Islanders Speak: The One Thing They Need to Change

The New York Islanders have had an underwhelming start to the season. They currently sit in last place in the Metropolitan Division, with a record of 12-14-7. This is the team’s worst start to a season in over a decade, dating back to the 2013-14 season.

This year, the team has been bogged down by the worst special teams play in the league, hot-and-cold goalscoring, and multiple major injuries. With all that intel baked in, it’s easy to see why the season is where it is. In fact, those issues don’t even touch the fact that the Islanders have blown numerous third-period leads. Nor does it mention they’ve gone down 1-0 in eight straight games now.

NYI Hockey Now took this to the room and asked multiple players and Head Coach Patrick Roy for one thing they needed to change, and with that one thing, the results would immediately turn.

Players:

Every player I spoke with expressed some clear unhappiness over the record. What’s interesting is their variety of answers to that same question.

Simon Holmstrom looked at the inconsistent offense, especially after a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes: “(We need to) Score some goals. That’s probably number one. It’s hard to win when you’re not scoring any goals or you score one goal every game. I think that’s one of the biggest things.”

Then, he paused and thought about the inconsistent efforts throughout games, adding one more sentence, “Then, (we have to) keep playing 60 minutes every night.”

Including every season since the 2020-21 bubble year, the Islanders are 26th in goals for per game. In every individual season, the Islanders have laced exactly 21st or 22nd without fail. This year, they currently sit in 28th. Suffice it to say that goals are absolutely a major need for the Islanders.

Adam Pelech pointed to the special teams without hesitation: “It’s special teams. I’m on the penalty kill, so it all starts there. It’s just so important, especially for momentum. It’s so big to get a huge kill early in the game. Big for momentum, so I think special teams are the key.”

With the Islanders giving away a multitude of games this year, thanks largely to non-existent special teams, it’s hard to disagree with Pelech’s assertion. If the team had fired off at a 19% power play clip, still in the bottom half of the league, they’d have scored plenty more goals and perhaps won a few more games. Not to mention a penalty kill so anemic it’s hovering at 50% on home ice this season.

Mayfield Varied Approach:

Scott Mayfield seemed less inclined to choose any one issue, but the first issue coming to his head was the third period: “I don’t think there’s just one thing, you know, I think it’s a combination of a bunch of stuff.”

“Obviously, third periods have been an issue sometimes, but last game, we couldn’t score a goal either, so it’s been different things every game. In the end, you come into practice, you work hard, you try to get better, and we just gotta find the wins.”

Mayfield’s response starts to show the hand inside the room. They’re committed to hard work and challenging themselves. But, the issues manifest in so many different ways. It’s hard to pin down any one thing, something that can cause heads to spin.

Matt Martin’s Zen:

In his 16th season in the NHL, Matt Martin took a more stoic approach. Martin started his answer to the question by essentially saying everyone has to calm down: “To me, you just focus on Saturday and winning that game. Then, you can focus on the next one, and you win that one. When you start putting games together, everything becomes a little more free.”

Then, Martin paused. He looked up and asked, point blank, “How many times have we even won two games in a row this year?”

That answer is twice. Only twice all year have the Islanders strung together even two wins. That pile of injuries, coupled with poor special teams and inconsistent efforts, rears its ugly head when it comes to trying to string together wins.

After re-gathering his thoughts, Martin continued: “It hasn’t exactly been a good feeling coming to the rink this year. Look, most teams that make the playoffs do end up having a huge run in the regular season, 7, 8, 9, maybe 10 or more wins in a row. (We) have to stop worrying about the things (we) don’t need to worry about.”

“(By doing that), You play more freely. But only you can work yourself out of that hole. You can’t hope and pray that it’ll just happen for you. We have to do what we need to do to win. If we can pile the wins together, the game becomes a little bit easier.”

Martin’s protracted answer is probably where I’d align myself with the most. Yes, there are about ten thousand things this team works at and fixes. But every other team has their problems, too. What’s become unquestionably an Islanders’ problem seems stuck in their heads.

Too often caught overthinking things instead of just making the simple play. Playing free of mind and just doing the simple things, that’s when everything falls into place, from the special teams to goals to full 60-minute efforts.

Roy Takes the Blame:

When I brought the same prose to Roy, he didn’t hesitate. He thinks the one thing to change for immediate wins is the special teams, and that starts with him:

“I feel like we should have maybe spent more time on the PK and on the power play in training camp… There’s so many things you want to work on (during camp) like 5-on-5 and stuff like this. So yeah, I’ll take part of the blame on this because maybe I could have put more emphasis on the power play and PK during training camp.”