Good Morning, Islanders Country.
It was pretty much a washout on Monday, but the rain let up long enough in the afternoon for the annual Islanders Children’s Foundation charity golf event to get in, which is a planned off-day during the training camp calendar and an unofficial kick-off to the season for those expected to be on the roster.
That meant we got a chance to hear from head coach Lane Lambert for the first time in 148 days (h/t Stefen Rosner for the calendar calculation). You may recall that neither Lambert nor GM Lou Lamoriello spoke at the end of the regular season, leading to speculation that a shakeup of some kind was in play.
It wasn’t; it was just Lou being Lou. There were no changes to report, so there was no reason for Lane or Lou to speak, he reasoned.
Lane, unlike his predecessor, kept things very close to the vest during his first season as head coach, and he didn’t reveal too much on Monday either, other than he sleeps well with Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov as his goaltenders. He also stated that will be more active with special teams this season after the Islanders finished 30th in the league in power play percentage.
It may not feel like it, but the Islanders did make strides last season, especially at the end of the year, and now get to start fresh with the same group that ended the season strong and with a coach who has spent the summer thinking about ways to make them even better.
Coming up, Bo and Barzy hope to get a chance to rekindle their chemistry, and Scott Mayfield believes the group can still find a next level. Plus, Anders Lee joins the 32 Thoughts podcast, four Islanders break into The Athletic’s Top 125, and Mathew Barzal breaks hearts with a trip to the barbershop.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: The Islanders were available to the media over the weekend at Anders Lee’s Kancer Jam Fundraiser at Northwell Health Ice Center and then again on Monday afternoon at the golf outing, meaning we heard from a lot of players and coaches for the first time since the end of the season.
That includes Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat, two players in their prime (Barzal, 26, Horvat, 28), and both entering the start of their eight-year contracts. While Lane Lambert would only say that the team would be “experimenting” during training camp, Barzal and Horvat sounded like two players who fully expect to have an opportunity to build on what they started last season.
◾️ REKINDLE WHAT WE HAD: “I’m not sure what the plan is here, but hopefully, we can rekindle what we had,” said Horvat. “It was a lot of fun to play with him when he was healthy. It was tough for him and I, especially him, coming back in the playoff series. I’m just looking forward to both of us getting a training camp under our belt and hit the ground running.”
◾️FREEDOM: “Talking to Lane a little bit, we’re both going to have the freedom to play instinctively,” Barzal said. “[Horvat] is a beast in the circle, so he’ll take a lot of faceoffs. I’m sure if there’s a situation where I’m in the middle, and he’s on the wall, we’ll just roll with it. We’re both smart enough to adjust on the fly.”
◾️ In the New York Post, beat writer Ethan Sears writes about defenseman Scott Mayfield and the reasons he wanted to stay with the Islanders. Mayfield had talked extensively about his love for Long Island and the life he, his wife, and his dog have made there, but he also thinks they can win.
“I was pretty honest with [general manager] Lou [Lamoriello] at the beginning that if I felt like this wasn’t a place we could win, I don’t know if our talks would’ve gone the same way,” said Mayfield.
“I always thought this was a team that could win. We’ve had some success, but we just gotta make sure we could find that next level.”
Mayfield spoke about how he and fellow blueliners Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock all came up through Bridgeport together, and while they’ve tasted success individually and collectively, there’s more to accomplish.
“Now it’s [about] finding that next level because we kinda knocked on the door, but we gotta make sure we find that little bit more now.”
🎙 SportsNet's Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek interviewed "super athlete" and New York Islanders captain Anders Lee on the 32 Thoughts podcast. After they discussed Lee's prowess as a football player and why he chose hockey over other sports, they talked about the state of the Isles and the team's outlook heading into the 2023-24 season.
"We did a lot of good things at the end of the year, said Lee. "We didn't like the way the series ended, but from where we can take some of that, there's a lot of opportunity there."
Lee talked about the impact Pierre Engvall made last season, Bo Horvat’s leadership, Barzal’s guitar playing, and the longevity of the Identity Line. He also reminisced on the team’s run to the Eastern Conference Finals in the bubble.
“One of my favorite hockey memories, honestly. It was a road hockey tournament with 25 of your buddies. It got long for sure, but we’re in the middle of a run. You felt unstoppable.”
◾️ The Athletic published their 2023-24 player tiers, featuring a list of the top 125 players in hockey (only skaters, no goalies.). The Islanders had four players on the list: Mathew Barzal, Adam Pelech, Bo Horvat, and Brock Nelson.
The Isles didn’t land anyone in the Top 1 (MVP) or Top 2 (Franchise) tier.
Barzal was the highest-rated Islander, ending up in Tier 3, which was defined as “a player that wouldn’t be the best player on a contender but would be an integral part of any contending or championship core.”
The rest all landed in Tier 4, described as “a player that would be a strong support piece within a contending or championship core. A below-average top-line forward or average top-pair defenseman.”
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On September 18th, 2021, defenseman Zdeno Chara agreed to terms with the Islanders on a one-year deal, returning 25 years later to the organization that drafted him to chase the Stanley Cup one more time at age 44. “It's kind of full circle,” Chara said. “Who would know that this would kind of work out the way it did after 20-some years?
🔗 Islanders captain Anders Lee scores big with his Kan Jam event by Peter Schwartz, WFAN.com “Islanders Captain Anders Lee has been a “jambassador” for the “Jam Kancer In The Kan” Foundation since 2016 and through his efforts more than $500,000 has been raised from fundraising events held in local communities and NHL cities across the country.”
🔗 Rekindling Chemistry Vital for Islanders Barzal & Horvat by Stefen Rosner, The Hockey News “Through six games together, it was clear Barzal and Horvat had chemistry, with their strong five-on-five game seeping into the power play, a collective unit that was struggling mightily and needed the added boost.”
And we leave you with this…a Barzy Buzz cut! If you saw Mathew Barzal over the summer on social media taking MMA lessons, playing the guitar, or participating at Kancer Jam, you saw his long-flowing locks looking in mid-season form. You’ll have to wait a while to see it again, as he’s starting the season with a fresh cut.
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter for regular updates until the next newsletter.
And please check out our newsletters about the Knicks and Mets, too.