One of the big problems for the Islanders the last few seasons has been injuries. They’ve been at the top of league the last couple of years in the number of man-power games lost due to hurt players.
However, every team in pro sports deals with injuries and one of the reasons they’ve been such a problem for the Islanders is the team’s lack of depth. That is to say, when a key player has gone down to injury there’s been no suitable replacement due to what has been a very shallow talent pool.
Those days appear long over on Long Island this season. A little depth can go a long way in the NHL and the Islanders finally have some extra pieces to plug holes with. GM Garth Snow deserves much of the credit for developing a roster that finally contains some options.
You can begin in goal, as Snow smartly signed veterans Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron weeks apart during the off season to shore up one of the weakest links on last year’s club. Now with Rick DiPietro apparently all the way back form his injury problems, the Isles might have a valuable trading chip as the March 3 deadline approaches.
Up front, Snow plucked Matt Moulson and Rob Schremp off of the NHL scrap heap and both players have added an offensive jolt to a team often starved for scoring. Moulson is on his way to 30-goal season and Schremp has been money in shootouts and seems to have really hit his stride of late.
Coach Scott Gordon is rolling out four lines every night and as a result the Isles have generally been a much better team late in games than they were earlier in the season.
On defense, the early-season injury to Radek Martinek and the more recent health problems of Brendan Witt might have been crippling a season ago. However, with the surprising emergence of youngsters Jack Hillen and Andrew MacDonald, the team hasn’t missed a stride, as the pair have simply gotten better as the season has progressed. Gordon has developed such confidence in Hillen that he’s increased his ice time significantly in recent weeks to more than 20 minutes a night.
Gordon recently commented that one of the reasons the team is in such a good groove of late (10-4-2) is the fact that, “Everyone contributes every night and someone new is stepping up each game.”
You can’t overlook the contributions of a few veterans on the depth chart either, as the tireless work ethics of Richard Park, Trent Hunter and Jon Sim every night are key reasons Gordon remains confident rolling out those four lines till deep in third periods.
There have certainly been nightly standouts like Kyle Okposo’s consistent excellence, Mark Streit’s steadying influence and Dwayne Roloson’s solid play in net, but they wouldn’t be where they are without the aforementioned depth. And it’s not something this team appeared blessed with when the season began. It has slowly developed throughout the year and is truly the main reason they are talking playoffs at the Coliseum.
As the schedule gets more demanding prior to (10 games in the next 20 days) and even after the Olympic break (10 in the first 20 after the Vancouver games), that depth will become even more vital. If the Isles can continue to get the kind of contributions up and down the roster that they’ve gotten thus far, they may be battling for a lot more than just the final playoff berth in the East by season’s end.
ICE CHIPS
Nice to see attendance on the rise at the Coliseum during this recent stretch of home games. A pair of sellouts against the Devils and some loud, if a bit smaller, crowds on a few other nights of late have turned the old barn on Hempstead Turnpike into a much tougher place to play for the opposition the last few weeks. The Isles had won six straight before the tough loss to Jersey this past Saturday.
The more we watch Rob Schremp play the more he reminds us of the Isles first ever draft pick from way back in 1972, Billy Harris. The pair share a similar skating style and the moving of multiple body parts when Schremp comes in on a breakaway is vintage Harris.
Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals are next up tonight at the Coliseum. Andy Sutton will be back from his two-game suspension for the hit on the Pens’ Pascal Dupuis and Dustin Kohn, who acquitted himself well in his first two NHL games, will head back to Bridgeport.
After the Caps, the Isles hit the road for a big four-game trip that begins in Carolina this Thursday before heading to Philly on Saturday. Then it’s two in Florida, versus the Panthers on Sunday and Tampa Bay a week from this Thursday.