One player whose ice time the NY Islanders must seriously keep limiting

If you thought everything would get better for the NY Islanders this season, you were wrong. At least through the first one-third of the season. I mean, even when the Isles are winning games, they’re still not playing their best hockey.

Add to the fact this team is stuck in what might be the NHL’s most competitive division, something that wasn’t the case last year, and one thing is clear: Urgency is strongly needed. If there’s any good news, it looks like the Isles might be getting some serious help soon, so that will at least ease the pain a little, right?

One would hope. But even if the Isles are back to full force soon, it may not be enough. Instead, it may not be a bad idea to keep limiting one particular player’s ice time. Or, at least, limit their time until they start playing more consistent hockey for a month. Yeah, no exaggeration.

This player is, or at least should, be one of the better assets on the Isles. But through 31 games, he’s been one of the most underperforming pieces to this puzzle. Yeah, I’m saying that about Noah Dobson, of all players, even if he’s been on the up-and-up lately. 

NY Islanders would do well to limit Noah Dobson’s ice time for a while

Now, Noah Dobson could have gotten a few confidence boosters lately, considering his nine points and two goals in the Isles previous 10 games. Yeah, that makes him look more like a player who is heating up as opposed to one whose ice time should be cut, right?

Say what you will, but let’s apply some critical thinking, shall we? Through that 10-game stretch, Dobson has averaged just 22:35 of average total ice time. That’s about 90 seconds fewer than what he’s given the Isles, on average, all season, which is 24:06. 

Want more fun? In that same stretch, he’s only encroached 24:30 of ice time just twice. Yeah, now we’re sensing a pattern here, I hope. That said, my proposal would be to keep Dobson’s ice time under 24 minutes from here on out. 

Or, I would keep it that way at least until the New Year. It’s becoming clearer that if he’s playing between 21:23 and 23:46 per game, he’s been a much more productive blueliner for the Isles. So, as counterintuitive as it sounds, considering Dobson’s recent outburst in points, less time on the ice may be the ticket for this young blueliner in 2024-25.