January 2, 2020, was supposed to be just another night with another game for the New York Islanders.
Looking back at it now, in the midst of the NHL’s shutdown due to the coronavirus, it was that evening that almost derailed the team’s season.
Set to host the lowly New Jersey Devils, the Isles announced just before puck drop that d-man Adam Pelech would not dress after suffering a lower-body injury. Rookie Noah Dobson was thrown in to take Pelech’s place, but questions began to arise as to how Pelech got hurt.
Did it happen in the game prior? During morning skate? At practice?
Nope.
Instead, it was rather the normal pre-game activity for all hockey players — two-touch soccer — where it was revealed Pelech tore his Achilles tendon.
Isles g.m. Lou Lamoriello made the announcement a day later, calling it a “freak accident.” Things only got worse from there. Lamoriello added that the 25-year-old would miss the rest of the season.
The severity of Pelech’s injury sent shockwaves through the organization and the fan base. The Isles, although they had lost to New Jersey the night prior, were still tied for second place in the Metropolitan Division and seemed to be primed for a second straight playoff appearance.
So, not only was the team losing a regular in the lineup, one of the top-four on defense, and their most steady and reliable blue-liner, but they were losing arguably their second-most valuable player behind center Mathew Barzal.
Pelech, before being sidelined, had evolved into one of the most underrated defensemen in the NHL dating back to last January. He came on incredibly strong in the second half of last season and did a tremendous job shutting down Sidney Crosby in the Isles’ first-round sweep of the Penguins. Pelech’s performance as a number-one D pushed head coach Barry Trotz to anoint him and Ryan Pulock as the club’s top-pair on defense.
Pelech’s absence definitely had a trickle-down effect on the entire team.
The Isles struggled mightily to keep the puck out of the net and keep a calmer demeanor in their own zone. Some of that blame can be placed on the goaltending and the forwards, but Pelech being 6’3 and close to 220 pounds provided a big body which was tasked with keying in on the opposition’s top players. He also knows how to slow the play down and not get rattled, which allows his team to regroup.
Those missing elements unquestionably played a factor in why the Isles were 10-12-7 without Pelech before the season was postponed. Pelech is so defensively responsible and plays incredibly well to Trotz’s system that replacing him was almost impossible.
Speaking of Trotz, he went on with the guys from Sportsnet’s Hockey Central late last week and revealed that he believes his team was hit with the “wrong injuries this year at the wrong times that didn’t allow us keep our head above water enough where we would be in a better situation.” You best believe he was referring to Pelech as well as the ones to Casey Cizikas, Johnny Boychuk, and Cal Clutterbuck.
This past Saturday would have marked the end of the regular season, with the playoffs set to begin tomorrow. There was no guarantee the Isles would have been starting their first-round series against whomever or watching from home. But they might have actually caught some luck with this extended break.
In the post-dynasty era of the New York Islanders, there was only a handful of memorable moments for the franchise.
There was the Easter Epic in 1987. The Magical run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1993. Shawn Bates’s penalty shot goal in the first round of the 2002 playoffs that shook the Coliseum to its core.
Then there was the last week of the ’06-07 season.
It was a culmination of a year-long battle for the organization.
Heading into that year, the Isles had missed the playoffs the season prior. That summer, former owner, the late Charles Wang, had hired Neil Smith to be the general manager and team legend Pat LaFontaine as a senior advisor. Smith’s tenure lasted just 41 days, as did LaFontaine’s. That episode brought upon a new sense of ridicule and embarrassment to the organization from hockey pundits. Wang then tabbed former goalie Garth Snow, who had been with the organization for several years and just recently retired, as Smith’s replacement.
Smith had already done a solid job re-tooling the Isles — signing veteran free agents Brendan Witt, Tom Poti, Mike Sillinger, and Chris Simon — before Snow added to the group with Richard Park, Andy Hilbert, Sean Hill, and Viktor Kozlov. The Islanders emerged a veteran-laided squad for head coach Ted Nolan when training camp arrived.
On to the season, where the Islanders got off to a rough start with a losing streak to begin the year. By December, they had found their footing enough to grab first place in the Atlantic Division. After claiming that spot, Snow got greedy.
He made two deals with the rival Flyers, acquiring d-man Freddy Meyer for forward Alexei Zhitnik, and forward Randy Robitaille for Mike York.
