Throughout the offseason, and even through the season-opening 3-1 loss to Florida, Islanders fans and hockey experts wondered how the Isles were going to get an offensive boost this season. They did sign Mat Barzal to an eight-year extension, but they were unable to land a big-name free agent or make a trade for some offensive help.
Internally, there is hope that prospects like Aatu Raty, William Dufour, and Simon Holmstrom will be key contributors down the road, but for now, the answers have to come from within – and that includes the Islanders’ defensemen, who chipped in huge on Saturday night with five goals in a 7-1 win over Anaheim.
It was the fourth time in Islanders history that defensemen accounted for five goals in a single game, and that type of production from the blue line is certainly going to help the Islanders get back to being a Stanley Cup contender.
“You look around the league and the top teams all get contributions from the back-end night in and night out, so it’s an important part of the game,” said Noah Dobson. “We just want to continue that way and it’s definitely important for us to help and chip in.”
Dobson scored his second goal of the season in Saturday night’s game. Scott Mayfield scored twice and so did Robin Salo, who also had a +4 rating, joining Hall of Famer Denis Potvin as the only two defensemen in Islanders history to reach those totals in the same game. Mayfield also became the third defenseman in Islanders history to record his first career multi-goal game at age 30 or older.
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It's one game, and the Islanders can’t expect five goals from defensemen in a single game all the time, but it was certainly nice to see and bodes well for the rest of the season.
“It’s huge,” said forward Anthony Beauvillier, who scored one of the other goals Saturday. “They’re definitely more involved and up in the play and more aggressive. It’s good to see them get rewarded for that. If they can score five every night, it would be good for us.”
“Teams are so good structurally that when you get in on the forecheck you want to have your D pinching down to keep pucks alive and joining the rush and trying to create odd-man rushes,” added forward Matt Martin. “It’s hard to beat people one-on-one, so any time you can create an outnumber situation, your chances of scoring are going to go up.”
So far, six of the Islanders eight goals this season have come from defensemen, with Beauvillier’s goal and Oliver Wahlstrom’s breakaway goal on Saturday night being the lone tallies from the forwards.
The hope is that they eventually find the back of the net.
“As long as we’re getting chances, we’ll eventually have some production from that standpoint,” said Head Coach Lane Lambert. “It would be more concerning if they didn’t generate chances.”
“We have the chances,” said Beauvillier. “As long as you have chances, that means you’re doing good things offensively. We just want to keep that going.”
What the Islanders have been able to do is create a lot of traffic in front of the net. To this point, it hasn’t equated to a lot of goals from the forwards, but it’s easy to see the change in the Islanders’ style of play so far this season.
The defensemen are pinching in and joining the rush, and they’re getting shots towards the net. With a little puck luck, those big bodies in front will find a way to see that the pucks find their way in.
“Just more aggressive up the ice,” said Dobson. “I think we’ve changed the way to play a little offensively. I think it’s been good so far but we just want to continue to build our game and get better each night.”
“We’re finding a lot more pucks on net,” said Martin. “We’re creating a lot more dirty pucks and we have to continue to do that. Our D has been up in the play which has been great.”
After a split of their first two games, the Islanders continue their season-opening four-game homestand on Tuesday night, when they welcome the San Jose Sharks to UBS Arena. San Jose is off to an 0-4 start, but the Islanders aren’t about to take them lightly.
“They’re a hard-working team,” said Martin. “I know they’re off to a rough start so they’ll be hungry to get a win. We have to match their intensity in our building. They’re capable of winning hockey games so we have to come with the right mindset.”
“We’ve looked at them,” said Lambert. “It’s like I would say with every team. Obviously, there’s little differences between each team but really the focus is on our team and how we’re playing.”
Two games amount to a small sample size, but the Islanders are feeling pretty good about where they are at this moment. Secondary scoring is always important for any team with championship aspirations and the Islanders are getting that early on from their defensemen.
Now once the forwards start finding the back of the net and the power play starts to click, the Islanders should be back in business when you start talking about the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
Follow Peter Schwartz on Twitter: @SchwartzSports
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