Good Morning, Islanders Country.
When it comes to vying for your sports-watching attention, an NHL pre-season game for some of you, especially the first one, will finish ahead of an NFL Sunday slate or baseball games with post-season ramifications.
You are the die-hard amongst the die-hards. I applaud you.
However, if you were distracted by the baseball game in Queens or rooting for something to happen or not happen during Sunday Night Football, you get a pass.
There’s plenty of hockey to come. And while we wait for the nights when the Isles have our sole attention, for now, we do what we do after every pre-season game: overreact positively or negatively to small sample sizes against teams made up of roughly half of their opening night rosters.
Having said that, the first pre-season game had more legitimate positives than negatives. At the top of the list was Maxim Tsyplakov, the most talked about player in camp. After a misplay led to New Jersey’s first goal, he showed off his playmaking ability, making a nifty move to pull the puck back and find the stick of a darting Julien Gauthier to tie the game late in the second.
“I was very happy with his effort, and I was happy that way he played,” head coach Patrick Roy said. “That line was really good. Gauthier and MacLean played really well with him, so I thought that was fun to watch.”
It was fun, and it was the first glimpse of some of Tsyplakov's x-factor qualities, which could make a big impact on this season. More to come.
Coming up, a number of youngsters earn praise from Roy, and the Isles PK has a new, old look. Plus, how Semyon Varlamov is the only certainty in goal, 30 years since a goaltender for goaltender trade, and the Fanatics game pro jerseys are now on sale for a hefty price.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: The Islanders defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark to open the pre-season. Gauthier continued his strong camp, as he pushes for one of the last forward spots. “Driving the net, playing hard on the wall, a bit of a grit game, that's what he needs to bring on the table,” Roy said of Gauthier.
“We're looking for that's consistency tomorrow at back at the practice and ready to compete again, but I was very happy… He's having a good camp.”
Oliver Wahlstrom also drew praise from head coach Patrick Roy for his effort in the defensive end, along with an assist he picked up on Anders Lee’s goal as the Captain picked the top shelf with a wrister. Simon Holmstrom, who Roy said has looked “fantastic” in camp, added an empty netter at 19:54.
Roy also went out of his way to compliment the young line of Matthew Maggio, Alex Jefferies, and Cam Thiesing, calling them “awesome.” Thiesing, the Ohio State product, scored a beautiful end-to-end goal and had so much energy throughout the night that Roy said they had to keep him in check.
Flush it Out
The Islanders tested out their new but familiar PK. They are returning to a more aggressive style that brought success two years ago under Barry Trotz. It’s the way new defensive coach Tommy Albelin also wants to play.
“We’re running a flush [system],” Roy said on Friday. “We watched the clips from a couple years ago, the team was doing really well on the flush so we’re just gonna go back to that. [Albelin] wanted us to be a flush team and that’s the structure he wanted to use. What I love about it, that’s what this team was doing a couple years ago when they had one of the better PKs in the league.”
The "flush" is a trap-down penalty kill tactic that requires teams to be aggressive to avoid flank attacks. That means you’ll see the Isles forwards take more indirect routes to potential shooters on the flank, often forcing them to use their backhand while preventing a quick pass back to the defenseman on the blueline.
Why the change, you ask? Well, how about this stat courtesy of beat writer Ethan Sears: The Islanders’ 71.5 percent success rate at four on five last season was the tenth-worst of any team since the stat has been kept, starting in 1977-78, as well as the worst in franchise history.
Two seasons ago, the Islanders finished fourth in the league in penalty-killing at 84.2%. That season, they missed the playoffs, while last year, they found their way into the Stanley Cup Playoffs despite the PK being a major liability.
Luxury Item
Take a moment and think about how you feel about the New York Islanders 18 days before the start of the season. Now, consider how you would feel if Semyon Varlamov wasn't on this roster, given the uncertainty of Ilya Sorokin's availability.
Different right?
While Marcus Hogberg, who the Islanders signed this summer but hasn't played in the NHL since 2021, and local journeyman Keith Kinkaid are in camp, Varlamov's importance looms large weeks away from the start of the season. However, he insists it's business as usual right now.
“Nothing changes for me,” Varlamov said Saturday after day three of training camp in Newsday. “I’m just focusing on my own stuff, trying to get ready for this season. Playing a few games before the season will be important for me to get back into game shape."
Regardless of whether Sorokin is ready by the opener, we could see a more consistent and balanced rotation of starts between goaltenders this season after Sorokin appeared in 56 and 62 games over the last two seasons.
Getting Acclimated
Among the new faces at training camp is 2023 4th-round (113th overall) pick Jesse Nurmi. The 19-year-old Finnish winger signed with the London Knights of the OHL this summer to grow more accustomed to the North America game and accelerate his growth in the Islanders organization.
“I think that's best place in junior hockey in the world,” Nurmi said of the opportunity to join the OHL. “[You] just [look at] how many guys they are [sending] to the NHL from there and it’s just a great organization.”
Islanders head coach is familiar with the benefits of developing in juniors, having coached the Quebec Remparts. “I think it’ll be good for him, confidence wise, learning how to play smaller ice, learning the language, learning the way to play the game,” Roy said in NewYorkIslanders.com.
“There's a lot of a lot to learn for him and I think as a 20-year-old, he'll be ready to either play with us or with the farm team.”
📚 SOUND SMART: Undrafted free-agent signing Cam Thiesing completed a three-year career at Ohio State University, recording 16 points (nine goals, seven assists) in 31 games while serving as an alternate captain. He had 61 points (32 goals, 29 assists) in 108 career games, including a career-high 15 goals in 2022-23, which led all Buckeyes. Thiesing collected a career-high 25 points (eight goals, 17 assists) as a freshman in 2021-22, ranking third on the team in points and assists.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: Thirty years ago, on September 22, 1994, the Philadelphia Flyers re-acquired goaltender Ron Hextall and a 1995 sixth-round pick from the New York Islanders for fellow goaltender Tommy Söderström. Hextall went 27-26-6 with a 3.08 GAA in his one season on Long Island after being acquired from the Quebec Nordiques. Meanwhile, Soderstrom and his distinct oversized cage went 19-34-8 with a 3.61 GAA across three seasons with the Islanders.
🔗 Islanders coach Patrick Roy's first training camp with team focused on stamina by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Patrick Roy has structured his first training camp as Islanders coach with an emphasis on testing the players’ stamina. For instance, instead of ending long practices with endurance skating drills as is the norm, he puts them two-thirds of the way through before continuing with skill drills. Each day, Roy repeats the goal is to get off to a fast start this season.”
🔗 Islanders’ Scott Mayfield ready to go full tilt after recovering from ankle surgery by Ethan Sears, New York Post “Even his optimistic prognosis on breakup day, when he said his summer training wouldn’t be affected beyond the first couple of weeks, turned out to be not quite right. “Definitely took some time,” Mayfield said. “I jumped on the ice midsummer. Up until a month, month-and-a-half ago, it was a grind. It was a long rehab process.”
And we leave you with this ….the Fanatics Authentic Pro On-Ice Uniforms are now available and can be purchased online through Isles Lab.
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Good article, but the Québec Remparts play in the QMJHL, not the OHL.