Three takeaways from retooled Islanders 2021-22 schedule

The NHL has announced the rescheduling of a ton of New York Islanders games. With COVID postponements the Isles had nine games needing to be added to the calendar. The NHL did it but needed to move a few more games to accommodate it. So there are more changes than anticipated.

Thankfully there was a big gap from what should have been the Olympic break on the calendar. That was a three-week stretch that the NHL could use, and not have to push the end of the NHL season. And they used it.

You can find all the changes to the schedule here, but let's talk about what some of these changes mean for the Islanders.

New York Islanders: 3 takeaways from retooled schedule

1. Road Trip Broken Up

Under the last schedule, the Islanders were supposed to hit the road for eight games straight in April. That's rough considering they had a 13-game road trip to open the year. So did that eight-game roadie change? Thankfully, it did. But barely.

That long eight-game trip in April was broken up by a single game at home. It's now five road games (NYR, NJD, DAL, CAR, STL), then a quick stop at home to take on Pittsburgh before hitting the road again for a three-game set (PIT, MTL, TOR).

So, that's a win. Even if just barely.

2. Schedule Density

OK, so what about the density of the schedule? With the season not being pushed back how many days between days do the Isles now have (on average)?

We know that there are 100 days left in the schedule. We also know, the Isles have played 32 games, so 50 games left. Thankfully the math is quite simple here, there are, on average two days between each game from January till April.

Which is just less than a playoff run. The Isles run to the third round in 2021 had an average of 2.11 days between games. That's quite intense.

The biggest break is for the All-Star game with no games scheduled between Feb 2 and Feb8.

3. Back-to-Backs

Naturally that means the Isles must have a few back-to-backs on the calendar. Yes. A ton. In these next 100 days the Isles have eleven back-to-backs. Eleven!

A minority of those B2B sets feature both legs at home. Which isn't as hard simply because you remove the element of travel. But that's still seven B2B sets where there's at least one road game. And this is the oldest team in the league.

I know we all hate hearing it, but with the age of the roster and this many games in this few nights is not a good thing.