Good Morning, Islanders Country.
You’ve likely seen the movie A League of Their Own (no way Dottie dropped the ball on purpose, but I digress). You know the scene when Tom Hank’s character Jimmy Dugan is talking to Dottie Hinson after she tells her that playing baseball and everything that went along just got too hard? This is how he responded.
“If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great.”
21-year-old prospect Matthew Maggio is finding that out.
The jump from OHL Most Outstanding Player to the American Hockey League was far from easy last season. “I didn’t think pro hockey was going to be this hard,” Maggio admitted to a Bridgeport assistant coach while riding the bus, recounted head coach Rick Kowalsky.
The 2022 5th-round pick learned first-hand how to face adversity and battle the daily grind of professional hockey. However, Maggio didn’t let it discourage him. Instead, he used it as fuel to make him better. He scored 16 goals in 61 games, not bad, but he was far from satisfied.
Maggio worked this season to get stronger (his dead is a strength and conditioning coach) and worked on his shot in a “shooting room” in his basement that has fake ice (I kid you not), receiving pucks from pops. Pretty cool.
At last year’s camp, Maggio was brimming with confidence, even stating that he was pushing for a roster spot. That was never realistic, and now Maggio sounds more grounded in reality. He knows what he needs to do to bring his game to the next level, no matter how hard it gets, because that, after all is what will make him reaching the NHL that much greater.
Coming up, Patrick Roy readies to open a camp for the first time in nearly a decade, and Anthony Duclair thinks the Isles top line can be dangerous. Plus, Rick DiPietro has some injury advice for Ilya Sorokin, the Islanders’ first-ever pre-season game and the promotional calendar is out.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: Tuesday was the sixth and final day of Rookie Training Camp, and as enjoyable as it is to see highlights of the team’s top prospects and hear about their growth, we’re ready for the real thing, and so is Patrick Roy.
Teams around the league will take their physicals and have some media scrums before taking the ice on Thursday, where Roy will be waiting.
This will be the Isles’ head coach’s first NHL training camp since 2015, and there’s been a lot of optimism and curiosity around what an entire camp will do for a roster that had to learn the Hall-of-Famer’s system on the fly last season.
There appear to be few open spots, with Oliver Wahlstrom, Hudson Fasching, and Simon Holmstrom vying for the “12th forward” role. Meanwhile, Matt Martin returns on a PTO, aiming to prove that he can still play the role of team enforcer and more as he tries to extend his career on Long Island in the NHL overall.
Let's Get Dangerous!
Anthony Duclair is excited to play with Mathew Barzal; the feeling is mutual.
The Isles free-agent signing, penciled in to start the season on the top line with Barzal and Bo Horvat, called the flashy playmaker a ‘superstar’ he can make ‘some magic out there’ with once the season gets going and Barzal agrees.
“Just seeing him the last two weeks, he can fly up the ice,” Barzal said at Monday’s golf outing. “Off transition and fast breaks, definitely with that speed, we could be dangerous. I’m excited to see where it goes.”
Horvat anchoring the line provides skill and stability as he looks to score 30+ goals for the third consecutive season after netting 33 in his first full season with the Islanders. Duclair is familiar with Horvat’s game, which is why he is excited about what the trio can produce together. “I know Bo really well,” Duclair said.
“A real solid 200-foot player, a guy you can rely upon in any situation. I’m really excited to play with him and learn from him. He’s got those leadership skills… he’s just a really good person all around.”
Take Warning
In an exclusive for the New York Post, beat writer Ethan Sears caught up with former Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro to ask what advice he would give Ilya Sorokin after it was revealed he had off-season back surgery. Sorokin is entering the first year of an eight-year contract extension he signed on Jul 1, 2023. The contract is about half as long as DiPietro signed for, but the pressures of being a franchise goaltender are similar, as is the need to remain healthy.
“If I were to advise him, I would say get to 100 percent. The reason why you had whatever [surgery] you had done was to get back to 100 percent because once the season starts and you start grinding — as you start is the best you’ll feel the entire season. So I would say get to 100 percent, focus on your body, focus on strengthening whatever the area is, all those muscles that are attached to where he got the work done.”
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On Sept. 18, 1972, the Islanders took the ice for the first time, making their NHL debut in a pre-season contest against the Atlanta Flames, another expansion franchise. The Isles lost 4-1 to in Drummondville, Quebec, weeks before losing to the same Flames team for real in their first regular season game at the Nassau Coliseum.
📺 Up The Turnpike: Matt O'Leary discusses New York Islanders rookie camp standouts and the biggest storylines of the day
🔗 Islanders Prospect Maggio On Improving His Release & Why That's So Important For A Player Of His Size by Stefen Rosner, The Hockey News “The 21-year-old, standing at 5'11 and weighing 187 pounds, is a goal scorer; there's no question about that, after scoring 56 goals in his final OHL season before scoring 16 goals in 61 games during his rookie AHL campaign with the Bridgeport. It was a difficult transition from juniors to the OHL, as time and space aren't as readily available in pro hockey.”
🔗 Patrick Roy facing some difficult lineup calls in his first Islanders training camp by Ethan Sears, New York Post “It’s not quite the Same Old Isles who will show up at training camp this week, but it’s pretty far from a whole new world. Longtime stalwart Cal Clutterbuck is gone and Matt Martin is unlikely to make the team after signing a PTO, while Anthony Duclair and Maxim Tsyplakov enter, constituting the first meaningful change to the Islanders forward group since Bo Horvat and Pierre Engvall came in at the 2023 trade deadline”
And we leave you with this…the Islanders released their promotional schedule, which includes the matinee against the Nashville Predators on Mar. 1st for Next-Gen Day. What possible could go wrong?
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