Friedman: At This Point, It Feels Like Only The Islanders Can Stop The Islanders
By Daniel Friedman
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Every so often, the New York Islanders have these moments that give off the impression things aren't how they appear.
They'll lose a couple of games or, as we saw more recently, they'll have trouble sealing the deal against lesser opponents. They'll demonstrate an astounding inability to get the puck out of their own zone and, from time to time, they'll get inadequate goaltending.
Naturally, the fan response to such occurrences is to make the connection to Islanders teams from previous years, many of which had those types of frustrating characteristics.
Some of those concerns are valid; the penalty kill, for example. But in most instances, the Islanders have bounced back and cast aside any doubts that they're the real deal. They've never let a losing streak exceed three games and they've shown the kind of mental fortitude they simply did not have the past several years.
The Kyle Okposo injury? No problem. Tough loss to the Rangers at home? It's forgotten about the very next game. There is no quit in this hockey club.
The biggest thing, for me, is that even with all of their success this season, the Isles continue to find ways to get better. And they continue to pull off convincing win after convincing win.
They've beaten the Rangers and Pittsburgh three times, and Washington and Tampa Bay twice. They've beaten Boston; they've beaten defending champion Los Angeles and fellow West powers Anaheim. Chicago and Nashville. The list goes on. In fact, there are very few good teams they haven't beaten this season.
If that's not a mark of legitimacy, I don't know what is. Whether it happens this season or in the seasons to come, the Isles are not just going to be a good team that makes the playoffs, but a true Stanley Cup contender. It's one thing to be very good in the regular season. It's quite another to not just win games, but to do it in decisive fashion and to do it constantly against other great teams.
The Predators came into the Coliseum on Thursday night with the NHL's best record. Not only did the Islanders beat them, they made them look like the Edmonton Oilers. They scored five goals on one of the best goaltenders on the planet (Pekka Rinne) and did so by getting 40 shots through one of the league's top defense corps.
What's also impressed me is that the Isles are winning games despite some obvious flaws – most notably on the PK, as I mentioned earlier.
Head coach Jack Capuano's system is perfect for this team, and even though a significant number of his roster decisions have been suspect (which is a valid concern), he certainly deserves some credit here. Hopefully, he'll continue to grow and learn, just as the team has.
What do I mean when I say the team has grown and learned this season? It starts with the mental fortitude, like I said before. But it goes deeper than that. It's about players like Anders Lee stepping up at key times, when the situation requires it.
All anyone has talked about over the last several months is how the Isles need to find another winger for John Tavares. Well, I think it's safe to say the search is over – or rather, it should be over. Is there really any doubt that Lee is that scoring winger everyone's been looking for? He's a similar-yet-better version of Matt Moulson, and even Tavares has stated that Lee reminds him of his former linemate and good pal.
When No. 91 says something like that about one of his wingers, you don't touch anything. When Okposo comes back, he and Lee should be on the Tavares line; no disrespect to Josh Bailey and the job he's done in Okposo's absence.
Another area of concern lately has been the power play, though I wasn't too worried about it. I thought it had everything to do with not putting Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy on the top unit with Tavares, Lee and Brock Nelson. Over the last few games, the coaching staff wisely opted to put those two back on with the first group, and the difference and improvement in puck movement has been quite noticeable.
We've still got a while to go before the playoffs roll around, and the Islanders still have things to work on, as well as decisions to make prior to the trade deadline, but at this very moment, there's a lot to like.
The only real question left to ask is – if they're already a good hockey team now, how much more dangerous will they be when they've answered the other questions?
Follow Daniel Friedman on Twitter at @DFriedmanOnNYI
