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Examining the Islanders’ play through 25 games |
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Nearly one-third of the way through the 2024-25 NHL season, the New York Islanders find themselves at a 9-10-6 record and sit 12th in the Eastern Conference in points percentage. They may be coming off a stronger showing in a shutout win against the Buffalo Sabres, but it’s an underwhelming first couple months of the season, for a team who entered the year looking stronger on paper. Through the last 11 games, New York has three wins.
Of course, the Islanders’ season thus far has been plagued by injury trouble. First, Anthony Duclair got hurt just five games into the season, followed by Mathew Barzal, Adam Pelech, and Mike Reilly all going out for extended time as well, while Alexander Romanov also missed a chunk of games.
Missing two of their top five forwards, along with two or even three of their regular defensemen, it put the Islanders well behind the eight ball. So obviously, some struggles thereafter weren’t a shock. But while New York may have a valid excuse towards some of their issues thus far, there are other issues present.
The trend of blowing leads was present last year, then present again this season before the injuries, and remains present as they deal with the injuries. We’ve come to expect that anytime the team has a third period lead, it’s not safe, and for whatever reason, it’s a trend they really haven’t been able to break.
Meanwhile, the team’s penalty kill – which was part of their success only a few years ago with a not-so-different roster – continues to be a massive issue. As of now, they rank 31st in the NHL, operating at under 70 percent, which is somehow even a bit worse than last year.
Then there’s also been the fact that some of their top stars have run hot and cold. Bo Horvat has been less impactful than you would’ve hoped for this season, and went a stretch of eight games where he had just two assists. He’s also goalless in his last 11 games, and still only has five tallies overall this season. Horvat has never been the most dynamic top-line center in the league, so being without both of his ideal linemates in Barzal and Duclair, it’s not necessarily a shocker that his production has dipped. But even with less talent around him, you’d like to see him as a more consistent producer.
Meanwhile, Noah Dobson may be the Islanders’ most disappointing player thus far. He was arguably the Islanders’ MVP last season, but had a brutal November, managing four points in 15 games. While there was hope that Dobson would really be able to round out his defensive game as he spent more time in the league, he hasn’t made huge progress, meaning his value heavily relies on offensive output. So when he’s barely holding onto the points lead for all Islanders’ defensemen (despite playing in all 25 of the team’s games) and carries a minus-9 rating, it can often be hard to justify that he’s been a net positive.
The team also isn’t getting any depth scoring. Kyle MacLean, Casey Cizikas, Oliver Wahlstrom, Matt Martin and Hudson Fasching have combined for three goals across a combined 92 games this season. Meanwhile, the defense group has combined for four goals across 25 games. Obviously, these aren’t players you rely on for scoring, but to have almost zero offense coming from down the lineup, or the defense, puts more pressure on the top forwards. As of now, the team ranks 26th in the NHL in goals per game.
It’s not all negative, though. Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson have led the way alongside Maxim Tsyplakov. Meanwhile, Anders Lee is experiencing somewhat of a resurgence in a larger role, at 10 goals and 19 points thus far. The trio have combined for 30 goals, as the driving force behind a lot of New York’s offense.
Simon Holmstrom also continues to slowly become more and more impactful. He’s already posted seven goals and 14 points across 25 games, marking a big step from his first two seasons.
Ilya Sorokin has also been good (even if Semyon Varlamov has struggled a bit at times). He’s posted a .915 save percentage, and ranks top-10 in goals save above average, per HockeyReference.com.
Even looking around the East, the Islanders are very much still in the mix. While the top five teams in the conference are pulling away a little bit, there’s a big group of teams within a couple games of .500, either slightly above or below. With 57 games to go, there’s a ton of runway, and we’ve seen this is a team that can get hot down the stretch.
The Islanders are also approaching the point where some of their injured players are going to start getting back into the lineup in the not-so-distant future. Getting the likes of Barzal, Duclair and Pelech back will be a huge boost when it does happen, and sets the team up in a much, much better spot to be competitive.
The team will also play five of their next seven games against teams who rank bottom-six in the NHL in points percentage.
So while it’s been a tough start, and other issues aside from the injuries certainly still linger, there’s at least some reason for future optimism.
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On another note, I also wanted to provide an update regarding my writing status here at HockeyBuzz.
For those following, I took much of November off from posting articles. Unfortunately, regular writing for the website has become less realistic for me, and while there have been stretches over the five years in which I’ve been writing here where I’ve had to take time off from posting, I’ve tried as best as possible to get back to regular articles during the season when I’m able to.
Going forward though, I wanted to let readers know that my writing schedule is likely to be inconsistent for the foreseeable future. I’ve let site ownership know of my plan going forward, in the case they want to add a second Islanders writer, who can post more frequently for readers. I won’t be releasing game recap articles, and while I’ll still be popping in for what are likely to be bi-weekly posts, and to cover any major news, that’s likely to be the extent of my role here going forward.
I did also want to thank all readers who have been following my writing here, from the time I joined the site in March 2019. I’ve posted 700+ articles about the Islanders here over that time, so for anyone who’s read any of them, I appreciate the support.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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