Long-Suffering Newsletter: We're not who they say we are
The long-awaited Mike Reilly Era has begun
Welcome to the Long-Suffering Newsletter from the Islanders Anxiety Patreon. The Islanders are where we thought they’d be, but the Islanders are not who everyone thinks they are. And we’re all very tired.
I can’t remember a time I needed a couple days off from the New York Islanders more than right now as I wrap this thing up in the postgame hours after a 1-0 shootout loss to the Flyers.
The game ended a phase of the season that saw the Islanders play 10 games in 19 days and seven in 13 in Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle, Calgary, Ottawa and on Long Island.
We all knew things were going to get weird when the Isles flew to Edmonton to welcome in the Kris Knoblauch Era last Monday, but because the team’s schedule has been jam-packed and the off days were spent waiting for the coach to (not) be fired or at Thanksgiving Dinner it’s been impossible to take a step back and try to see where the Islanders fit into the NHL at large through the first quarter of the season.
On paper, things look just about as expected. The Islanders are right in the middle of the pack in an Eastern Conference that has not really situated itself just yet and a Metropolitan Division that is frustratingly confusing. If you were hibernating through the first 20 games of the season you could easily jump to the conclusion that the Islanders have had a mundane start to the campaign. Nothing-to-see-here kind of stuff.
Frankly, I assume most people around the league will jump to that very conclusion. Prepare to hear a lot of: The Islanders are who we thought they'd be through 20 games. They’re grinding out games, relying on their goalies and playing stingy defense.
I should be past the point of caring how the world perceives the Islanders, but the reason it irks me is because it cheapens what this fanbase has to go through living and dying with this team. The Islanders are 3-1-3 over this seven-in-13 stretch and that record feels very UBS Arena Islanders, but that unremarkable record hides the fact that this stretch of season has unraveled like a Greek Epic rather than a busy stretch of hockey games.
The Islanders couldn’t score then they couldn’t hold a lead then they couldn’t kill a penalty then they couldn’t win in overtime. The coach was rumored to be fired on the Monday they got home — John Hynes was whispered to be seen on the Island — but nothing happened and then they won a couple of games. One of those wins was as gutsy a performance as you could write up as two defensemen were hurt in the first few shifts of a game in Ottawa. The four remaining rearguards played 30ish minutes each and then everyone flew from Ottawa back to Long Island so that they could lose, 1-0, in a shootout to the Flyers. In the midst of all that the Isles picked up Former Former Future Islander Mike Reilly off of waivers and lost Adam Pelech for who knows how long. Sebastian Aho and Matt Martin are also hurt, Ilya Sorokin seems to be rounding into form, Casey Cizikas yelled at the fans, Bowie Horvat cried and scored in his return to Vancouver, and the Anders Lee-JG Pageau-Oliver Wahlstrom went from the worst line in hockey to decent and Cal Clutterbuck played his 1,000th game. Oh, and with Pelech on LTIR the Isles now have some cap flexibility to work with and were mentioned in passing as interested parties in the Wantaway Defensemen in Calgary, Patrick Kane and, of course, Zach Parise.
All of this while putting the touches on a seven-game losing streak that has now morphed into a six-game point streak.
Did I mention all of this took place over the last fortnight?
Islander fans deserve plenty of credit for getting through these last two weeks. You had every excuse to put them away for a while, but you didn’t. That takes guts.
The Next Phase of the Season Begins
I think it’s fair to say the Islanders have now had two distinct phases to their season. October was spent thankfully banking points despite some underwhelming play and then the second phase was defined by a lousy losing streak, a coach on the brink and the team pulling itself out of the funk in time to save the season.
But now there’s a new line of demarcation with Pelech on LTIR. The Islanders have struggled when Pelech has been sidelined in past seasons and things could look pretty ugly with three tough games next week, but there have been some positive developments these last four games that should instill some cautious optimism back in the fanbase.
The most important of these developments is that Sorokin has seemingly locked into form.
With Pelech on the sidelines and the team looking for answers on the backend that aren’t Samuel Bolduc, this feels like the part of the season where they lean on Sorokin (and Semyon Varlamov) to carry them in a When there was just one set of footprints kind of way.
Let the Mike Reilly Era finally begin.
Beautiful synopsis