The New York Islanders are in need of a shakeup.
Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Metropolitan’s fifth-ranked Philadelphia Flyers was one of the Islanders’ worst outings of the season as they fell out of first place in the division.
It was the third time in their last four games that the Islanders scored just a single goal. There’s no coincidence that they lost all three of those games during a brutal stretch of schedule that saw New York take on some of the league’s top teams in the span of a week in the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the now-first-place Washington Capitals before their stinker to the Flyers on Sunday, which capped off a three-game-in-four-day stretch.
New York’s lone win during the last week came in an emotional 6-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in John Tavares’ return to the Nassau Coliseum on Thursday.
Over their last seven games, the Islanders have won just twice, their worst stretch since last calendar year when they went 2-4-2 over eight games from Dec. Nov. 26-Dec. 12.
It has head coach Barry Trotz in search of answers.
“I don’t know, you want to be able to bring it every night,” Trotz said. “This was three in four nights or three-and-a-half with a couple of emotionally-charged games. I thought we were fine going into it… we sort of sagged a little bit.”
The lack of offensive success has put far too much pressure on New York’s league-leading defense and goaltending tandem and those cracks are beginning to show. Over this seven-game stretch, the Islanders have allowed three or more goals five times. During their previous 20 games, that happened just seven times.
If this is an indication that struggles lay ahead for the defense, it is even more imperative that the Islanders have to shake up their lineup, which they might have to do out of necessity after seeing two-thirds of their fourth line in Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck go down with injury.
Flexing in the likes of Andrew Ladd, — who recently returned from injury and would be a prime candidate for a healthy scratch if not for his Stanley Cup experience and monster contract — Ross Johnston, and Tom Kuhnhackl isn’t going to help. None of those three can add any sort of legitimate offensive or playmaking punch to an offensive-needy team that needs to figure things out quickly if they want to remain safe in the postseason race.
The Islanders’ answers are down in the AHL in the form of 22-year-old Michael Dal Colle and 23-year-old Josh Ho-Sang, two young wingers who made New York a far more threatening team during their brief stints in the NHL this year.
While he only had two points in 10 games, Ho-Sang’s ability to move the puck and facilitate an attack saw the Islanders go 9-1 while he was in the lineup. They also averaged 3.6 goals per game during his stay compared to their seasonal average of just 2.8 goals per game.
Dal Colle’s presence in the Islanders lineup provided similar levels of success as they went 13-5-2 in 20 games.
While both players spent most of their NHL time on the Islanders’ third line, their playmaking abilities could do wonders on the team’s young second line alongside Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier. It would allow New York to flex the other youngster along with Josh Bailey to the third line and push Andrew Ladd and Leo Komarov to the fourth line while Clutterbuck and Martin recover.
