NOW AVAILABLE! New York Islanders: A to Z will introduce a new generation of fans to the legendary players, magical moments, and colorful 50-year history of the Islanders.
Contributions from Brendan Burke, Stan Fischler, Chris King, and Jiggs McDonald.
You can purchase it HERE
A portion of the proceeds goes to the Islanders Children’s Foundation.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Islanders Country. ☘️
I am a Josh Bailey defender in the sense that I don’t think he’s the worst player in the NHL, and still believe that, at times (though those times are becoming more sparse), he adds value. If you ask any coach, teammate or former teammate about Bailey, they’ll talk about how he is an intelligent, cerebral player that does many little things that go unnoticed, but help you win hockey games.
The longest-tenured Islander was a healthy scratch on Wednesday night, marking the fifth time that’s happened this season. Now. I could be wrong, and ‘Bails’ could be right back in the lineup on Saturday night, to the chagrin of many on social media, but this latest scratch felt different.
With the returns of JG Pageau and Cal Clutterbuck, the acquisition of Pierre Engvall, and the emergence of Hudson Fasching, there isn’t anywhere to play Bailey other than swapping him in for Simon Holmstrom, who had played in 22 straight games before being held out on Tuesday. While Holmstrom hasn’t turned the corner offensively, he has been above average defensively, especially when playing on a line with Pageau.
After Bailey was scratched vs. LA, head coach Lane Lambert made it sound as if the decision to sit the 33-year-old was about rest with the team playing back-to-back games, but is he really going to change the lines again after a 6-3 win?
“I had a good conversation with Josh,” Lambert said after the game. “We’ll keep it at that. It’s private. These are decisions you have to make on a game-to-game basis, and we need to stay fresh.” Lambert has been careful with his words when discussing Bailey publicly, a veteran who undoubtedly has earned his respect. Through 61 games, he has eight goals and 17 assists, averaging 15:16 TOI, over a minute below his career average.
In turn, Bailey has handled his demotions and diminished role with class throughout the season, but he’s never been held out of the lineup for an extended period of time. That could start to change during this final playoff push, and if his spot is in question now, what happens if/when Mathew Barzal comes back?
Plenty of fans have long clamored for Bailey to lose what they perceived as his protected regular status. Now the play of a journeyman AHLer, a former first-round pick, and a speedy new acquisition may have done just that.
Coming up, the Blueshirts provide help as the Panthers score seven in the first vs. MTL. Plus, avoiding a letdown vs. the Sharks, Pierre Engvall is getting comfortable, being a better team since Bo and a Pat hatty on St. Patrick’s Day.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: The Islanders wake up tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins in points (78) after the Isles finally got some help from the New York Rangers as the Blushirts defeated the Pens 4-2 at Madison Square Garden. The two teams are now tied for the 7th spot in the Eastern Conference, but Pittsburgh has two games in hand.
The team closest to the Isles is the Florida Panthers, who became the fourth different team in NHL history with seven or more goals in the first period of a game in their 9-5 home win versus the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
In the New York Post, Ethan Sears states the obvious, the Islanders cannot lose to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. “The Islanders can’t afford to lose to a team like San Jose, which is very much in the race to tank for likely eventual No. 1 pick Connor Bedard with a 19-36-13 record going into play Thursday,” writes Sears.
He’s right, of course. Looking at these three games, four points were always the minimum. The first game against a tough and surging Kings team was the biggest test by far. Any points in that game could’ve made a good trip, a great trip. But Matt Martin’s ill-advised helmet throw and subsequent 5-on-3 LA power play short-circuited any chance of that.
The Isles need to take care of business, get on a plane and head back East and get ready for the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 21st.
◾️GETTING ACCLIMATED: For The Athletic, Kevin Kurz writes about the adjustment period new players have when joining the Islanders, as the coaching staff uses terms and lingo that can take a while to stick and get used to.
“The communication part of it and the understanding of what the language is that we use, different things that are different from other places, it takes some time to acclimatize to,” said Lane Lambert.
That, combined with the lack of true practice time and changing linemates, has made things more difficult for the newly acquired Pierre Engvall, but he’s hitting his stride and finding his way with goals in three straight games.
“We’ve all been talking a lot, on the ice what we’re going to do before we set the play,” Engvall said. “Every line I’ve been on, they’re taking very good care of me.”
⏭ NEXT UP: The Isles are back on the ice on Saturday night to take on the worst team in the Western Conference, the San Jose Sharks. Face-off is 10:30 PM ET
📊 STANDINGS: The Isles are tied in points with Pittsburgh (78) with the Penguins having two games in hand. Florida is just three points out of the final playoff spot, having played two less games than the Isles.
🏒 BEFORE AND AFTER BO: Islanders fans are keeping one eye on Anthony Beauvillier’s production in Vancouver (7G, 7A) and can’t help but compare their old Beau to their new Bo (5G, 4A). It was expected that Horvat's point production would dip later in the season due to an unsustainable shooting % with Vancouver, and that became more likely after the injury to Mathew Barzal took away an elite playmaker that showed instant chemistry with him on the ice.
Yet, the stats show that the Isles have been better offensively since his arrival, despite Barzal only playing 7 games with him as a linemate on the team’s top line. Yes, you hope he’ll find the net more often, but you can’t undersell how important his well-rounded overall game has helped the team win during this playoff push.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Kyle Palmieri recorded four points for the first time in his career. and it was only the second time he went +4. It was the Isles'' 17th comeback win of the season, tied-7th in the NHL, and their eighth win of the season when trailing after one period (5th in NHL). Brock Nelson hit thirty goals for the 2nd straight season and tied Bobby Nystrom for 10th place in club history with 235 goals.
🗓 ISLES REWIND: On March 17, 1990, the Islanders, behind Pat LaFontaine's 49th goal and a hat trick by Brent Sutter, ended a 14-game winless streak with a 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers at the Nassau Coliseum. With the score 1-1, LaFontaine shot a five-foot backhander through his own legs when Derek King passed out from the sideboards 48 seconds into the second period.
LaFontaine added two assists and set up the tiebreaking goal by Patrick Flatley in the second period. Sutter scored the game's last two goals to raise his season total to 28. The Islanders, 0-11-3 in their previous 14 games, were in danger of tying the 15-game winless streak (0-13-2) set by the 1972-73 expansion Islanders.
🎥 Flashback: Heels and Flats Show: The Difference Between CFL and NFL. Here’s some video of the comedy duo after Stan Fischler’s story from Wednesday.
🔗 Islanders avoid frustration, get a boost from newcomer Pierre Engvall by Kevin Kurz, The Athletic “One phrase that gets bandied about frequently this time of the year about teams well out of the playoff race is that they’re “playing free.” Islanders coach Lane Lambert used it a couple of hours before facing the Ducks on Wednesday night at Honda Center, when asked about lowly Anaheim and San Jose”
🔗 Isles' path to the playoffs not an easy task, but it's easier than all the teams chasing them by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Making the playoffs still won’t be easy. But the Islanders may have a smoother path to a postseason berth than any of the five teams still chasing them for an Eastern Conference wild-card spot even if they have the fewest games remaining.”
And we leave you with this…we love seeing the Isles Meetups groups on the road and love when the Isles Meetup groups see a win on the road. A great turnout for the San Diego crew in Anaheim on Wednesday night.
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