Kyle Palmieri Struggled in His Islanders Return Last Night

Kyle Palmieri returned to the New York Islanders last night. If you watched the game, you wouldn't believe it but if you check the box score, it's actually true he did get 13:12 of ice time and was a -1 on the night.

After the Islanders traded for Kyle Palmieri last year, he had a slow go of it in the regular season and then once the playoffs started, his scoring touch came alive. He finished with seven goals in 19 games for the Islanders.

Palmieri was rewarded with a nice contract extension and that was that. Well, so far in 26 games this year, his sophomore season with the Islanders has been an unmitigated disaster.

He has just one goal on the season. Yes, you read that right only one. He's currently in the midst of a 13 game goalless streak which is ironic because he went the first 12 games of the year without finding the back of the net and we thought that was bad.

I'm not going to kill him over just one game returning back from an injury, a slow start is expected when returning from being out for over a month. The frustration really stems from the entirety of his Islanders tenure during the regular season.

It's staggering the difference. He has three goals in 43 games during the regular season as an Islander but in 19 playoff games, seven. Riddle me that one.

Have they tried just telling him that it's a playoff game? Maybe he likes the warmer weather, perhaps a pregame sweat in a sauna might do him so good. We know Lou Lamoriello won't let him grow the beard back but some sort of drastic measure has to be taken. We're talking about three goals in 43 games for someone who put up 25, 26, 24, 26, and 30 goals the five years prior to coming to Long Island. It makes no sense!

He'll get another kick at the can tomorrow, maybe that's when the streak finally comes to an end but right now it's about as bad as it gets for the Smithtown native.