The Isles Season So Far

The New York Islanders are in the bubble and their best-of-five Stanley Cup Qualifier against the Florida Panthers starts on Aug. 1.
It was a mammoth effort from the NHL, NHLPA and all the teams involved to stage a mid-summer Stanley Cup playoff and while the setting is anything but normal, it's a welcome return to have hockey back.

It's been over four months since the pause, so if you need a refresher before Game 1 on Saturday, NewYorkIslanders.com is looking back on how we got here.

HOW WE GOT HERE:

ISLES-PANTHERS SERIES
ISLES-PANTHERS ARTICLES
Qualifiers & Playoffs Roster
Isles-Panthers Playoff History
2019-20 By The Numbers
Isles-Panthers Schedule
ISLES-PANTHERS VIDEO
Practice Highlights: 7/27
Barry Trotz Availability: 7/27
Player Availability: 7/27
The Islanders finished the 2019-20 regular season with a 35-23-10 record, good for 80 points and a .588 points percentage. The latter is how the NHL decided its playoff seeding, as teams had played an uneven number of games heading into the coronavirus pause.
It was a bit of an uneven season for the Islanders, who bookended their regular season with a franchise-record 17-game point streak and went into the break on a seven-game winless streak.
They started hot, rattling off a 15-0-2 stretch from Oct. 12 to Nov. 23, including a 10-game winning streak from Oct. 12 to Nov. 5. Notably, the Isles streak started with a 3-2 shootout win over the Panthers.
The Islanders were locked in defensively during their 10-game winning streak, averaging 1.70 goals against per game. The winning streak came to an end in a shootout loss to the Penguins on Nov. 7, but the point streak persisted, including a pair of dramatic third period comebacks against Philadelphia and Pittsburgh on Nov. 16 and 19, respectively.
The point streak came to an end on Nov. 25 in Anaheim and afterwards, the Islanders went 19-20-8, including an 0-3-4 streak to head into the NHL pause.

INJURIES AND GETTING HEALTHY:

While the Islanders franchise-record point streak was ultimately unsustainable, injuries contributed to their sub .500 play from late November onward.
Cal Clutterbuck missed two months with a skate cut to his wrist, Adam Pelech missed the second half with an Achilles tendon injury, Casey Cizikas missed a month with a leg laceration and Johnny Boychuk missed the last three games after a nasty cut to his eyelid. The Clutterbuck and Cizikas injuries disrupted the Islanders Identity Line and had the team missing at least one of its top penalty-killing forwards from Dec. 19 onward.
Without Pelech, the Isles were down their top shutdown defenseman for half a season. With Pelech, the Isles were fifth in the league with 2.61 goals-against per game and that number jumped to 21st (3.03 GA/GP) without him - and at least one of Cizikas or Clutterbuck.
The pause has allowed the Islanders to get healthy, especially the three key regulars (Pelech, Cizikas and Boychuk) out of the lineup on March 12. Their return would already be a bolster to the lineup, but the trio is
returning to a deeper team
than when they left.
The Islanders
acquired Andy Greene
and
JG Pageau in February
, solidifying their lineup with the two veterans. Greene's game mirrors that of Pelech, a lefty, stay-at-home presence and shot blocker. The well-conditioned and wily vet finished fifth in the NHL this season with 155 blocked shots, and brings 50 games of postseason experience to the lineup. As a testament to the Islanders depth on defense, Greene is one of 10 defensemen vying to be in the lineup on Aug. 1.
In Pageau, the Islanders added an all-purpose center. Pageau scored a career-high 26 goals, won 53.5% of his faceoffs this season (taking 1149 total draws), and is expected to play on the power play and penalty kill. Pageau won the fifth-most shorthanded draws this season and 59.6% of faceoffs on the power play. He's a responsible two-way center who can give the Islanders some extra pop down the middle and allow Derick Brassard and Josh Bailey to play on the wing.
Barry Trotz preaches a full-team approach and this is the healthiest the team has been since September.

TWO-GOALIE SYSTEM:

There is competition for roles and roster spots at forward and defense, but no race might be tighter than in net. Semyon Varlamov (.914 SV%) and Thomas Greiss (.913 SV%) turned in similar statistical seasons and alternated starts through the first 33 games of the season.
Varlamov wound up starting 10 more games than Greiss at the pause, but after a long layoff, there's an open competition to see who gets the game one nod. Both goalies kept themselves in shape during the break, with Varlamov driving two hours each way to a rink in Odessa, Texas, while Greiss has skated regularly with teammates since June 8.
If performance vs the Panthers becomes a factor, the decision doesn't exactly get easier, but gives the Isles confidence in both netminders.
Greiss has a 5-2-1 regular season record vs the Panthers for his career, with a 2.10 GAA and a .930 SV%, while Varlamov is 8-3-1 with a 2.65 GAA and a .922 SV%. This season Greiss went 2-0-0 vs the Cats with a 1.00 GAA and a .972 SV% this season while Varlamov went 1-0-0 with a 1.86 GAA and a .946 SV%.
Greiss was also in net for the Islanders series win over Florida in 2016, going 4-2-0 with a 1.79 GAA and a .944 SV%.
Christopher Gibson rounds out the Isles likely goaltending trio. In a down year for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Gibson put up a .914 SV%, his best since arriving in Bridgeport in 2015-16. He's got limited NHL experience with 14 total appearances, with his last one coming in relief on March 9, 2019 vs the Flyers.
Gibson has a couple of wins in big spots, including a 50-save performance in Calgary in 2018 and an OT win in Washington that sent the Isles to the playoffs in 2016.
Ilya Sorokin, who signed an entry-level contract on July 13 and a one-year contract extension on July 14, is ineligible for the NHL's Return to Play, but can practice with the team and is expected to join them shortly.

DEFENSE FIRST:

The 2019-20 Islanders roster looked and played a lot like the 2018-19 squad that advanced to the second round of the postseason a year ago.
In the second year under Trotz, the Islanders kept their defense-first, structured and hard-working identity.
The Isles finished the season ninth in goals against per game (2.79), marking a second-straight year in the top-10, after leading the league in 2018-19. At 5-on-5, the Isles were eighth with 133 goals allowed and at even strength overall, the Isles were 10th with 151 goals allowed. They led the league in blocked shots (1,153) and finished first in hits/60 with 27.71 (1,915 total, which was second).
The Islanders held some of the league's top offenses in check during some signature wins of the 2019-20 campaign. They held the NHL's most potent offense, Tampa Bay, to six total goals, including a 5-2 win on Nov. 1 and a 5-1 win on Dec. 9. They shut out the Colorado Avalanche's fourth-ranked offense 1-0 on Jan. 6.
Perhaps more relevant was the Isles holding the Panthers, who finished the season sixth in goals-for per game, to four goals over three games.
In fairness, there were some porous nights, as the Isles allowed five-or-more goals (including shootout winners) 10 times this season. The Isles had allowed 27 goals during their seven-game winless streak heading into the pause, so there's room to tighten heading into the qualifier. The return of key defensive pieces like Pelech and Cizikas should help, as well as two weeks of practice time with Trotz in Training Camp.
And for a team ranked 22nd goals for per game (2.78), keeping the puck out of the net will be paramount.