“That year was obviously one of my favorite,” Meyer told me in an interview I did with him over a year ago. “We had a lot of really good guys on that team. Not just playing wise, but also the veterans that made sure to stir the pot and get us going in the right direction.”
The short-term effect of both trades didn’t help the Isles, who went on another long losing streak at the end of December. After they found their footing again, the Islanders competed as a fringe playoff team.
Snow, again, made more deals.
Just prior to the trade deadline, he dealt Grebeshkov to the Oilers for hard-shooting blueliner Marc-Andre Bergeron. Then on deadline day, with the Isles sitting pretty in the sixth slot in the East, he traded for “Captain Canada”, Ryan Smyth.
Everything seemed to be set in place for the Islanders to make noise down the stretch. But, two incidents — Chris Simon’s controversial swinging of his stick at the Rangers’ Ryan Hollweg and star goalie Rick DiPietro getting concussed multiple times, most notably for being run over trying to play a loose puck in Montreal — predated that miraculous final week. To make things worse, backup goalie Mike Dunham was poor in relief of DiPietro and the Isles had lost three in a row, putting their season on life support.
Then an unknown third-string goalie by the name of Wade Dubielewicz came out of nowhere. Dubielewicz, 27, had been called up to replace Dunham back on March 15th but didn’t make an appearance until the Islanders’ 5-2 defeat to Ottawa in the fifth to last game of the year.
With four games left, the Isles found themselves four points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. It would be an arduous test if they wanted any shot at the postseason, as they would have to go through the hated Rangers, the on the fringe Maple Leafs, the lowly Flyers, and the already playoff-bound Devils.
April 3, 2007, the Islanders and Blueshirts squared off.
In a playoff-style affair, the Isles played well enough to get the game to a shootout. But they needed the second point desperately to keep pace with the Canadiens who won 2-0 that night over Boston. The shootout saw the beloved Miroslav Satan strike first for the Islanders. Dubielewicz then made a poke check on the Blueshirts’ Michael Nylander which would become his calling card not only that week but in Islanders lore. The legendary Jaromir Jagr was the Rangers’ last hope to extend the shootout.
Again, Dubielewicz went back to the well.
13 years ago tonight, Wade Dubielewicz introduced himself into #Isles history and began one of the most memorable weeks in franchise history pic.twitter.com/vSDzR4EmBI
The Isles won the shootout and the game 3-2 and kept their playoff hopes alive.
Two nights later on April 5th against Toronto — who were three points ahead of the Isles and one point out of the eight spot — the Islanders were again in a dogfight. It was early in the third though where those wavering playoff hopes began to grow stronger.
Jason Blake would put the Isles ahead for good after breaking a 2-2 tie with his 40th goal of the season early in the frame. Aaron Asham and Satan added insurance goals and the Isles won 5-2, giving them points 87 and 88.
Now with a back-to-back weekend to end the regular season, two points separated the Isles and eighth place.
On Saturday, April 7th, the Isles went into Philadelphia for an afternoon matinee. They took nothing for chance with the Flyers, establishing a 3-0 lead midway through the second on goals by Satan, Alexei Yashin and Richard Park. Things got a little hairy with Philly making it 3-2 with a minute left in the game. But Satan, who was an unsung hero all season, hit the empty net to give the Islanders a decisive 4-2 victory.
Later that night, the Isles needed the Leafs to lose to Montreal to have any shot at making Sunday’s game in New Jersey meaningful.
“We actually had a team meal in New Jersey the night before that Sunday game to watch the Toronto-Montreal game,” Asham said for a piece I did with him last year. “We needed Toronto to lose. Watching that back and forth game, we found out that night that the next day was going to be do or die for us.”
Toronto would go on to win a wild affair 6-5 in what was their 82nd game of the season. At the end of the night, the standings read Toronto 91, Montreal 90, Islanders 90.
The Islanders’ destiny was in their own hands: Win and they’re in.
My family — mom, dad, older brother — made the trip for that Easter Sunday matinee in East Rutherford. My Dad had decided the day before, once they won in Philadelphia the day before, we had to be there.
And true to Howie Rose’s famous line after Richard Park scored the game’s first goal past Scott Clemmensen, “It’s Long Island south here in East Rutherford”, it truly was an Islander-heavy crowd.
Park would score again just before the eight-minute mark of the third period to make it 2-0 and the Islander contingent began to get louder and louder.
