Four Things The Islanders Need To Get Back Into The Stanley Cup Playoffs
The New York Islanders missed the playoffs by eight points last season. How can they make up the gap to get into the playoffs for the first time in three years?
Video Transcript
Well, I think Ilya Sorokin has to embrace his inner Vladislav Tretiak.
He has to be-- Now, he was, you know, really good last year, but I think he's gotta be even better for them to have a chance.
And obviously you have to worry about a sophomore slump when it comes to Matthew Schaefer, but I think the thing that they need to, needed to address for the two, since the two years that they finished in the Eastern Conference Final, they don't score enough.
They never have scored enough.
And Lou Lamoriello and Matthew Darsh do ha- you know, consecutively, have not embraced the fact that they need to add offense.
And until they do, I, I think they're gonna be pretty much in the fight for a wild card and never in the fight for the top three in the Metro.
Yeah, I kind of agree with- I mean, they can, yeah yeah, I kind of agree with you, Mike.
It's gonna come down to goaltending and how good can Matthew Schaefer be.
And, you know, I, I actually think that if there's a guy that's probably immune to the sophomore s- slump, it's probably Schaefer.
I could see him having a second year similar to what Macklin Celebrini did for the Sharks- where it's like, oh my God, Schaefer's led the team in points and he is far and above the best, player on this team, and I think he's gonna have to be, to Mike's point.
Like, they just don't have that many offensive weapons.
The other thing that they've gotta have working for them is that Metropolitan's gotta just be, you know, what we saw out of the Pacific last year where, you know, it's a, a pillow fight.
You know?
We know Carolina's gonna be at the top, and then from there, is it gonna be Washington?
Is it gonna be, Philly?
Is it going to be, some of these other- New Jersey?
New Jersey maybe.
But, you know, for the Islanders, they have to hope that Jersey has a bad season, Washington has a bad season, and Philly has a bad season so they can try to sneak in as a wild card team or, you know, as one of those, I guess, top three teams.
