The New York Islanders made the playoffs last season but struggled at the start of many games when they just didn’t look ready to play when the puck was dropped. This is surprising for a veteran team. How can Lane Lambert, Anders Lee and Bo Horvat and company prevent this from being a problem again in 2023-24? We discuss several things the team can do on today’s show.
Plus, we continue our look at the team’s top prospects as we examine 2022 draft pick Isaiah George. What does the young defenseman bring to the table and how soon will he be NHL ready? We discuss all that and more on today’s Locked On Islanders Podcast with Gil Martin.
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13 Comments
Slow starts? Inconsistant play? That's all on lane who cost isles five wins by not having isles ready to play a full game or they just didn't show up ready to play. See: two az. losses. No excuse to lose two games to sorry az. And fixing the pp would help. Of course you can't run a top pp without elite talent to put on it. And you don't win a cup without having elite talent as well. Isles fall short once again. And george goes back to ohl london for final season with knights legit ohl favorite to win title play for mem. cup.
They woke up at the 3rd period!
Blame the coach all you want, this is a veteran team, sorry it's on the players!!
Better players – more talent is the answer to the question posted in the banner
All these slow starts with all the Vets means a serious turnover is NEEDED!
G Mart, I'm telling you, it's that bend but don't break mentality that's been drilled into these guys for over a decade! They allow teams to push right out of the gate, get behind early and the combination of Zero offense and other teams playing more defense with a lead, we don't win many of those games. Why is it that we see what needs to change but management doesn't!?
try neutral zone puck possession?
what can NY Islanders do to improve play from opening face off?
active forecheck then team defense back in own zone?
So if the Isles don't get out to a good start this year, then you have to seriously look at replacing Lambert. 6 out of our 8 games in October are at home. First off, this is one of the lowest # of games played in October so if we don't do well, it will look like we are way behind. Second, we learned the year before that no team in the NHL can go 10 games without a win. Avoid any major losing streak.
Play smart. Limit mistakes. Block shots. Get Horvat in front of the net. Get the Dmen on track and we should be fine.
I've always felt the Isles up and down performance was largely due to Lane trying to change too much too fast. Trotz had conditioned this team to an extreme defensive mentality, top to bottom. Trotz rarely talked about their glaring lack of scoring. It was always about the one they let in. It's a split-second decision to be defensive or seize a scoring opportunity and execute. I think a lot of guys were confused and caught in the middle in their decision making when Lane tried to 180 that defensive mentality. Too much too fast, IMO. Then the injuries started, and we had NO DEPTH. That interrupted the whole process. Lane seemed to revert back to a more defensive style late in the season out of necessity.
Hopefully Lane learned to take smaller bites. Keep the defenseman defensive while the forwards make the adjustment, then bring the defense along to contribute on the score sheet. Having all 5 skaters out there trying to think a new way and play a new style was a recipe for confusion. Lane also needs to pick his line carefully and stick with them for a minimum of 10 games, unless there is a clear disaster line. It takes time to develop chemistry.
May be they should play lots of tape from the beggining of the 2019 season. They had a 10 game win streak followed by a tough losss to the Penns then five more wins. They started out 16-1-3 that year. in 2020 they started out 19-4-6 which was also included a 9 game winning streak.
Good morning Gil and fellow Islander fans. This was a real problem and of course we hope it doesn't continue. Seems to me, Mr. Lambert was making too many changes and the team truly didn't know their role until we were in that desperate attempt to make the playoffs near the end of the season. Once we went back to coaching the team the way Barry coached, the team started winning and we were one tough team to beat. How close am I to a legitimate reason for the slow starts. Thank you, Gil for another great episode. Nice to see you back in a good rhythm again. Thanks for what you do. See you in the next episode. Until then.. Let's Go Islanders!!