NHL

Islanders hope Boyes rediscovers scoring touch

Brad Boyes hasn’t had an in-depth conversation with anyone in the Islanders organization yet, but he is still fully aware of why he is here.

Boyes is trying to rediscover a player who hasn’t been seen in almost five years, one who knows how to score goals and is willing to do what it takes to get them. That’s the player general manager Garth Snow hoped he would be getting — at least in some part — when he signed the 30-year-old winger to a one-year, $1 million deal this offseason.

“I know I’ve slid a little bit,” Boyes said Thursday, his first day on Long Island skating with 10 other teammates at IceWorks in Syosset. “[The goal is] getting back to those days of feeling good, not thinking about anything, just going and having fun.”

The Islanders are expected to open training camp with physicals Sunday and then begin skating Monday, all dependent on the Players’ Association ratifying the new collective bargaining agreement by tomorrow. And when the team does start up, Boyes will be leaned on not just for a touch of veteran leadership, but for a scoring touch that seems to have disappeared.

“I know what I do well and what I don’t,” Boyes said. “Offense is something that has always been part of my game. I have to get back to that to help here.”

In the 2007-08 season, while playing for the Blues, Boyes established himself as a serious scoring threat, tying for fifth in the league with 43 goals. Behind him on that list were some of the superstars of the game — Marian Gaborik, Rick Nash and Jason Spezza.

But instead of excelling like those players, Boyes signed a four-year, $16 million contract and wilted. He scored 33 goals the following season, but then had seasons of 14 goals, 17 (combined between the Blues and the Sabres, to whom he was traded mid-season) and eventually eight last year, when he missed 15 games with injury.

The final two games of the season, with the Sabres’ playoff hopes on the line, he was a healthy scratch.

“Just to be involved and be consistent,” Boyes said of what he wants out of this season. “I think that is something that’s important, to be consistent and be relied upon.”

Boyes’ unceremonious end in Buffalo also finished off his streak of 513 consecutive games played, setting him up for a summer of free agency — coupled with the almost-four-month lockout — with few probable suitors and a lot to prove.

Snow signed him quickly on July 1, seeing a situation that was low-risk, high-reward. Boyes skated during the lockout with other NHL players outside of Toronto, and appears determined to shed the label of a player who doesn’t go to the dirty areas of the ice and shies away from contact.

In getting a chance with the Islanders, a team that finished third-to-last in the league with 2.43 goals per game, Boyes will be leaned on for a scoring punch.

When asked if he thinks he was brought in by the Islanders to score goals, Boyes said, “I hope they did.”

“I hope they didn’t bring me here to block shots and chip the puck in,” he added. “Then it might be a long year.”