Islanders Anthony Beauvillier continues career year form in playoffs

New York Islanders Anthony Beauvillier continues his career-year form from the 2019-20 season into the playoffs.

Through 68 games in 2019-20, Anthony Beauvillier was having a career year for the New York Islanders with 18 goals and 39 points. His previous career-high was 36 points in 71 games back in 2017-18.

Beauvillier was one of the team’s most important players this season. Along with Brock Nelson, the two anchored an Islanders second line that was immensely effective at both ends of the ice.

Beau is taking that play from 2019-20 into the playoffs where he’s still one of the team’s most important players.

Rounding into Form

Through Game 1 of the Islanders best-of-five series with the Florida Panthers, Anthony Beauvillier continued that run of form that he had in the 2019-20 season.

His forechecking was relentless. His backcheck was tireless. And 3:39 into the second period Beau found himself with a huge power-play goal that would prove to be the game-winner for his team.

After three years of up and down play, Beau signed a two-year bridge deal ($2.1 million AAV) with the New York Islanders this offseason.

In his first three seasons in the NHL, we’ve seen the good and the bad from Anthony Beauvilliler. We’ve seen him score 28 points in 36 games at the end of the 2017-18 season. That’s a pace of 64 points over a full year. But we also saw Beau put up three points in 23 games at the start of that 2017-18 season. A production rate that got him demoted to the AHL for a split second.

With a fresh two-year show-me deal from the Islanders, Beauvillier, a former first-round pick in 2015, sought to do exactly that; show them.

In 2019-20, Beauvillier not only became a more consistent producer for his club, but he also became a more consistent two-way player for the team.

Along with those 39 points, Beau played significant minutes at 5on5, on the power play, and on the penalty kill. Beauvillier was finally rounding out into the player the Islanders drafted 28th just over five years ago.

But with a huge break in the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the question for Beauvillier was: could the previously up-and-down player keep it up for the Islanders as play resumed?

It’s only one game in the playoffs, but it’s refreshing to see that the form Beauvillier displayed this season carried over after a nearly five-month break in the season.

Along with his goal in game one, Beauvillier had four shots on goal, three hits, all of his 5on5 shot metrics (CF, FF, SF) were second only to Josh Bailey, and his 5on5 xGF lead all skaters at 0.7.

(Stats from NaturalStatTrick)

Unfortunately, there are no stats that measure forecheck and backcheck, but if you watched the game you know that Anthony Beauvillier was one of the better players on the ice away from the puck for the New York Islanders.

It’s great to see Anthony Beauvillier round into form and be that player we all expected him to be. After three years of up and down play, it seems that Beauvillier has finally found his role in the NHL.