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New York Islanders Early Positive and Negative Takeaways

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 06: The New York Islanders celebrate a second period goal by Brock Nelson #29 against the Winnipeg Jets at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum on October 06, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 06: The New York Islanders celebrate a second period goal by Brock Nelson #29 against the Winnipeg Jets at NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum on October 06, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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New York Islanders
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – MAY 03: Tom Kuhnhackl #14 of the New York Islanders lays on the ice after being hit by a teammates stick against the Carolina Hurricanes in the third period of Game Four of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PNC Arena on May 03, 2019 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Hurricanes won 5-2 and won the series, 4-0. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

Negatives

Offense

The one thing the New York Islanders needed to improve on from last season was their offense. They just didn’t score enough goals. In all situations, they ranked 22nd in the NHL in goals for. Going into 2019-20 they’d need to find more offense.

The plan for this season is to believe that some of the Isles underperforming players from last can step up this season.

So far Anthony Beauvillier seems like he won’t start the season as cold as the Atlantic in February. But no one else is stepping up necessarily.

The Islanders have only managed 14 goals so far. That’s 2.33 goals per game, well under the 2.72 goals per game they had last season.

It’s still early of course, but the decision to look for internal options to solve the Islanders middling offense hasn’t paid off just yet.

Penalty Kill

The Islanders penalty kill hasn’t been great to start the season. With a 75 percent efficiency rate, the Isles have the 23rd ranked penalty kill in the league at the moment.

Last season, the Islanders were able to amass 103 points with a slightly better penalty kill; 79.9 percent efficient (18th ranked PK). So maybe this isn’t such a terrible development, but ideally, for a team that’s so strong defensively, the Islanders should be better on the PK.

Top-Six Carousel

Michael Dal Colle, Tom Kuhnhackl, Cal Clutterbuck. Neither of those players is a top-six player in the NHL. All three have had time playing in the Islanders top-six this season. I know I already talked about the Islanders offense, but this point is about talent.

The Islanders just don’t have a talented enough roster to hit the highs they hit last year. And it seems that the Islanders are the only ones to not see this.

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Yes, they just brought up Oliver Wahlstrom. But they still started the year with Dal Colle in the top six and it took all of, what, three games to figure out he didn’t belong there?

That’s a mistake the New York Islanders decision-makers shouldn’t so quickly live down.

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