Islanders hoping lineup changes will spark offense in Home Opener

The New York Islanders have made numerous line changes ahead of their Home Opener on Saturday night against the New Jersey Devils.

The changes seem necessary. The Isles dropped a tough 2-1 decision in their season opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. While the Islanders had their chances, they only managed one goal against a less-than-formidable Toronto defense.

Yes, the Leafs deserve credit for holding on to the win. But you have to think that Peter DeBoer needs to find the right combination to spark the offense. So, here’s what we saw in practice on Friday.

The top line of Emil Heineman, Bo Horvat, and Kyle Palmieri looks good. Heineman was a bit of a revelation last season. He played well with Horvat, so reuniting them makes sense. Meanwhile, Palmieri will still be looking to get in sync after missing most of last season with that awful knee injury.

The second line is a bit of mystery. It’ll be the first time we’ll see top prospect Victor Eklund line up with Calum Ritchie and veteran Brayden Schenn. It will certainly be interesting to see the youngster potentially run amok, with Schenn acting like the responsible adult.

The bottom six has some punch to it, with Anthony Duclair and Simon Holmstrom providing scoring and speed. But the biggest surprise has to be the demotion of Matias Maccelli to the fourth line.

Maccelli had a good preseason, but struggled against his former team in the season opener. The move is likely more the result of DeBoer looking to shift his pieces around than a permanent demotion.

Islanders need to find their scoring touch

Wednesday night’s game was a totally winnable game. The Maple Leafs, while showing some strong offensive play at times, didn’t exactly torch the Isles. As such, the Islanders could have pulled off a W, had the offense picked up Ilya Sorokin.

But then again, hasn’t that been the story of this team?

Sorokin plays well and keeps the team in the game. But the offense sputters and fails to give him enough run support to actually win games.

Sure, we’re only one game into the season. But if DeBoer saw the need to mix things up to the degree that he did, it signals that the Islanders are hardly a finished product. The biggest factor here will be stars like Palmieri, Horvat, and Schenn doing much of the heavy lifting. If that’s the case, it could buy the kids enough cover to put up some points.

But bear in mind that the bottom six can’t just ride along. There’s enough talent there to deliver secondary scoring. And it’s that secondary scoring that could make or break the Islanders' home opener.

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