New York Islander Town?
A week into the new season and there’s a team in New York starting to grab all the press clippings and has the fans dreaming of an Islander town in the city that never sleeps.
The New York Islanders, fresh off a 6-3 waxing of their rival Rangers, stand atop the Metropolitan division with six points on the eve of their tilt with the undefeated Sharks…a battle of unbeatens (raise your hand if you thought we’d be saying that a week ago). With the Penguins on tap for Saturday, the Islanders next few games will continue to test the club in their quest for relevancy.
But back to Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. After sweeping a home and home with the Carolina Hurricanes over the weekend, Tuesday stood to be the Islanders first true test of the young season. It’s premature to have called the game a “must win,” but it was every bit of statement game as you can have: on the road against a division rival, fresh off a Stanley Cup Finals appearance that had beaten them 14 of the previous 21 games. While no one is planning a parade route, it was a signicant test for the re-built Islanders and at least for one night, they passed with flying colors.
And it wasn’t just that the Islanders won, it’s how they won. After a 1-1 tie through the first period, the Rangers came out to start the second and blitzed the Islanders from the drop of the puck. They re-claimed the lead 2-1 and fired 21 shots on goal in the period. However, Jaroslav Halak answered the bell and kept the Islanders in the game before John Tavares (or Jesus Tavares, your call) tied it late in the period. It was the kind of game the Islanders expected from Halak after they traded for and ultimately signed him this summer to be their number one. After a week of accepting kudos for acquiring two top-four defensemen, it was Garth Snow‘s first acquisition this summer that won the game and demonstrated why the Islanders’ hopes rely on his shoulders.
If this was a heavyweight fight, the Rangers had to be frustrated after two periods that they couldn’t knock the Islanders out. It took less than a minute into the third period before Kyle Okposo buried another Ranger turnover behind Henrik Lundqvist and the floodgates opened. The Rangers took an uppercut to the jaw and couldn’t recover the rest of the game. Four third period goals and twenty minutes later the game mercifully ended with the Islanders running the Rangers and their fans out of the building 6-3. The only thing missing was Mills Lane holding the Rangers up after the bout.
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Eyes On Isles
About the atmosphere? If you closed your eyes you would have thought the game was at Nassau Coliseum as the Islander fans grew louder and more fevered every time the puck hit the back of the net. After Nick Leddy made it 6-2 with just over nine minutes left in the game, the cameras caught a stream of Ranger fans high-tailing it out of the Garden, leaving behind platters of tuna and dragon sushi rolls in the process. All that was left to be heard were the serenades of “let’s go Islanders” chants echoing the halls of the self-proclaimed “world’s famous arena.”
Listen, New York City will never have more Islander fans than Ranger fans. It will never be an Islander town (at least until they drop another four titles in Brooklyn). The Rangers’ presence is too old and seeded deep in many families to never not be the area’s most popular team. But that doesn’t mean the Islanders can’t steal the spotlight every now and then and have the bandwagoners jump for them. Maybe we’re starting to see that because even the biggest pom-pom wavers for the Blueshirts had to hear the Islander fans invade their barn last night. Unless they had their heads buried under their seats from watching the game of course.
So what can we make of this 3-0 start for the Islanders? Well, it’s only the fourth time in their team’s history they opened a season with three straight wins. It’s also important to note that all three wins are in the division. Last season the Islanders didn’t pick up their third division victory until December 20th. The offense has scored 15 goals, five coming on the power play. The defense, while they’ll never be confused with the Devils of the mid-90’s, has looked more competent in their own end and has been able to hold onto leads (contrast with last season where they lost the highest percentage of games when leading after two periods). They are far from a finished product, but the team is making strides in the right direction. Several weeks ago I questioned whether this team’s defense was playoff worthy. Now, after acquiring Leddy and Johnny Boychuk, the team finally has a legitimate top-four which will only improve when Lubomir Visnovsky and Calvin de Haan return from injuries. For the first time in a long time, this Islander team has the look of a dangerous team. It’ll have its share of ups and downs this season, but the ups should be higher and the downs should be less frequent than in recent seasons.
As for the Rangers? Well, all the question marks that the team faced before the season- thin down the middle, brand new bottom-six, depth on defense- are all legitimate now. Even before the injury to Derek Stepan the Rangers had issues at center. They’ve tried to shoe-horn Marty St. Louis into the spot, with mixed results. Youngster J.T. Miller has already been scratched and rookie Kevin Hayes is a project.
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The bottom six forwards have shown glimpses. Lee Stempniak has been one of the Rangers best forwards through four games and rookie Anthony Duclair has flashed offensive potential. If the team can live with his short-comings in his own end, he may develop into a weapon this year on offense. It’s still early, but it looks like it will be a struggle for the team to replace all the things Brian Boyle brought to the roster and the chemistry Benoit Pouliot had with his linemates last season.
The defensemen and the team defense as a whole has been dreadful to start the season. After a perfectly played road game to open at St. Louis, the team has been bomarded and allowed 17 goals its last three games. It already lost Dan Boyle for four to six weeks, and while the injury he sustained was flukish, one had to expect a 38-year old defenseman may miss some time throughout the course of a season due to injury. And whether it’s a Stanley Cup hangover, the pressure of heightened expectations, opening struggles, or a combination of all three, the trio of Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi, and Marc Staal have looked average at best so far. For a team that is built from the net out in front of Lundqvist, “average” isn’t good enough.
Ranger fans may not admit it, but the team’s start is worrisome. Yes, they started similar last season (Ranger announcer “Baghdad” John Giannone even pulled the “it’s okay…we started 1-3 last year…don’t panic…repeat: don’t panic” routine on the post-game show.) This isn’t a team learning a new system under a new coach. It should be a team prepared for the season but right now they look anything but that. Outside of Rick Nash and Stempniak, the team looks lost, even Lundqvist. However even if I were a Ranger fan (thankfully I’m not), he’d be the only reason why I’m not sniffing glue at this point. While Lundqvist has struggled, he’s still Henrik Lundqvist, arguably the top keeper in the league. When he’s on his game, which is often, he can win playing behind five guys from your Sunday night beer league. There’s no reason to think that Lundqvist won’t right the ship and finish the year with another (yawn) 35 wins, .920 save percentage, and a goals against around 2.25.
But even the great Henrik Lundqvist may not be able to stem the tide of the “other” New York team. These aren’t your brother’s Islanders, the same Islanders who haven’t won a playoff series in 21 years. This team has the feel of something more…something special. And last night just may have been the first battle won to reclaim the town.
An Islander Town…it has a nice ring, doesn’t it?