New York Islanders: Anthony Beauvillier playing 9 minutes last night is an issue

Anthony Beauvillier played the fewest amount of minutes on the New York Islanders last night with just 9:02 of ice time.

The New York Islanders started their season off with a top line of Anthony Beauvillier – Mathew Barzal – Josh Bailey. It made sense due to Bailey’s production over the last two years and then add in the chemistry between Barzal and Beauvillier and what could go wrong?

The Islanders quickly dismantled that line and put it in the blender with Anthony Beauvillier struggling to produce points at the start of this year.

In seven games he has zero points on the season. Clearly, it’s not an ideal start for Beau but the Isles aren’t helping his cause. He’s been demoted to playing with Valtteri Filppula and Leo Komarov who are two of the worst five on five in the league.

Filppula ranks 586th while Komarov ranks 593 out of 593 in terms of Corsi For %. Neither of them are particularly good hockey players at this point in their career.

If you expect Beau to break out playing alongside Filppula and Komarov you’re just lost. It makes no sense, they are penalty killers who aren’t good offensive players. Beau is an offensive guy who is a top-six player.

Last night was an issue. If you were frozen in carbonite and woke up and the first game you saw was the Islanders game from last night you would think Jack Capuano was still the coach. Anthony Beauvillier played nine minutes last night. Nine!

Matt Martin played for more than two more minutes than Beau. If this doesn’t scream Nino Niederreiter in 2011 I don’t know what else does.

For the past almost decade the Islanders have been atrocious with handling their prospects. Nino, Ryan Strome, Josh Ho-Sang and many others come to mind. Taking a prospect who is a dynamic offensive player and sticking them with two particularly bad players is a punishment, and it doesn’t help the young player grow.

If you want Beau to snap out of it put him with Barzal and let him go. It’s not rocket science. They produced together last year, give it time they’re going to figure it out eventually. Plus, Andrew Ladd trying to keep up with Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle is infuriating, to say the least.

In the long-run Barry Trotz is a great coach for this team, in this scenario though I disagree with his ideology.