EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — The New York Islanders haven’t moved anyone out of training camp yet but that’s coming, most likely on Saturday. The team has back-to-back preseason games Thursday in Philadelphia and Friday at home against the Devils; after those games the cuts will commence over the weekend and we should start to get a sense of what GM Lou Lamoriello and coach Patrick Roy think of the very few battles for roster spots.
Until then, we have the evidence of a few long, intense days of camp practice and a couple preseason games to go on. But here’s what we’ve got so far on who has impressed Roy and who needs to start impressing him and the braintrust soon to have a shot at making this team.
Stock up
The top line: Yeah, yeah, it’s easy to say three of the best forwards on the roster look good together. The Anthony Duclair-Bo Horvat-Mat Barzal line seemed like a sure thing to at least start the season together once Duclair signed back on July 1; after some spirited practices together and a pretty impressive preseason debut on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, when the line combined for three goals and five points, the Isles’ No. 1 line looks ready to give the regular season a go.
“That line may put other teams on their heels and that’s a good sign,” Roy said. The coach reached back into his playing days to illustrate how he wants the Islanders to be a deep, four-line team, noting that in Colorado “one night it was the (Peter) Forsberg line. Another night it was the (Joe) Sakic line. Another night it was the (Stephane) Yelle line. We always had different guys and that’s how I think our team will be.”
It’d be awfully nice if the Islanders had Forsberg and Sakic. But the last true No. 1 line, a dominant top line with three highly skilled forwards, might go all the way back to the Frans Nielsen-John Tavares-Kyle Okposo line from 2015-16. The last five seasons of relative success have been built on even distribution of skill and plugging in depth guys to close the gaps.
A top line that can dominate possession and force opposing teams into juggling matchups would be a new and exciting change for the Islanders. We’ll see how well it goes for this line.
Young wingers: Simon Holmström has gotten the first shot at grabbing the second-line left-wing spot alongside Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri. Holmström was solid in his one preseason game so far, a game in which two other under-27-year-old forwards, Julien Gauthier and newcomer Maxim Tsyplakov, shined. Tsyplakov, to my eyes, looks to be the best option for the Nelson-Palmieri wing, but perhaps Roy wants to see how Tsyplakov handles the pace and physicality of the NHL for a bit before elevating him over Holmström, whose two-way game and above-average shot are a bit better known in the organization.
Gauthier has a history of impressing in training camp only to fizzle out as the season goes along. But his speed and skill have been on display early this camp, so he’s pushing to get noticed. And with Hudson Fasching missing Wednesday’s practice after getting banged up in the Rangers game and Oliver Wahlstrom not yet standing out, Gauthier may have a line on the 12/13 forward spot at the moment.
First-year depth: Lamoriello brought in a couple of veteran pro forwards in Fredrik Karlström and Liam Foudy and they are doing their jobs so far in pushing to be first in line for a call-up in case of injury. Karlström, who spent three years in the Stars organization, is a big-bodied center who could easily fill a bottom-six spot when needed. Foudy, the 18th pick in the 2018 draft, has plenty of speed and could fill a different sort of role if needed.
Stock down
Ilya Sorokin: No one’s down on Sorokin — it’s more down about whether he’ll be ready for opening night. That seems like a long shot as Sorokin’s absence from training camp stretches into a second week. It seems all but certain he’ll get at most half a preseason game and the only real option for that is a week from Friday in the preseason finale. He is skating, he is day-to-day and for the record, Roy is not worried.
“I missed (part of training camp) with my hip one year (1999-2000),” Roy said of his playing days with the Avalanche. “I mean, it wasn’t my best start (to the regular season), but I was fine. And I feel like he’s going to be fine as well. We have two very good goaltenders and we’re just going to match the situation game by game. So no, I’m not concerned.”
Sorokin’s back surgery wasn’t supposed to interfere with the bulk of training camp and the preseason, according to Lamoriello a few weeks ago, but here we are. The Isles play six regular-season games before their first set of back-to-backs on Oct. 25 and 26, so Semyon Varlamov could handle the workload through the first two weeks of the season. But every day Sorokin is absent from the main camp group is another day off the calendar of proper on-ice goalie work, of taking shots in drills and possibly playing in games. It’s not good.
Roy started that 1999-2000 season with wins in just six of his first 16 starts, by the way. He finished strong, with a .914 save percentage and 2.28 goals-against average while helping the Avs to Game 7 of the Western Conference final.
Goalie depth: The other big concern with Sorokin is that the Islanders are one minor Varlamov tweak away from being at DEFCON 1 with their goaltending. Marcus Högberg looked pretty good against the Devils on Sunday but he was absent from camp on Wednesday. Henrik Tikkanen came into Tuesday’s game at the Garden and gave up five goals on seven shots. Keith Kinkaid hasn’t gotten a look in a game yet but basically the competition for the No. 3 goalie in the organization — which would be the No. 2 goalie if Sorokin continues to miss time — isn’t exactly intense.
Defending five on six: We’ll call this a mixed bag since the Isles did protect a one-goal lead in Newark on Sunday and even produced an empty-net goal to seal that win. On Tuesday, the Islanders gave up a pair of five-on-six goals, bringing some unwanted flashbacks to last season. Roy has been vocal about fixing the aspects of the Isles’ defensive game that cost them points last season, namely the penalty kill and when the opposing team pulls its goalie. Still a work in progress.
(Top photo of Ilya Sorokin: Dennis Schneidler / USA Today)
