Islanders still have some work to do with one preseason game remaining
Islanders center Mathew Barzal, center, celebrates his goal with left wing Anthony Duclair and defenseman Noah Dobson in the first period of a preseason game against the Philadelphia Flyers at UBS Arena on Monday. Credit: Corey Sipkin
The Islanders know there’s some cleanup work to be done.
One preseason game remains – against the Rangers at UBS Arena on Friday night – before the regular season opens on Oct. 10. Tuesday at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow was the first of a slew of practices between now and first puck drop.
And Monday night’s 4-3 preseason win over the visiting Flyers – the first in which coach Patrick Roy essentially dressed his projected opening-night lineup – provided a template for what needs to be improved.
“It was not our best but what I like is we found a way to win and I think that’s a good sign,” Roy said. “There’s going to be nights where we’re not going to play our best hockey.
“It was nice to be all together and see what is going to be our roles, our ice time. I think we didn’t forecheck as hard as we can do. We could have been faster on those pucks and put more pressure on their defense. We might have been a little slower to move the puck north, which is something we do very well normally.”
The Islanders allowed two more power-play goals and their penalty kill is now just 7-for-12 in five preseason games. Last season, the Islanders finished last in the NHL on the penalty kill, prompting a switch in assistant coaches from Doug Houda to Tommy Albelin to run the unit.
Albelin is moving the Islanders back to more of a “flush” system, where the forwards try to trap the attackers against the wall and the defensemen pressure the puck at the blue line.
The Islanders were 2-for-5 on the power play for the second straight game as Roy divided the playing time fairly equally between his two units.
Defenseman Noah Dobson quarterbacked one unit along with Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat and Anthony Duclair with Maxim Tsyplakov as the net-front presence. The other unit had defenseman Mike Reilly up top with Brock Nelson, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Kyle Palmieri along with Anders Lee in front of the crease.
“I don’t want to have a 1A and 1B,” Roy said. “I want to have two As.”
But zone entries were problematic for both units.
Five-on-five, the Islanders never consistently got the puck deep against the Flyers.
“We didn’t play our best game by any means,” Dobson said. “It wasn’t sharp in some areas. Execution. Definitely some areas we can continue to clean up.”
“It was a little sloppy as a whole,” Palmieri said. “But I think there were some positives and I think that’s really all you want to look for in the preseason. There’s definitely things we can work on. Things that we’ve worked on in camp and things that, over the course of the next week and a half, that we’ll continue to work on.”
Notes & quotes: Defenseman Ryan Pulock (illness) and right wing Hudson Fasching (lower body) remained absent from practice…Forward Chris Terry agreed to an AHL contract to rejoin the Islanders’ organization. The 35-year-old, who has played 152 NHL games, played for the Islanders’ Bridgeport affiliate from 2021-23.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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