How the NY Islanders can get off to a hot start

The New York Islanders always want to get off to a strong start but have struggled to do so over the last 3 seasons.

The 2024-2025 season the Islanders started off 3-7.

The 2023-2024 season the Islanders started off 5-5.

The 2022-2023 season the Islanders started off 6-4.

Over the last 3 seasons, the Islanders have been above the .500 mark just once at the 10th game.

With Mathieu Darche now at the steering wheel, the Islanders have a different vibe around them right now.  It’s a new era and it’s time to take advantage of getting off to a hot start.

The first area to improve on is the special teams units. Last season the Islanders operated at the worst PK and PP units for majority of the year. Ray Bennett and Bob Boughner who are in control of their respective groups, have some new personnel including Drouin, Heineman, Schaefer and Shabanov. Add in majority of the Islanders being healthy, which they struggled with over the full season last year. As Anthony Duclair said this preseason “If we had a middle of the pack special teams we probably make the playoffs.” 

This is the first time Head Coach Patrick Roy has been able to select his own staff which should lead to better results. 

The second area of improvement is protecting the front of the net. The Islanders struggled to protect and box out the front of the net. Too many opposing players were able to get body positioning in-front, players left alone back door and lost coverage in the defensive zone. The defensive zone needs to come first. You can’t score goals, if you can’t break the puck out and this doesn’t mean playing “defensive boring hockey.”

The third area of improvement is their zone entries. The Islanders struggled last season with zone entries especially after Mat Barzal went down due to injury. Barzal ranked 7th in the NHL for 20+ mph speed bursts according to the NHL Edge stats. The Islanders zone entry including Mat Barzal is a more possession based approach compared to the dump and chase strategy. Adding Schaefer, Drouin and others into the mix, the Islanders are looking to transition into more puck carrier speed based zone entries. 

The Islanders Corsi For Percentage (CF%) last season was at 48.06% at even strength which ranks them at 23rd out of 32 teams which indicates they were giving up more shot attempts than they were generating. They also ranked 27th in the NHL in Goals For with 222. Games like these are when it often feels like relying on goaltending in order to win.

If the Islanders can improve special teams, improve net-front protection, and increase puck possession the Islanders can certainly put themselves in the driver seat early.