As the minutes waned down in the third, the entire building — and the Islanders bench — was a ball nervous energy.
The Devils would make it a one-goal game after John Madden scored with just under six minutes remaining in regulation. The score now 2-1, the Isles playoff aspirations came down to a frantic five minutes.
As the final seconds ticked down, the Devils were pressuring Dubielewicz and the Islanders furiously. With under a second remaining, Madden tucked home a rebound after Dubielewicz fell down and couldn’t get up.
Both the green light and red light both flashed.
The goal counted, and shock just rattled through Islanders country.
Well, it was on to overtime to decide the Isles’ season. The extra session was full of chances but no goals, meaning a shootout would decide the game.
Both teams scored in round one. Viktor Kozlov went for the Isles to start round two. He went five-hole on Clemmensen giving his team the lead in the shootout. That left Sergei Brylin against Dubielewicz.
Brylin came in on Dubielewicz, who once again went to his patented poke check.
The Islanders won the game and were in the playoffs in about as dramatic a fashion possible.
“For that next game to go to a shootout, and for Dubie (Wade Dubielwicz) to stand on his head, it was quite the experience,” Asham said.
“Individually, that was my first real taste of playoff hockey,” former Islander Jeff Tambellini noted in an interview I did with him. “I remembered before the season The Hockey News not having us in the playoffs and everybody in the room took it personally. Getting hot toward the end, and being able to jump in on those last couple of games, was awesome.
“That last game in New Jersey was the biggest game of my career to that point.”
That entire week still lives on 13 years later in the hearts of Islanders fans as one of the great moments in a decade that didn’t have many. Sadly it ended up also becoming the last competitive-wise for the organization and fans would see for another six years.
People will always remember those four games though.
The angst, chest-beating moments, and unfathomable finish. That was the last week of the 2006-2007 Islanders.
Before the NHL season came to a screeching halt due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Semyon Varlamov was nearing the conclusion of his first year with the New York Islanders.
Varlamov, who signed a four-year, $20 million contract last summer, had spent a majority of this season as a part of the 1A-1B duo with veteran Thomas Greiss.
The Islanders brought in Varlamov after they couldn’t come to terms with Masterton Winner and Vezina finalist, Robin Lehner.
G.M. Lou Lamoriello made it abundantly clear he was courting Varlamov’s services even before free agency last July. Multiple reports indicated that Lamoriello tried to trade for the 31-year-old at the draft in 2018.
When training camp began, there was a sense that Varlamov would be the unquestionable starter because of his contract and the fact the organization zeroed in on him to turn back to his elite status when he was one of the top goalies in the league.
Barry Trotz had other ideas. The Isles’s head coach believed that he could repeat his method of his goaltenders splitting games throughout the season. It was a smashing success this season prior, where the team was awarded the William M. Jennings Trophy.
Still, Varlamov himself knew he had big shoes to fill, and was more than ready for that battle.
“I just treat pressure as a privilege,” he told Newsday back in September. “I’ve played with the best players in the world, and I’m very happy to a part of that, part of this organization and part of this league. “The pressure has always been there. It’s going to be there every game. Every time you step on the ice you feel the pressure. I think you just need to know how to deal with the pressure. I think pressure brings the best out of you.”
Varlamov’s first appearances in blue and orange weren’t kind to him. His first three starts, he allowed eight goals on 84 shots against.
That third game though — a 3-2 shootout win over Florida and his first as an Islander — was the first time he looked comfortable.
Following that first victory, Varlamov settled in and started to play extremely well. From October 12th until November 23rd, the Russian netminder didn’t suffer a regulation loss. His excellent run, coupled with the Islanders going on an incredible 17-game point streak.
After the streak, the team began to slow down. But Varlamov was still putting up fantastic numbers through December and early January. He was still winning games, and a possible All-Star nomination was beginning to pick up steam. All that talk quickly dissolved when the Capitals’ Braden Holtby was selected as the goalie representative for the Metropolitan Division.
There was another slim chance he could be a reserve when Columbus’ Joonas Korpisalo went down with an injury just weeks prior to the All-Star Game. Varlamov was again snubbed. Tristan Jarry, the standout rookie from the Penguins, was chosen instead.
Out of the break, Varlamov had been solid statistically — .907 save percentage in 14 games played — despite the Islanders free fall in the Metro. A 43-save performance in a 1-0 shutout loss in Vegas in February was probably one of his most impressive outings all year, if not his best.
