting a bit. Instead, they’re already taking positives where they can, and more worrisome is that this veteran team still has to clean up things that have been emphasized over and over again.
