When constructing a professional sports team, there’s a number of different ways to compile a roster with the hope of winning a championship. It all starts with drafting good players but you also have free agency and trades that can contribute to the blueprint for success. At the end of the day, a general manager and head coach would love to have an endless supply of star players, but that isn’t always possible.
And even if you have them, it’s hard in the salary cap era to keep all of them.
When you look at the Islanders, they’ve enjoyed some playoff success over the last few years, including back-to-back trips to the NHL’s final four, and they’ve done it with a roster that doesn’t exactly blow you away on paper.
“The way we’re built, we’ve got some really good players but I don’t think we have the compliment of four or five guys that are stars or megastars,” said head coach Barry Trotz.
The Islanders came up short in the 2020 Eastern Conference Final falling with the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. They lost game two when the Lightning scored the game winning goal in the final seconds and the series ended with a Tampa Bay overtime goal in game six.
And then last season, the Islanders took the Lightning the distance losing game seven in Tampa Bay 1-0 on a shorthanded goal. The Isles also lost a close game two 4-2 and then dropped game three 2-1. For the second straight year, the Islanders came just a few goals short of beating the team that would go on to win the Stanley Cup.
Could another star player or two have helped in both cases?
Perhaps, but the Islanders have won six playoff series over the last three seasons and have twice come up just short of making it to the Stanley Cup Final playing a system that has given them the best chance of winning with the players that they have.
They have done it without a roster chock full of all-stars.
“We don’t have that so we have to spread out the wealth a little bit and we rely on our system and everybody contributing,” said Trotz.
For a number of reasons, the Islanders did not get off to a good start this season. You could point to players who have missed time because of COVID-19 and injuries, a season-opening 13-game road trip as the team awaited the completion of their new home UBS Arena, and the numerous stops and starts to the schedule because of pandemic-related issues.
There’s also this very important stat…the Islanders are LAST in the NHL with just 83 goals scored this season.
Is that why the Islanders are just 15-14-6 for 36 points and trying to climb back into the playoff race?
It could be, but could you imagine where they would be if they weren’t FIRST in the NHL with just 91 goals allowed?
The Islanders have a system in place and the players have to follow that system in order to win games and stockpile points. The magic number for the Islanders’ blueprint for victory is three. Because the Islanders play so well defensively, they have a record of 13-2-2 when they score three goals or more.
But the system has a backup plan.
“If the game presents itself and we have to win 1-0, I think we can do that,” said Trotz. “We don’t look at going into the game we gotta get three goals. I think, for us, if we’re defending well and playing a 200-foot game and we’re competing in the areas with our mindset and or group of guys, our goaltending…when we get to three, we should be looking at getting at least a point or maybe two.”
I haven’t mentioned any names of players yet in this article because, let’s face it: the Islanders have to play as a team in order to be successful because that’s the hand that they’ve been dealt. Make no mistake about it, the Islanders have some really talented players like goalie Ilya Sorokin, defensemen Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock (injured) and Noah Dobson, and forwards Mat Barzal, Anders Lee and Brock Nelson.
Notice that I started with between the pipes and worked my up the ice?
Like it or not, that’s how the Islanders are built. They are system-based, they pay attention to detail and they focus on playing defense first. They can also create plenty of chances offensively and after a slow start they’re getting back to doing enough to start winning games on a regular basis.