New York Islanders Shake Up Top-Two Lines

Last night Doug Weight decided to change up his lines. The New York Islanders won, putting up four goals but I still disagree with the move.

One of the brightest spots on this team has been the top two lines. The New York Islanders top six is amongst the best in the entire NHL. They’re second in the league in goals for which is a testament to how good their top-six has really been.

Last night Doug Weight decided to change up the Isles lines a bit and to be completely honest, I wasn’t a fan of how the looked.

Why would you break up the top line? I get that Dougie is looking to jump-start an altogether dead team but that line isn’t the issue. John Tavares and Josh Bailey are at an over point per game pace and Anders Lee is on pace to put up a career high of 42 goals.

That’s an insanely productive line over the course of a full season. Why do you break that up!

The same thing can be said about the Islanders second line as well. Anthony Beauvillier has been on fire since joining Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle.

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Watching the game last night Lee seemed to slow down Barzal and Eberle. We know Lee’s game is going to the front of the net but last night he wasn’t that same force down low. The chemistry that Barzal and Eberle have is fantastic, plus the recent addition of Beau really seemed to add a new dynamic to the line that neither Lee or Andrew Ladd for that matter bring to the table.

If anything the shakeup should come with the bottom six.

Jason Chimera hasn’t scored a goal in 16 games. Would it kill you to scratch him for a game? I know Brock Nelson scored a goal playing on that third line last night but it had nothing to do with Jason Chimera.

How would we be feeling right now with a third line of Andrew Ladd – Brock Nelson – Josh Ho-Sang? I know it doesn’t solve every problem the Islanders have but it’s a start at least.

We saw it earlier in the year, if anyone is to get production out of Brock Nelson it’s going to be Josh Ho-Sang.

My point is my biggest gripe with this team is that they’re “fixing” things that don’t need to be fixed. Whether it’s shuffling up two of the most productive lines in the league, giving depth defenseman long-term deals or giving the veteran’s chances time and time again.

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