Think deep
Contributions up and down lineup what helped spur Isles’ 6-game run
BUFFALO — So now that the Islanders have lost a game, the question becomes how they can reproduce the hockey that led to a season-best six-game winning streak, as opposed to fizzling out.
The answer to that starts here: with Cal Clutterbuck’s goal late in Sunday’s win over Anaheim, every Islanders skater had at least one point over the six-game stretch that ended with a 3-0 loss to the Kings a night later.
The Islanders are not a team that has traditionally done its damage in scoring. Let alone depth scoring. It wasn’t assumed when Patrick Roy rolled out line combinations featuring the team’s three best offensive players together that the bottom-six would start rolling as a by-product, but that is what happened.
“That’s what we talked about. Team concept,” Roy said before Monday’s game. “And everybody is playing so well for us right now and it’s fun to see that everyone’s trying to buy into what we’re trying to do as an organization.”
Of course, the bulk of the goals still came from the team’s horses. But for the last two weeks, all four lines have contributed. Kyle MacLean has had noticeable shift after noticeable shift. Pierre Engvall, lost at sea for much of the year, is playing some of his best hockey. The top line can have an off night and it is not the end of the world.
Roy’s favorite axiom is saying he wants the Islanders to operate as a unit of five. Maybe he would be better served to call it a unit of 23.
“I think it’s how we’re built,” Noah Dobson said. “When we have success, we’ve had in the past, up and down the lineup everybody’s contributed. We gotta be a team. Each line, each D-man, goalies. When we’re getting that, we’re getting the results. Guys have been doing a good job.”
All those good things did abandon the Islanders on Monday, when their offense was stuck in the mud against a hard-forechecking Kings team. The formula, however, has become obvious, and the Islanders could not bring themselves to be all too down after their winning streak was snapped.
“We’re playing good hockey and that’s the important thing for me,” Roy said Monday. “We played a good hockey game here. They didn’t play last night, we played last night, it was a 1-0 game until midway through the third period. Honestly, I’m very pleased with the effort, the backchecking, how we competed with them. It was playoff hockey.”
Now, it is about finding the offense again on Thursday against the Sabres, who are clinging to the thinnest of playoff hopes.
The confidence gained over the last two weeks is not going to abandon the Islanders after one bad night. And in a razor-tight playoff race — the Flyers, Lightning, Red Wings and Islanders all entered Tuesday with either 74 or 72 points — that is a crucial piece of the puzzle.
“Confidence is an interesting thing,” Clutterbuck said Monday morning. “I think you just become confident if you go out there and stack some favorable evidence in your favor, I think that just comes. When you do the right things and get rewarded for them, I think that sort of breeds confidence.
“Obviously Patrick’s done a good job in helping us along the way and getting to that point. But it’s nice to be winning. It’s nice to be confident.”
Still, for much of the season, the Islanders struggled to string together victories. Prior to this streak, their longest all year was just four games, and they quickly started struggling after that one was broken.
If the last couple weeks really was a turning point, we’ll start to find out on Thursday.