All is well in Islanders universe right now, beating Toronto 3-2 on Monday, then routing Tampa Bay 6-2 at home on Thursday night in prime time. The Islanders are playing their best hockey of the season right now and almost all of the reasons why has to do with who’s behind the bench.
Not only was the hire of Patrick Roy very important and great for the team, the hire of Benoit Desrosiers is starting to pay dividends as well. Desrosiers was Roy’s right hand man as an assistant with him in the QMJHL for the Quebec Ramparts, and they have the Islanders playing much more structured defensive hockey. The Islanders defensively have reverted to the physical, forechecking and structured defensive system similar to what we saw under Barry Trotz. The Islanders are getting some great defensive play by almost everyone on the team. I want to note two players. Pierre Engvall had a big impact defensively yesterday. Not only was he finishing his checks, his size and range play a big role in his ability to get in the way of passing lanes as well as poke the puck free. As for Mathew Barzal, he had one great play in particular backchecking a 2-on-1 opportunity against Nikita Kucherov and Braydon Point and was able to break up the play. If the Islanders can continue their defensive intensity while producing how they are offensively on the other end, they’re going to be a very difficult team to stop come playoff time.
I want to highlight how great the duo of Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat has been this year. Horvat is tied for first on the team in goals with 21, 26 assists and has 47 total points. This is the type of production we expected when the Islanders traded Aatu Räty, Anthony Beauvillier, and a first round pick for last season. Horvat is the linemate that Barzal has been missing for his entire career at this point, and now that they’re together they’re producing at an elite level. Speaking of Barzal, he’s having the best season of his career. He has 15 goals, 39 assists for 54 points and playing at a Point-Per-Game pace. This duo didn’t have much time to produce last year, as Barzal got injured just 8 games after the trade, and didn’t look like his normal self in the playoffs. But this year this duo is showing itself to be an elite one in the NHL, and the Islanders will look to make it back to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they still have a long way to go.
Lastly, I want to highlight the defensive pairing of Alexander Romanov and Noah Dobson. This is a pairing that many were excited about last season after the Islanders traded a first round pick to Montreal for him. In its first year this pair didn’t find as much success, as Romanov was still adjusting to playing a full NHL Season, and that affected Dobson’s production as a result. By the end of the year Romanov was playing some great defensive hockey in the playoffs while having a torn labrum. As for Dobson, his defensive lapses had him on the third pair with Sebastian Aho. This year that did a full 180. Dobson is 2nd on the team in points (7G, 46A), and is currently a candidate for the Norris trophy for the best defensemen in the NHL. Alexander Romanov isn’t putting up that kind of point production, but he’s playing some great defensive hockey and has shown that his shot can be an asset on the offensive end (5G, 8A). This pair saw a lot more minutes together after Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock went down with injuries, but now that they are producing and Pelech and Pulock are both back, the Islanders have shutdown defensive pairings that are producing at both ends of the ice.
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