When the season was shut down a few weeks back, Varlamov’s record through 45 games played was 19-14-6 with a 2.62 GAA, and .914 save percentage. The latter two numbers are towards the bottom of the league in that category.
Entering next season, Varlamov will most likely be the number one. Greiss is an unrestricted free agent this summer, and rumors have surfaced that his fellow countryman and friend, Ilya Sorokin, is Long Island-bound once the KHL lets their players be free to sign with NHL clubs on May 1st. Lamoriello has also been given every indication that will be what happens as well.
Even with that happening, Varlamov still had a quality first campaign with the Isles.
If the season was still going, he might have been one of the sole reasons — along with star center Mathew Barzal — for why the Islanders made the postseason for a second straight season.
When you think of the dynasty that was the New York Islanders in the 1980s, the most prominent names roll right off the tongue.
Potvin. Bossy. Gillies. Nystrom. Smith. Trottier. And most recently, (Butch) Goring and (John) Tonelli — the two players who had their numbers sent to the rafters just last month in the prelude to the suspension of the NHL season due to COVID-19.
Those eight names are just a small portion of the 17 who were there for all four Stanley Cups, or better known as the “Core of the Four.”
So that begs the question: Who was the most undervalued member of those Cup-winning teams?
For me, who wasn’t around to see it but have done tons of research on the matter, it came down to one name — Bob Bourne.
With all due respect to Anders Kallur, Ken Morrow, Stefan Persson, and a few others, Bourne was the model of consistency all four years the Isles were winning titles. Heck, even the fifth and final run to the Finals, he was still playing at an extremely high level.
Bourne, who played ten seasons on Long Island, had more than established himself prior to the Cup years when he first joined the Isles during the 74-’75 season. The Kindersley, SK native had tallied 30 goals in back-to-back seasons before the Islanders won their first title.
In 1979-80, the first of the four consecutive Cup seasons, Bourne only totaled 40 points in 73 games during the regular season after the start of the year saw him suffer a twisted ankle not once, but twice in two games. The setback cost him several weeks and took a toll on him being able to use his biggest asset — his speed; heading into that season, Bourne was recognized as the fastest player in the game.
Bourne, who was only 25 at the time, was also dealing with some personal issues to go along with his injury as chronicled in author Alan Hahn’s Birth of a Dynasty: The 1980 New York Islanders. His son had been diagnosed with Spinal Bifida early that season.
Bourne found his game late that year, and when the season ended, he still had the seventh most points and sixth in goals for any forward on the team. He gained the moniker as the catalyst. Former Isles assistant coach, Bill MacMillan, described him that way because of how his speed and effort would get his teammates going even if he wasn’t scoring.
In the playoffs, Bourne was re-energized. He notched 20 points in 21 games — third best for the Islanders and sixth-most in the postseason — and had some clutch performances.
His game-tying goal in game three of the first round against the Kings set the stage for the Isles to take a 2-1 series lead. His second-period goal in game four essentially sealed the series win. And facing Boston in the next round in game one, and the clinching game in Buffalo which sent the Islanders to their first Stanley Cup Final, Bourne tallied three points both times.
The 1980-81 campaign was Bourne’s best of his career and best as an Islander.
Bourne netted 35 goals and finished with 76 points. Only Kallur and Hall of Famer Mike Bossy scored more. He also accomplished another feat that still stands today as a franchise-record — seven shorthanded goals during the season.
Bourne was good once again in the playoffs. In 14 games, he recorded ten points, including a three-point performance to open the second round against the Toronto Maple Leafs and a goal and the game-winning helper on Butch Goring’s opening goal in the Cup-clinching game five at home versus Minnesota.
1981-82 is considered the greatest team of the dynasty, if not one of the greatest in NHL history. The Isles dominated the competition that year from the start, and Bourne again had a solid showing with another 25-plus goal campaign and 53 points overall. The postseason, he tallied nine goals, second to Bryan Trottier’s 16.
It was the third round against Quebec, though where Bourne dominated.
Sweeping the Nordiques, Bourne found the scoresheet in every game and ended the series with seven points in four contests. He would add two points in a wild game two 6-4 victory in the Final against Vancouver, which helped open the scoring and help the Isles tie the game just 32 seconds into the third period.
