Islanders have been through these road troubles before

It's been a tough start to the 2021-22 season for the New York Islanders. Their 12 points in 13 games (a possible 26 points), isn't awful but it isn't great either. But honestly, this isn't the first time we've seen this from the Islanders.

Last year the Islanders went 5-6-2 in their 13 first road games. Of course, it's not the same thing exactly. This is 13 straight road games while last year's road games were interrupted with dates at the Nassau Coliseum.

New York Islanders: Road trip was tough, but we've been through it

But the big takeaway here is that the Islanders have been through 'this' before. As recently as last season. And by 'this' I mean a bad 13-game road "trip". So let's look at the differences between the two 13-game sample.

Last year's 5-6-2 road record and stats:
2.08 GF/G
2.46 GA/G
29.4 Shots-F/G
26.2 Shots-A/G
PP%: 15
PK%: 79.5

This year's 5-6-2 road record and stats:
2.23 GF/G
2.92 GA/G
30.2 Shots-F/G
33.2 Shots-A/G
PP%: 12.5
PK%: 83.3

There isn't much of a difference between the two records, aside from the defensive side of things. They allowed almost half-a-goal-against per game and seven shots against, also per game, on this road trip. Which will certainly worry Barry Trotz in the short-term, but shouldn't worry too much in the long term.

it's only 13 games into the year and they've yet to play a home game. It's hard to imagine they'll go 11-0-2 over their next 13 home games as they did in 2020-21. That's a 0.923 win percentage, by the way. But it's not hard to imagine that they'll be much better on home ice with the last change and the crowd behind them.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't be worried about how the Islanders are playing. But let's see how things go when they get to the UBS this Saturday.