The Holiday Spirit
Isles are 'starting to feel good' about their game; NHL Olympic fate is official
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Do you know where Mat Barzal is? Isles Nation and apparently the Nashville Predators are very interested in his whereabouts.
Maybe he’s holed up in a Detroit hotel room or perhaps is choosing to spend his remaining days in Covid protocol as a recluse. But one place we won’t find him in the near future is Beijing. The NHL made it official on Wednesday, players won’t be participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Coming up, The Athletic explains why the Isles were in good spirits before the holiday break and we catch you up on some of the team’s top prospects. Plus, a birthday for an underappreciated member of the dynasty blue line and a way to win “fish sticks” before the seven fishes are served on Christmas Eve.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: As fun as it would have been to possibly see the likes of Mathew Barzal, Adam Pelech, and Ilya Sorokin suit up for their countries, it’s now official that NHL players will not be participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. In an official announcement released Wednesday, the league stated it will utilize available dates between February 6th - 22nd to reschedule games that have been postponed.
The Islanders have three postponed games (@PHI, vs MTL, vs. WSH) that have yet to be rescheduled.
⬇️ BRIDGEPORT BOUND: Late Tuesday night, the Islanders sent Austin Czarnik back to the Bridgeport Islanders after the NHL postponed the season until after the holiday break. Czarnik has a goal and two assists in six games with the Isles this season and has drawn praise from the coaching staff and his teammates.
“I think with Austin, you saw in the games he played two things,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said last week. “He was able to make some really good offensive plays. Scored a goal, but it was trust. You watch his positioning in his own end, all those types of things. The right play at the right time, he was doing that.”
⏭ NEXT UP: Two more sleeps until Christmas and four more sleeps until the Islanders’ next scheduled game against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday, December 27th.
📊 STANDINGS:
↗️MOMENTUM?: The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz is getting settled on the Long Island hockey beat, and with that comes a fresh opinion on what’s been a strange and frustrating season for the Islanders.
In Kurz’s latest, Can the Islanders maintain their momentum? NHL’s pause comes just when they were ‘starting to feel good,’ the title may take you by surprise as it doesn’t really feel like the Islanders ever actually got said momentum. However, as Kurz accurately points out, there was a slew of reasons the Islanders had a slow start from the 13-game road trip, injuries, and a COVID outbreak in the Islanders locker room. But, now that most of that is in the rearview mirror for the Isles, a new leaf appears to be turning.
“I thought we played really well (Sunday),” said Barry Trotz. “Didn’t get the two points against what I think is probably the best team right now, or one of the best teams in the league anyway, and we went toe-to-toe with them. … Starting to feel good about (our) game.”
And although the team has “returned to health” on the ice, Kurz refers to a scout about the lasting effects of COVID on the Isles skaters. “A lot of them, try as they might, they’re just not the same players,” the scout said. “And it’s not that these guys don’t care about playing well and playing hard. They do. But you see how some of these teams are playing, and I look at the Islanders — they’re an older group of athletes compared to some other teams around the league. They (weren’t) playing that well, and I think that (COVID-19) has a lot to do with it.”
The largest obstacle to overcome came on the blueline. Pulock went down with an injury, and all but Scott Mayfield went down with COVID among the Isles six regular blueliners. “You can sort of win games with, I’ll say, lesser quality forwards,” Trotz said. “But it’s hard to do with the D.”
The below chart per Natural Stat Trick featured in the article shows the impact of all the mixing and matching due to games lost on the blueline. None of the Islanders’ most-frequently-used defense pairs has Corsi % above 50 percent.
When the Islanders return from the holiday break, they’ll likely have Mathew Barzal back, and it’s possible Pulock isn’t far behind. Trotz and Co. have collected five of eight possible points in their last four games, and although the “momentum” is paused, they know what they have to do when things ramp back up.
“We would have loved to play (Monday), but that wasn’t in the cards,” said Trotz. “So we’ve got to maintain it somehow. I think the guys understand it. You hope it doesn’t dissipate.”
😷 TOUGH LUCK: Aatu Räty will not join Team Finland at the World Junior Championship as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak hitting his Liiga club team, Jukurit. Unfortunately, Räty doesn’t meet the timeline requirements to properly quarantine and later join Finland in Canada where the World Junior Championships are being held. Räty has six goals and seven assists for 13 points in 11 games played with Jukurit.
🚨DU-FOUR x FOUR: Despite being cut from Canada’s WJC roster, William Dufour continues to run rampant through the QMJHL. Currently, Dufour is riding a 16 game point streak where he has accrued 29 points (12G, 17A) in that span.
⑤ TOP FIVE: While we’re on the subject of prospects, Eyes on Isles’ Michel Anderson put out a video on his YouTube channel Deckhands, rating the Top 5 prospects in the Islanders system. His rankings are: 1) Kieffer Bellows, 2) Aatu Räty, 3) Otto Koivula 4) Jakub Skarek 5) Robin Salo.
Now before you ask how Bellows is still a prospect or why Salo isn’t higher check out the full video and let Michel explain and defend his position.
👩🏫 SOUND SMART: You may not be surprised to learn at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Pat LaFontaine led Team USA with nine points (5G, 4A) in six games and finished eighth in scoring overall in the tournament. But what you likely don’t know is that the overall point leader in the tournament was Germany’s Erich Kuhnhackl, father of ex-Islander ‘Handsome Tom’ Kuhnhackl. The younger Kuhnhackl is currently playing for Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Hockey League.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: Stefan Persson celebrated his 67th birthday yesterday. The former Islander and fellow Swede, Anders Kallur were the first European trained players to win the Stanley Cup after claiming it with the Isles in 1980.
🎧 Islanders Anxiety - Episode 184 - Short End of the Stick: Mike and Dan talk about a good win and two frustrating losses for the Islanders, and are joined by The Athletic’s Arthur Staple to hear stories of his decade on the team’s beat.
🔗 Residents near UBS Arena address parking issues during Islanders games, by News 12 Staff, News 12: “People who live near the UBS Arena say they are already fed up with the parking situation there. Many came down to a Town of Hempstead meeting to voice their concerns.”
🎧 Nassaumen Hockey Podcast: After careful consideration, Nassaumen Hockey Podcast has decided to postpone until next week. We’ll resume with your regularly scheduled program - and our special guest - after the holiday. Stay tuned, and be sure to catch up on any episodes you may have missed!
And we leave you with this …. Islanders fan and author Nick Hishon is giving away a copy of his book “We Want Fishsticks” if #IslesTwitter can get him to 3,100 followers by 1 pm on Christmas Eve. Nick is a fun follow, so help get him to 3,100 and RT for a chance to win.
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