Islanders get opportunity for test run in preseason games
Lane Lambert, Islanders head coach, speaks with the media after a day of training camp at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. Credit: James Escher
The opening three practices of Islanders training camp have afforded Lane Lambert the chance to do some early, basic player evaluations.
But the start of the Islanders’ six-game preseason schedule will allow the new coach to form more in-depth opinions on how to deploy his personnel.
“They’re being evaluated in everything they do,” Lambert said. “But there’s nothing like game action. When you ask a question, sometimes I just say it’s too early to tell because we have to wait for that progression as we go.”
The Islanders will face the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday night and play the Devils at Prudential Center on Tuesday night. The first cutdowns to the 59-man training camp roster could come Wednesday.
The Islanders were off on Sunday after Lambert put the team through some fundamental drills and early work on installing his system Thursday through Saturday.
“Every coach runs his camp differently,” Kyle Palmieri said. “Sometimes you do some intrasquad scrimmaging. But it’s hard to mimic the game. We’re doing some system stuff, but it’s different in a game and you have to react to other players and other systems.
“It’s going to be a good opportunity for us to test the most things out in a game and get a little more comfortable with the tweaks to the system that Lane has made so far.”
In reality, Lambert has few roster decisions upcoming with Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov set as the goalie tandem, the top five defensemen known and 14 forwards returning.
But a prospect such as Simon Holmstrom, the 23rd overall pick in 2019 who has played three seasons with the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport, could use the preseason to push for a spot. Lambert said on Friday that Holmstrom has played well in training camp and that the organization is happy with his progression.
The Islanders have not hinted at their game group for either Monday or Tuesday. President and general manager Lou Lamoriello said before training camp that each player will get a minimum of one preseason game but will not play two in a row.
“I think it’s good to have the three days to kind of get back in the swing of things and get your systems going,” defenseman Noah Dobson said. “But it’s different in the games, and that’s where you get video of the way guys are playing and how we’re playing together.”
Defenseman Ryan Pulock said he’s sensed a familiar mindset despite the new coach and tweaks to the system. The Islanders are coming off their first playoff miss since 2018 after reaching the NHL final four in back-to-back seasons.
“Everyone in here knows that we’re good enough to get back to the level where we were,” Pulock said. “We also know that last year wasn’t good enough. I can see it within the first couple of days that guys are ready to go to work and ready to really prove people wrong. If you go back to the previous few years, that’s the mindset that we really played off of.”
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.
