Good Morning, Islanders Country.
You’ve heard of people taking a year to “find themselves,” a process by which they get to know and accept one's genuine, innermost self. New year, new you, right?
Lane Lambert has now coached the Islanders for nearly a season and a half and 36 games into this second season as head coach; it still doesn’t feel like this team has “found” themselves yet.
Any talk about the Islanders’ identity is leftover residue from the Barry Trotz teams from 2018-2021. Many names are the same, but the Isles’ formula for success no longer mirrors the Trotz teams consistently.
They do some things well, other things average, and some things poorly, and what’s been most perplexing is that those things were interchangeable at different times throughout 2023.
They have elite goaltending that’s been average this season. A power play that went from one of the league’s worst to among the league’s best for a long stretch. A reliable penalty kill that has been leaky all year and a supposed structured defensive game that is surrendering the second-most shots per game this season.
It doesn’t make much sense.
The Isles are in playoff position as 2024 starts, and if you believe that they can make a deep postseason run, it’s because they have shown they can do everything winning teams do, just not all at once.
So, at a time of the year when people are motivated to reinvent themselves and reimagine what they can accomplish, the Islanders need to refine their game and find a way to do the many things they do well, consistently and at all at once.
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