Assessing the New York Islanders through their first 20 games

Three things that will Change 

With over 60 games to play good things will be exposed and flaws will be fixed. Here are three things that might look different as the season progresses.

The schedule

The boys in blue and orange have already played a majority of their games against their Western Conference opponents.

They have already taken one west coast trip out to Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, and Las Vegas.

The rest of the way is going to be more against Eastern Conference opponents.

It is hard to tell if the schedule is getting more easy or difficult. It is however, about to get a lot more important as they remain mostly in conference.

Power play 

The Islanders had a brutal, and I mean brutal, start to the year on the power play.

It took them a long stretch to even get a power play goal. The team was once 2-33 on the year.

The power play is getting better, but it is unlikely to see a stretch that bad for the rest of the year, in fact, it’ll all likely improve.

Offense bound to slow down a little 

The Islanders will still have an elite offense and it’s hard to pinpoint why they wouldn’t.

They have a lot of high scoring games and chemistry right now it’s bound to hit a slight dry spell.

Barzal is developing quickly into the guy all the fans were excited about when he was drafted but there will be a stretch even if microscopic where he actually plays like a rookie.

Jordan Eberle has been coming on strong lately but if Barzal struggles, he will too.

The Isles played many games where they got good bounces, lucky deflections, and a few empty netters.

As the team’s schedule get tougher it’s not irrational to think the offense will slow down a tad.