Islanders and their fans are experiencing a misery trifecta: a team that likely won’t make the playoffs, a roster that needs an overhaul, and a head coach who isn’t a good fit for the future.
Islanders head coach Pete DeBoer coached his second game on Saturday afternoon. After everything that went right in his debut (Thursday night’s 5-3 victory over the Maple Leafs), Saturday was a different story, the same story, actually.
In the Islanders’ 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators at UBS Arena, he learned his new team is not a playoff team, and discovered there are players on the roster who lack verve and skill. It’s a roster with its best days behind it.
Everything was on display Saturday in a game the Islanders had to win for them to be in the playoff picture. It’s going to be tough to recover from a listless performance in a game they had plenty to play for, despite the players spewing cliches after the game.
Here’s reality. With two games remaining in the regular season (tonight vs. Montreal and Tuesday against the Hurricanes, both on home ice), the Islanders are three points behind the leading contender, Philadelphia, for the final playoff spot. Four teams are vying for the 8th-seed: the Flyers with 94 points; Columbus with 92 points, and Washington and the Islanders with 91 points.
The match simply isn’t in the Islanders favor. The likely outcome is that NYI will miss the playoffs.
On Saturday vs. Ottawa, the 0-for-5 power play told the whole story. On their first opportunity, Ottawa scored a shorthanded goal to take a 1-0 lead. The Islanders generated almost no sustained pressure, registered just three shots on the man advantage at one point, and repeatedly stood around waiting for the Senators to make a mistake. That inability to force the issue has been this team’s identity for years.
Bo Horvat has the numbers, just not the numbers you need at crunch time (photo courtesy The Province)
Players who needed to step up didn’t. Bo Horvat, acquired to fix the power play, was invisible again — his seventh straight game without a goal. It’s hard to celebrate Horvat’s 30-goal season when he looks disengaged and incompetent. What good is a 30-goal season when he shrinks in big games? He played like he was clocking in and couldn’t wait to clock out. He’s one of those guys who has to be traded this offseason.
Barzel has underperformed (photo courtesy The Sporting News)
continued to pass rather than shoot. The veterans who are supposed to lead didn’t show up when it mattered most. Barzal offers nothing if we are being honest. He needs to be a scorer to go with his playmaking skills. That is not his game, and this is why he’s a poor fit for the Islanders. We can make all the excuses for him about not working with better playmakers, and that’s true, but at some point, he needs to be assertive.
Saturday’s performance showed it was foolish to think DeBoer would change things. Quite frankly, it’s surprising he even took this job when better jobs await this offseason. The offensive-oriented Maple Leafs, with Auston Matthews leading the way, would have been a better fit for this head coach than the Islanders.
The Islanders have to rebuild just to see what the young players have to offer. Look at what Islanders rookie Matthew Schaefer did to a dormant team this year by scoring 23 goals.
What I can’t figure out is why DeBoer was hired to replace Patrick Roy. I believe the Islanders need a young head coach who can oversee a rebuilding project. They need to hire their next Jon Cooper, a young head coach who can learn on the job with the young players. To me, the rationale is that DeBoer was not hired to rebuild; he was hired to get the Islanders into the playoffs. But even if the Islanders make the playoffs, does losing in the first round do them any good?
Sure, DeBoer will provide guidance and organization, but this team needs more than that. Hindsight says that retaining Roy until the season ended would have made more sense. Then, a team rebuild and hiring a new head coach could have proceeded in tandem.
But that didn’t happen. So, what’s next, Mathieu Darche?
