New York Islanders
The good news about the New York Islanders is that this team has surpassed the expectations of many coming into the season. Many people saw this as a last place team in the league. The bad news is that they haven’t surpassed expectations by very much this year, sitting in the 13th spot in the conference out of 15 teams.
The Islanders have been a classic example of the difference that it can make to play at home instead of the road. They are one of the top teams in the league at home (19-13-3) but have been absolutely horrendous on the road (9-19-6).
On top of their inconsistency this team has been terrible defensively this year. They have surrendered 214 goals on the season, far more than any of the teams that are currently in line to make the playoffs. Unfortunately their offense hasn’t been very good either, scoring just 180 goals meaning they have been outscored by 34 goals on the season. That -34 goal differential is the second worst in the league, only behind the last place Toronto Maple Leafs.
It would take a miracle of epic proportions to overcome the struggles they’ve had this year and force their way into the playoffs. So much of a miracle that it is probably about time to forget about the playoffs and look towards helping those young players on the team to get a feel for the game.
By playing those young guys it would give them the chance to give them some experience and it probably wouldn’t hurt their draft position this coming offseason either.
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