It may sound like a corny sports cliche, but if the Islanders are going to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it’s going to require a total team effort and that includes all four lines contributing on the scoreboard. As the Islanders get set to host the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday night in a huge game at UBS Arena, they will need to get consistent secondary scoring.
That blueprint was evident on Saturday when the fourth line chipped in with a couple of goals during the Islanders’ 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers. Marc Gatcomb and Casey Cizikas both scored during the Isles’ five goal second period and that provided a spark to the whole team.
When the Islanders have been successful this season, it’s been everyone contributing.
“I think that’s what it’s been for us all year,” said Head Coach Patrick Roy. “Everybody has been chipping in. It’s not just one guy. The way we’re playing…it’s a team concept and everybody is participating. At the end of the day, I feel like that’s how it is all the time for us.”
When all four lines are producing, it makes the Islanders a very dangerous team. They can’t always lean on the top guns to produce goals. It has to be a group effort and that was on display on Saturday with eleven different Islanders getting at least a point.
“You need that down the stretch here,” said Islanders forward Bo Horvat. “Secondary scoring and guys stepping up in different ways.
With eight games to go in the regular season, the Islanders find themselves in a playoff spot…In reality, these are all playoff games down the stretch as every point is vital in the fight for a postseason berth. Rolling four consistent lines will be the secret sauce for the Islanders and there’s been a sampling of that throughout the season.
Right now, it looks like all four lines are coming together.
“As you play more games consistently, you have a feel or understanding of where guys are going to go and what they’re going to do with the puck and where they want to be in certain zones,” said forward Brayden Schenn. “We’re generating a lot, all four lines are playing the right way, and when we’re doing that, wave after wave, we seem to tilt the ice pretty good.”
Schenn’s arrival at the trading deadline provided a huge lift for the Islanders who have won seven of their last eleven games since his acquisition from St. Louis. Chemistry is not always easy to establish, especially when there have been several in-season moves like adding Schenn, Ondrej Palat and Carson Soucy.
But as the Islanders head down the stretch, it appears as if the chemistry is just right.
“I like the way they’re shaping up,” said Roy. “I feel like on every line we have some physicality and, on every line, we’ve got guys who play a good 200-foot game. I feel like there’s good chemistry out there.”
The quality of the people in the Islanders locker room over the last eight years makes it easy for newcomers to fit right in.
Everyone is willing to fight for each other and that helps build chemistry.
“I think it’s been good,” said Horvat who enters tonight’s game one goal shy of reaching 300 for his career. “It always takes time to create chemistry and get things going. Line by line, every night, we’re just getting better and better and we’re going to need that going down the stretch.”
There’s a saying “it takes a village”.
That’s what it will take for the Islanders to make the playoffs…everyone chipping in and contributing to as many wins and points it will take to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
And that will make the village known as “Islanders Country” very happy.