The final of the four consecutive Cup-winning seasons came for the Isles in 1982-83. The regular season was another excellent one for Bourne as well, 62 points in 77 games. Individually, Bourne assisted on the most goals of any year in his career with 42 helpers.
He also ended the year fifth in scoring on the club.
That postseason was when Bourne would introduce himself into franchise lore.
Bourne accounted for 28 points, one shy of the franchise’s playoff record 29, which was established by Trottier in 1980. His ten assists in the series against the Rangers was unbelievable and still hasn’t been broken. Although he set a club record that series, it was his coast-to-coast goal — part of his electric four-point night in game five — that’s still considered one of the most memorable in team history.
The Isles would sweep the Wayne Gretzky-led Oilers in the Finals with Bourne adding four points. Somehow he wasn’t named the Conn Smythe winner. Instead, it was awarded to Billy Smith.
The chance for a five-peat in 1983-84 would be the end for the Islanders. It was also Bourne’s last great season not only for the organization but for his career.
Bourne would post another 56 points in the regular season, and then in the playoffs, he got hurt, tearing ligaments in his knee against Montreal. The injury forced Bourne to miss the rest of the postseason, and the Islanders lost in five in a rematch with Edmonton.
Bourne would last two more years on Long Island before being placed on waivers at the beginning of the 1986-87 season. But the franchise never forgot what he did all those wonderful years.
They inducted him into the team’s Hall of Fame in November 2006, and now there’s an argument to be had about whether he should have his number retired. Bourne did play 814 games for the Islanders/ He does also claim the fifth-most playoff points (92) and seventh-most postseason games (129) in club history.
To say Bourne was underrated, some might say you’re wrong. Then again, the crucial role he played in the Isles’ dynasty can’t be overlooked.
He was the most underrated piece of that time and should always be considered a critical focal point.
There hasn’t been any determination made yet as to whether the NHL will resume its season anytime soon, and what that means for the New York Islanders, is they might have seen Matt Martin suit up in orange and blue for the last time.
This season marked the final year of Martin’s four-year, $10 million contract which he signed when he left the Isles for Toronto, and the organization took back when g.m. Lou Lamoriello re-acquired him back on the second day of free agency in 2018.
Martin, 30, saw a significant drop in playing time this season — only skating in 55 games — with the emergence of his possible replacement, 26-year-old Ross Johnston. Johnston is the air apparent to Martin — the guy who protects his teammates and is willing to drop the gloves. Also, in terms of money, Johnston has become a much cheaper option for the role that Martin has taken on the past decade.
Let’s talk about that decade for a minute.
It was one that saw the franchise turn the tide both on and off the ice. It was one that saw a franchise re-invigorate their fan base after years of torment. And it was one this franchise’s heart and soul wore a number 17 on his sweater.
From the moment he debuted in 2009, Martin embodied everything that was Long Island and what it meant to wear the Islander crest — tough, gritty, passionate, hard-working. He became a part of a team who was in a rebuild from ground one and needed someone who would take no prisoners.
Some might not want to remember those days because of how awful they were for the organization, but what some seem to forget is they were watching a young man and fan-favorite begin to grow up right before their very eyes.
He protected John Tavares. He protected Kyle Okposo. He protected Michael Grabner. He protected all his teammates because that was his role.
Martin was never the most skilled guy or a big-point producer; his best season came in 2015-16 when he recorded 19 points in 80 games. No, the Windsor, ON native was known for his physical, grinding style of play.
When the Islanders signed him to a four-year deal before the start of the 2012-13 season, no one knew it would help shape the development of one of the most notorious trios who would define the next several years for the club, The Identity Line. That’s what it’s referred to as now, but in the beginning, it was called the E-MC2 Line and eventually was dubbed “The Best Fourth Line in Hockey” by legendary hockey broadcaster Don Cherry.
Playing on a line with his best friends on the team — Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck — Martin helped wreak havoc in the opponent’s zone with his intense forechecking and willingness to throw his body at anything that moves. Opponents despised that line, as the clip below demonstrates.
The Islanders had a renaissance like year that ’14-15 campaign, and it was built on the foundation of that fourth line. Martin alone set a new NHL record by totaling 382 hits that year, the most by a single player in an season.
