Islanders Scoring First, A Vital Reason for Success as of Late

With Ryan Pulock’s opening tally against the Dallas Stars on Saturday afternoon, the New York Islanders scored the contest’s first goal for the fifth time in their last six games. Backed by a Brock Nelson third-period hat trick, the Islanders came away victorious.

The Islanders have yet to lose a game (5-0-0) in which they scored first on their latest six-game point streak and in those games have never trailed. The Islanders have scored first in eight of their last nine games and are 6-2-0 in those games to take it a step further.

Scoring first and point production is a trend that has gone in the right direction for the Islanders all season, like many teams. The Islanders have scored the first goal in 32 of their 59 games, with a 21-6-5 record.

“You just look at the record. We talked about our record when we don’t score first and our record when we do. That’s all you have to do,” New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said before Saturday’s contest against the Dallas Stars. “And I just said let’s just focus on winning, you know, five minutes at a time sometimes. And once we get a lead, our record indicates that we’re a better team.”

“So rather than chase it, which we did for the first 25 games, we want to have a good start. We know that that’s critical in this league.”

The problem for the Islanders is that when they have allowed the first goal, the ability to crawl back has not been there. 27 times the Islanders have allowed the first goal, and they only have five regulation wins (5-18-4).

But things are clicking right now as the Islanders are playing the best hockey they have played the entire season.

“I think that’s a big part of what we like doing. Obviously, no one wants to chase the game, and some teams are better than others,” Ryan Pulock said following Saturday’s win. “So if we can get that lead and play our way and continue to forecheck and, you know, teams start taking chances to try to catch up, and I think that’s where we’re good at kind of exploiting that and capitalizing on that.”

While on this current point streak, the Islanders have scored the contest’s first goal three times in the first period and twice in the second. Two of the three first-period goals have come less than seven minutes into the game.

The Islanders have had better starts to their game more often, and even if they have been a little out of sorts early, the defense and goaltending have stepped up.

In the five games in which the Islanders have scored first over their last six, New York Islanders netminders have stopped 49 of of 52 first-period shots, an average of 10.4 shots against in the opening twenty minutes.

With Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock back as a pair, the Islanders backend has played much stronger, more structured. And the structured defense has allowed for that transition that the Islanders have needed to generate chances and capitalize. The two have been back together for seven games, and there’s no coincidence that the Islanders have points in six of those.

“I mean, it’s definitely not just us, right? There’s a lot of players who are playing extremely well,” Adam Pelech said regarding him and Pulock’s play. “I love playing with Pulock. He makes games easy for his partner, whoever he’s playing with, and so I’m really enjoying playing with him.”

“But like I said, I mean, we’ve gotten contributions up and down the lineup over the last little while.”

We are seeing the New York Islanders brand of hockey that we expected. Is it a little too late? More than likely, yes.

But the positive, especially around the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline, is that this team does not need drastic changes to compete in 2022-23. Now that the Islanders are finally healthy, they are playing as a unit, and whether they hold that initial lead or not, they are finding ways to retake the lead and hold on…the Islanders way.