New York Islanders: Analyzing the season at the halfway point

Looking at the season for the New York Islanders at the halfway point.

Okay, technically the New York Islanders have played 43 games this year, not 41. But heading into a stretch where the Isles do not play hockey for almost a week. Let us count this as their “halfway break”.

The first 43 games have been, to say the least, a roller coaster.

The Islanders went from a perennial Stanley Cup Contender to the outside looking in about three weeks.

A lot of things changed from the 20 game mark to now.

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The poor defense and goaltending finally caught up to them and the offense slowed down.

The Isles went from contending for the top spot in the deepest division in hockey in October to not even in the playoffs by the start of January.

So, at halfway, What should we expect to see from this team down the stretch?

We all pretty much know what we have in the Isles now. They are a really electric offensive team who are declining in the neutral zone and terribly poor on defense.

They gave up another short-handed goal to the Devils on Sunday.

But despite giving up a lot of goals, much like they have up to this point, still can manage to win.

The Lee-Tavares-Bailey line can slump all they want. They are an elite NHL line and that will not change as the year progresses.

Mat Barzal is emerging as a stud hockey player. He will be just fine.

Another consistent is the goaltending. The good news is it can only get better. It cannot possibly get much worse.

Both Halak and Greiss make some great saves and often a lot of them.

But the goals they let in are brutal. The offense can score in bunches. The Isles should have way more blowouts than they do.

The defense and goaltending are costing them more wins. It’s perfectly fine to have not faith in this improving as the year goes on just need to rely on slight improvement and luck there.

There is more good news that is not water under the bridge for New York Islanders as the season progresses.

They have their new arena. The Isles are heading back to Long Island. The future of the team is set. They can now go all in on this year knowing there is a future.

The only underlying and surprisingly not distracting issue that is not resolved yet is the John Tavares contract extension.

Until that starts effecting his on-ice performance I will not get into yet.

Also, the Islander fan base heads into yet another home stretch questioning GM Garth Snow and his abilities.

The Isles have a plethora of talent and a youth movement with many solid years to come. But his inability to build a team with a complete roster and maintain a high level of play is raising questions again.

This has been just one year of many. The Islanders are in better shape then what they have given us before.

Mega blockbuster trades or young players still developing in the minors will not be an instant help to this team. They need to build from within and take accountability for how fall off they have fallen.

They need to stop relying on a plethora of goals and start getting better at more realistic and traditional hockey.

In the beginning of the year, I said they would get 100 points and make the playoffs as a wild card.

This is still attainable. The Isles are at 43 games played, 21 wins, and 46 points.

There is room for improvement. Coach Weight needs to get it together.

The Isles showed how good they can be with that impressive stretch of hockey earlier in the year. If they get back to that they will be fine.

New York put themselves in a position with an awful December that now they need to play the rest of the year just to make the playoffs. Stanley Cup contenders are long gone.

At “halfway” things can be way worse for the blue and orange. Things could also be way better.

Next: Looking at the January Isles schedule

That is what has been so aggravating about this team for so long now.

But in 2017-2018 expect the Isles to get better. They were hot for longer than they were cold.

There is a lot of hockey left. A lot of room for improvement.

So, the Isles are at halfway. Hopefully, the worst is behind them.

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