Martin and his line’s dominance was on display once again the following season. He led the league in hits again with 365 while the Islanders again recorded another 100-plus point season. The Isles made it to the second round of the playoffs, falling in five to the Tampa Bay Lightning. A decision needed to be made by then-GM Garth Snow whether to re-sign Martin.
He didn’t, letting him go to Toronto for the next four seasons. That day felt like the “heart” of the organization was ripped away.
Missing Martin’s presence was definitely felt early on and for a majority of the year. The team looked listless and fragile without him, and his former linemates, Clutterbuck and Cizikas, struggled to maintain that identity and heavy play. Sure they tried to replicate Martin with Jason Chimera, and Chimera did score 20 goals — albeit most of them in the second half of the year — but they could never replace him.
It’s why the following season, when there were rumors that Martin was on the trading block, many Islanders fans pleaded for Snow to bring him back.
Snow didn’t, but a few months later, Lamoriello did.
Lamoriello, in the aftermath of the franchise losing captain John Tavares, knew he needed to bring back some character to the locker room. The impact was felt immediately from Martin’s side and the team’s side.
“Coming back to the Islanders is exciting for me,” Martin told Newsday after the trade. “In my heart, I was hoping for this.”
With Martin back in the fold — and reunited with Clutterbuck and Cizikas — the Isles regained their identity.
Martin was again in the top-five in hits, threw in 14 points in 67 games, and the Islanders stunned the NHL with 103 points and a second-round appearance in the playoffs.
When he’s come here, he’s been exactly what I saw four years ago, and that’s refreshing,” Trotz said about Martin in the middle of last season. “When you’re coaching against Matt Martin, you could see he was an all-in type of player. You could see that he brings a physical element. You could see that he has good hockey sense. You could see that he is a big part of the energy of the team and that line.”
As mentioned earlier, this season was a little different for Martin. But, he still was his old-hitting self — 242 hits in 55 games.
The need to get younger and more skilled upfront, though, might draw the end for Martin and the Isles. That dynamic aside, it doesn’t take away how Martin represented himself as an Islander.
Off the ice, all the charitable efforts, team events, and even during the difficult times, Martin was always there with his trademark smile. And that reflected how he went about his business on the ice.
He wed Sydney Esiason, Boomer’s daughter, last summer and has become Long Island royalty; the two are expecting their first child, a girl, this summer.
That’s just one of the small parts of what he’s meant to this franchise for a long time.
If he comes back in a different uniform next season, he’ll get a heroes welcome. He deserves it.
The Islanders became a different team and organization for that matter with Martin, and no one can deny that.
There’s been nothing doing on the ice for the New York Islanders for over two weeks now, but off it, there’s been one thing that has provided some normalcy in the lives of fans.
It’s the ongoing construction of their soon-to-be home at Belmont Park.
Amid nearly all businesses — except those deemed essential — in the entire state shutting down due to COVID-19, the construction at Belmont has continued. There were questions raised about whether the work at Belmont would halt when just last week, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo made a rule forbidding the gathering of ten or more people; this came after he ruled that gatherings of 50 and 25 earlier before the virus began to build more steam.
Newsday’s Jim Baumbach, who’s been on top of all the Isles’ arena drama over the past few years, assured the people on the Island Ice Podcast — an Islander-based podcast hosted by his colleague Andrew Gross — that construction wouldn’t be affected unless something dier occurred. He used the word “amazingly“ about how the work on the arena wouldn’t be affected.
Isles fans already know once that building opens in September 2021, it will be amazing. Ever since the organization broke ground back in September, the videos and images coming from the site have brought tons of excitement and hope.
That is why in the reality we are living now, that building still being constructed is a great distraction to help a lot of people get through these trying times.
There’s a Twitter account @NYIBelmontArena, which popped up before the season was postponed, and it has continued to post an updated image every day with a nice caption. There’s the webcam on the Isles’ team website where you can spend hours watching a live feed of the construction going on. I’ll admit since the day games were stopped, I’ve gone to that webcam at least two or three times a week.
But that’s the great thing about the building still having work done — it’s a glimpse that better times are coming.
No one can predict whether this season will resume or if we’ve seen the last of Hockey until the fall, but for Islander fans, they can take satisfaction in knowing the franchise’s future digs won’t be too far from finished.
There are a lot of things that can’t divert people right now, but the construction at Belmont is one. It’s a much-needed one too.
And it’s something to keep your mind occupied until life gets back to normal.
