In the words of the late great Tom Petty, “the waiting is the hardest part.”
While the NHL season begins on Tuesday night, the Islanders have to wait until Saturday night before they open up their regular season against the Buffalo Sabres at UBS Arena. The Isles closed out their pre-season schedule last Friday and are in the midst of a whole week of extra practice before they drop the puck for real.
After a grueling training camp, the Islanders are ready to get things started.
“I’m excited,” said center Bo Horvat. “It kind of sucks to be waiting this long to play a game. It gives us more time to prepare and get ready for Saturday.”
The Islanders opened up training camp on September 21st and went through a six-game preseason schedule to get ready for the 2023-24 season. Now, they are counting the days, hours and minutes to get things going on home ice this Saturday.
“It allows us some more practice time but also guys are chomping at the bit to play a game so it’s a long wait,” said head coach Lane Lambert. “They see the light at the end of the tunnel and the light at the end of the tunnel is really something that they’re really looking forward to.”
It's a tunnel that the Islanders started driving through since last season came to an end with a heartbreaking overtime loss to Carolina in game six of their opening round playoff series. While there could be as many as 7 new faces in the opening night roster compared to last season, the group that will start this season is the same group that battled to get in the playoffs but will be together from the start.
Even with the same roster, there is a sense of newness.
“I know people always say we didn’t make moves in July,” said forward Brock Nelson. “But we traded for Bo [Horvat] who was probably one of the biggest if not the biggest free agents at the time. We still have a little bit of a new look in adding [Pierre] Engvall who was only with us for a couple of months.”
The core of this group has won a lot of games over the last five years and that includes a healthy amount of postseason contests. In 2019, the Islanders advanced to the second round of the playoffs and then in 2020 and 2021 they made it to the NHL’s final four. After missing the playoffs in 2022, the Islanders were back in the postseason last year and came up just a couple of breaks away from getting past Carolina.
Is the window to win a Stanley Cup still open for this group?
“All we can do is focus on this season, our team, what we have and move forward with it,” said Captain Anders Lee. “We believe in one another and believe that we can do good things in this room. Right now, the focus is Saturday night and let’s start there.”
The Islanders’ opening night opponent will certainly present a tough challenge.
Last season, the Buffalo Sabres narrowly missed making the Stanley Cup Playoffs and have one of the up-and-coming teams in the National Hockey League. With a group that includes the likes of defensemen Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, 21-year-old goalie Devon Levi and forwards Alex Tuch, Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens and former Islander Kyle Okposo, the Sabres could very well punch their ticket to the postseason in 23-24.
It's quite an important first test for the Islanders.
“It will be a good challenge for us,” said Nelson. “We gotta be ready to go. They got a lot of young guys, a lot of speed and a lot of skill. They’re solid in the front and back end and a nice young goalie.”
“They’ve done a great job over there,” said Lee. “They’re improving every year. They have a ton of firepower up and down their lineup and they’ve been a tough game for a long time now. It will be no different Saturday night. They’ll be buzzing.”
A good start to the season will be huge for the Islanders who didn’t get the “X” next to their name in the standings last season until game 82. This year, the Islanders don’t want to wait until the last minute. They want to start strong and they’re not focusing on anything but that.
“It’s a one game at a time mentality and that’s all we can do right now,” said Lambert. “There’s no question that it’s important to get off to that good start but we can’t look past anything.”
Especially against a team that finished just two points behind the Islanders last season.