Islanders look to solidify defensive play despite losing key blueliners
Adam Pelech of the Islanders skates against the Colorado Avalanche at UBS Arena on Oct. 24. Credit: Jim McIsaac
President/general manager Lou Lamoriello has been building rosters from the net on out, emphasizing the importance of solid defense, since entering the NHL in 1987. So this season certainly represents a bit of a role reversal for the Islanders from Lamoriello’s first five teams on Long Island.
The offense, including the power play, has been very productive. The defense, including the penalty kill, has been suspect at times.
The Islanders (16-8-9) resume their season on Wednesday night against the Penguins at UBS Arena after the three-day Christmas break sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division and having gained at least one point in 17 of their last 19 games. That’s good but the Islanders know they can be better.
Tightening their defensive game — remember, key defensemen Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock and Scott Mayfield are all injured — is priority No. 1.
“I think we’re doing some very good things offensively,” coach Lane Lambert said. “I think our team is transitioning the puck very well, maybe the best I’ve seen in a long time. We’re scoring goals.
“What we’re interested in is being better defensively. We feel we can be better defensively and I think our offense and our power play has helped us.”
The Islanders are ninth in the Eastern Conference with 104 goals scored and eighth with 108 goals allowed. Their goal differential of minus-4 makes them one of only three teams currently holding a playoff spot to be negative in that category.
The defensive hiccups have been most noticeable late in games.
The Islanders are 13-1-4 when leading after two periods, which is not great by NHL standards. And of the 22 times they’ve led in the third period, the Islanders have been unable to hold the lead 13 times.
Their often-maligned power play is ranked an impressive sixth in the NHL while their long-touted penalty kill is languishing at No. 32, worst in the league.
The Islanders, of course, do have hope for improved defensive play.
The three injured defensemen will, presumably, be rejoining the lineup at to-be-determined intervals. Plus the Islanders have one of the more solid goalie tandems in the NHL with Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov (though the organization cannot withstand an injury to either with no NHL-ready goalie available to step in).
And the Islanders’ overall play is trending in the right direction, which can only help to improve the defense. They are 8-1-3 starting with a 5-4 overtime road win against the Hurricanes on Nov. 30 through Saturday’s 5-4 road victory against the Hurricanes.
“We’ve started playing well,” Cal Clutterbuck said. “We’ve started to consistently be a good team. A very hard team to beat. A team that’s been able to win different ways. We’re building into something positive.”
“We’re legit, you know?” Julien Gauthier said. “We’re a good team right now. We’ve figured it out a lot in the past three, four weeks. We’ve just got to keep climbing in the standings and make sure we’re ready when the playoffs come later on.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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