You can check out the live feed of the construction below:
The second season for any National Hockey League player is always a fascinating one, and it was no different for New York Islanders’ Devon Toews.
Toews, who recorded 28 points in 68 games before the season was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, experienced the highs and lows that come with being a sophomore in the NHL after he came shot out of a cannon in his rookie year in 2018-19.
As this season got underway, Toews had solidified himself in the top-4 on defense for the Isles. It was a result of his strong rookie campaign.
The hype around the 26-year-old had built up for a while before he first joined the Isles in December 2018 after veteran d-man Thomas Hickey suffered a concussion. He quickly showed that hype was real. Toews stuck with the big club the rest of the season and became a regular fixture on the blue line showing off his excellent skating and two-way style.
He also had a coming-out party of sorts in the postseason. Toews was the Isles’ best all-around player when Carolina swept them, and his final stat line in the playoffs read five points in eight games. At that moment, it felt like not only was Toews off to the races, but the Islanders were too.
“I knew he was a good skater and his ability to move the puck and transport it and all that,” head coach Barry Trotz said last season about Toews to reporters.
“Probably the poise; the poise in small areas, where some guys feel crowded if you will. They get the puck, and they whack it. He seems to have the poise in small areas, which is pretty beneficial when you can make those small plays and understand how much pressure is around you. That part is probably what surprised me the most, the poise.”
Toews looked as last season wasn’t a fluke he with how hot on he was in the early going this season. He notched seven points in the first ten games, was averaging 18-21 minutes a night, and his display of swagger and confidence looked to be setting him up for a big season.
After the Isles’ 17-game point streak, his game seemed to tail off a bit. The term “sophomore slump” began to float its way out there, but its hard to say if it was precisely that. Sure the points weren’t coming in droves as they came earlier in the year, and some of his decisions with and without the puck could be questioned, but Toews was still contributing with his solid defensive play and helping quarterback the power play.
Then there came the Washington game just before the All-Star break, which was arguably Toews’s best and worst game of his career.
Trotz was furious with Toews and called out him out for “poking the bear” and exhibiting his immaturity.
“I didn’t like some of the antics,” he acknowledged after that loss. “It was a little bit immature on our part. Last year, we were dialed in there. This year, we’re not dialed in there in trying to accept what we really are.”
It’s moments such as that one that will be a learning tool for Toews to use, whether this season resumes or as he gets ready for next season. The same too for some of the other times, he prospered and dealt with adversity.
Toews has proven he’s going to be a quality defenseman for the Islanders for a very long time, and the organization knows it. That’s why g.m. Lou Lamoriello is so adamant that he won’t have a problem signing him or the club’s two other RFAs — Mathew Barzal and Ryan Pulock — for that matter.
Even at 26, there’s still room for Toews to grow his game both from a maturity standpoint as well as his performance on the ice. And going through an up-and-down season might have been the best thing for him at this stage of his career.
Those clips are a small sample of the fun, sprite, and interesting personality whom Isles fans have come to enjoy the past five years. And they could very well be the last of Greiss as a member of the organization if the season doesn’t resume. The 34-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent once this season was over.
Greiss has been with the Islanders since he signed a modest two-year, $3 million deal in the summer of 2015. Former g.m. Garth Snow brought in the German native to pair with starter Jaroslav Halak after Greiss had good stints in San Jose, Arizona, and Pittsburgh.
No one knew much about Greiss when he first arrived to the Isles other than he was one of the more consistent backup goalies in the NHL. Prior to signing, Greiss had three straight seasons of a save percentage of .908 or better. It didn’t take long for Islander fans to quickly realize just how underrated Greiss was.
In 2015-16 — his first season with the organization and as the 1B to Halak — Greiss went 23-11-8 in 38 starts. He posted a .925 save percentage, which was third-best in the league for any goalie who made over 30 or more starts, that according to quanthockey.com. Greiss’s consistently strong play earned him the nickname “Greisser”, a nickname his bestowed upon him from his teammates and a chant the fans would yell anytime he made a big save during a home game.
Late that season, Halak had gone down with an undisclosed injury that would have him miss the last six weeks of the regular season and more importantly the start of the playoffs. Greiss was now the de facto number-one in net for basically the first time in his career.
Greiss went 5-5 down the stretch but saved his best for the postseason; that’s where he immersed himself into the hearts of the fans and the storied playoff history of the franchise.
