Andrew Gross: Islanders must find ways to score more goals
Islanders' Kyle Palmieri skates against the Vancouver Canucks at UBS Arena on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
TORONTO — Legendary college football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant is credited as the first to utter the long-held adage that applies to all sports in some form: “Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships.”
Yes, but teams still have to score more than the other team. That’s simple math.
So as well as the Islanders have played defensively — and they’ve been structurally sound — they are simply not getting enough goal production. Entering Saturday night’s game against the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena, half of their 20 goals came in two games.
And until they start scoring more, the Islanders (3-3-1) will continue to play around the NHL .500 mark.
Coach Pete DeBoer’s search for four-line balance continued as he moved Kyle Palmieri to Casey Cizikas’ fourth line with Ondrej Palat — “It’s not too often you get three ’91 birth years all together,” Palmieri joked to Newsday — while again placing Simon Holmstrom on Bo Horvat’s top line.
“Listen, five-on-five, we’re looking for production,” DeBoer said. “And we have to be a team that gets four lines of scoring. I’ve said that since the day I took this job: We don’t have [Connor] McDavid and [Leon] Draisaitl.”
There are few superstar tandems like the Edmonton duo around the NHL, though the Islanders eventually could get there with Matthew Schaefer already in place.
The Islanders, of course, are still missing Mathew Barzal (left knee), who has yet to play this season and is the team’s only forward that is in the same category as McDavid in terms of skating skill.
Palmieri’s game never was built on pure skating speed and certainly isn’t now after he missed the bulk of last season with an ACL tear in his left knee. He’s a hard-nosed player who seeks opportunities around the crease, relying often on his linemates to create chances for him. His only two goals entering Saturday came in a 3-2 win over the Canucks on Tuesday at UBS Arena.
Cizikas’ line, regardless of which wings he’s played with, has been the team’s most consistent in terms of playing up ice and establishing a forecheck. Paradoxically, Palmieri may have access to more scoring opportunities in a traditional fourth-line role.
“Top six, bottom six, we don’t have a top six,” DeBoer said. “You could argue on any given night our fourth line has been better than our first or second line.”
Obviously, there’s a lot to unpack with that, but let’s let that stand on his own. It does speak to DeBoer’s desire to have scoring balance across his four lines.
Palmieri, who was born in Smithtown, is in the second season of a two-year, $9.5 million deal and quite possibly is playing his final season for his hometown team. He desperately wants to be part of the scoring solution.
But he’s also finding out what everybody else coming back from a major injury discovers: It’s a stop-and-start process. Even though he is able to play, his knee still does not feel 100% the way it did before he was hurt.
“It has good days and bad days,” he told Newsday. “Overall, it’s still a process. For me, there’s no better way to look at it. I’m right in the midst of it. It’s really about just taking it a day at a time and doing what you can to improve the health of the knee. At the same time, you’re still playing NHL hockey.
“There’s definitely more forward progress. I wouldn’t say there’s been any days where I’ve felt like I took steps back. I had an idea in my head of what it was going to feel like coming into this season. Some surprises here and there. I’m trying my best to make sure it’s physically ready and try and help my team.”
Holmstrom, who had a goal and an assist in the first seven games, took Palmieri’s spot to start on Saturday, with Matias Maccelli on the other wing. Maccelli, a former Maple Leaf signed as a free agent after Toronto did not tender him a qualifying offer, entered Saturday on a five-game point streak after notching the only goal in Thursday’s 2-1 shootout loss in Ottawa.
Maccelli, who turned 26 on Wednesday, has been an impactful addition after struggling through his only season with the Maple Leafs. He had 14 goals and 25 assists in 71 games while fighting for playing time.
“It feels good to get the opportunity to play with Bo and those guys on the first unit,” Maccelli told Newsday. “You get puck touches and your five-on-five game is most likely going to be better. You get more touches and you actually feel like you’re doing something out there.”
Across the board for the Islanders, that something must lead to more goal production.
Defense may win championships, but only if a team can score more than the opponent.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
