Islanders Relying Heavily On Their Top Line

The New York Islanders are coming off a 2-1 loss on the road in Arizona. Barry Trotz was forced to rely heavily on their top line.

It’s pretty obvious that the Islanders are pressing. Over their last three games, the offense has only been able to produce one goal and it was an insane deflection from Anthony Beauvillier that beat Antti Raanta.

The Isles were producing well offensively post All-Star break despite not getting much defensively, that is up until this past three-game stretch.

After the loss of Casey Cizkas, the Isles fourth line has turned into a mess that is centered by Leo Komarov. Leo, who has been good on the wing on that line, isn’t nearly as productive playing center.

As a result, the Islanders have essentially been rolling two lines. The third line is back to being a black hole and we saw guys like Derrick Brassard (13:21), Kieffer Bellows (8:11), Ross Johnston (6:13) and Michael Dal Colle (11:56) get nearly no ice time.

The Barzal line was on the ice a ton, all three guys Anders Lee (22:59), Mathew Barzal (24:35), and Jordan Eberle (24:01) played a season-high in ice time.

That line was able to generate chances, they just couldn’t get anything to go. Right now, this team has two lines that are virtually unusable. With Cole Bardreau being sent down it’s hard not to speculate about trades, for the Islanders’ sake hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.

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