Following a turbulent offseason in which the Islanders changed coaches and their franchise player went under the knife — again — they open this season hoping to stay in playoff contention. That figures to be a tough task, given the youth movement GM Garth Snow has begun and the lack of star power at Nassau Coliseum.
FORWARDS: Well, at least there’s nowhere to go but up. The Islanders scored the fewest goals in the NHL (189) a season ago. Mike Comrie, who led the team in points with 49, is back. The team is looking for more production from him, as well as from a pair of 37-year-old former teammates, Bill Guerin and newcomer Doug Weight, neither of whom can be expected to put up big numbers anymore. And the youth movement is filled with unproven offensive players Kyle Okposo, Sean Bergenheim, Blake Comeau, Jeff Tambellini and first-round pick Josh Bailey. Jon Sim, who missed all but the first two games last season after blowing out his knee, is back and healthy.
DEFENSEMEN: This unit was devastated by injuries last year and this season hasn’t gotten off to a much better start, with Chris Campoli and Andy Sutton already on the shelf. But top pair Brendan Witt and Radek Martinek have returned, and free agent signee Mark Streit is coming off of a career year with Montreal. If the offense doesn’t figure out a way to score more, the defense will have its work cut out for it.
GOALTENDING: Rick DiPietro begins the third year of his 15-year contract with two surgically repaired hips, as well as a fixed up knee, but insists he feels better than he has going into a season in a long time. He’s obviously going to have to stay healthy and perform at a high level for this team to have a chance to do anything. And with former backup Wade Dubielewicz gone, those duties now fall to Joey MacDonald.
SPECIAL TEAMS: The team signed Streit with hopes of improving the power play, which finished 29th in the league last year.
COMINGS & GOINGS: Lots of new faces here, both fresh and grizzled. Behind the bench, former minor league coach Scott Gordon is in, Ted Nolan is out, having lost a power struggle with Snow. Plenty of attention will be paid to Okposo, who played nine games with the Isles a year ago after coming out of the University of Minnesota. The 20-year-old will need to produce. Weight and Streit were the two main signings in the offseason. The team lost Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko and Josef Vasicek, who, though none performed all that well, were three of the team’s top six scorers.
COACHING: Gordon has started to put his stamp on the team, impressing veterans and young players with his intense teaching style. He frequently stops practice to go over with individual players what they are doing wrong and what he wants from them. With a team as inexperienced as this one, he’ll have to do that, and that’s clearly one of the reasons Snow chose him after he and Nolan parted ways when it became clear that Nolan wanted to focus on veterans and winning right away.
PREDICTION: Gordon admitted there’s “no [Sidney] Crosby or [Alex] Ovechkin” here. Instead, he will have to figure out a way to mix the vets and the rookies and, most importantly, cross his fingers that DiPietro doesn’t go down again. No matter what happens this season, however, the Isles don’t figure to be able to stay in the playoff race for as long as they have recently.