In game one in Florida, the Isles and Panthers went goal-for-goal in a 5-4 Islander victory. But it was Greiss’ 46-save performance, out-dueling future Hall of Famer Roberto Luongo, that stole them home-ice. In a pivotal Game Five, Greiss and Luongo duked it out again, matching save for save. Greiss came up with the most clutch stop of his career, and even more the past 23 years for the Islanders when he stoned Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov on a penalty shot in overtime. The Isles would win the game on an Alan Quine power-play goal in double-overtime and take the series two nights later backed by another stellar showing from Greiss and another OT winner by John Tavares.
Greiss and the Islanders would go on to lose in five to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round, but Greiss had etched his place in franchise lore.
The next season, Greiss, who was in another contract year, picked up right where he left off from the playoffs. He was fantastic as a backup again and even outperformed his counterpart, Halak. Dealing with the three-goalie conundrum, and Halak’s inconsistent play leading to his demotion to Bridgeport, Greiss was given the chance once again to shine as a starter. He did. Greiss took Halak’s job just before the new year and brought the Isles’ season back from the dead. His outstanding run earned him a new three-year, $10 million contract from Garth Snow.
“It’s the most success I’ve ever had playing hockey, so it’s been fun,” Greiss told Newsday after signing his deal back then. “It’s a great organization; we have great guys on the team. That makes you more comfortable on the ice, too.”
The Islanders would miss the playoffs by a point at the end of the season and the next season after that. That 2017-18 campaign was the worst of Greiss’s career and one to forget for the entire organization. It was also one of the bigger motivators — along with a certain former captain leaving — which fueled the fire for an unbelievable season a year ago.
Greiss had a career resurgence with fellow European Robin Lehner, with the two combining to win the William M. Jennings Trophy — the award is given to “the goaltender(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it … based on regular-season play. He also posted the best save percentage and goal-against average of his career.
Earlier this year, Greiss acknowledged that he would leave contract talks with the team until after this season.
“I just focus on the day’s game, game by game. Do your best. That’s all you can control anyway,” the veteran goalie said to reporters.
A quote from Islanders head coach Barry Trotz sums it up pretty well how vital Greiss was to the team’s turnaround even before he got here.
“I would put Thomas in the same group I would our defense,” Trotz told Newsday when he took over. “I thought our forwards were really good, our defense needed a lot of work and the goaltending I didn’t think was that strong.”
Well, Greiss has been strong, and it’s never once wavered since he first arrived on Long Island. If he signs elsewhere this offseason, Greiss will end fifth all-time for wins (101) and games played as an Islander goalie (193).
So, sure you’ll miss the awesome chemistry he had with retired MSG broadcaster Stan Fischler. You’ll miss the cool-looking masks that he brought out for each season and his hockey camp he ran out of Fort Bragg. And without question, you’ll miss his happy-go-lucky attitude and all those “Greisser” chants raining down from the Islander faithful at Barclays Center and now the Nassau Coliseum.
But the one thing you’ll miss most of all is that he was one of the better goalies in the history of the franchise.
Whenever the coronavirus shutdown of sports, and in particular, hockey ends, the New York Islanders must figure out what they have in forward Anthony Beauvillier.
Beauvillier, 22, took part in his fourth pro season this year and once again produced an up-and-down year, similar to his campaign the year prior.
Before the league suspended play on March 12th, the Sorel-Tracy, Quebec native was sitting on 18 goals and 39 points through 68 games. In the Isles’ last game in Vancouver — a 5-4 shootout loss — Beauvillier notched an assist and logged 22:02 of ice time, his most all season long. It was also the first game in a while that he was really noticeable.
And that’s where the problem lies.
If the Islanders are going to be a consistent contender in the coming years, finding the right fit for Beauvillier is crucial.
They thought they had it two years back when it was he, Mathew Barzal, and Jordan Eberle were one of the dominant trios in the NHL in the second half of the year. That vanished last season when head coach Barry Trotz barely batted an eye at putting the trio back together; Trotz paired those three back together in the postseason last spring, and it worked but didn’t go back to the well to start this season. There was some hope that it was he, Brock Nelson, and his fellow Frenchman Derick Brassard during the team’s remarkable 17-game point streak. That too fizzled out.
Ever since that trio was disbanded, Beauvillier hasn’t been the same player. Yes, there’s been flashes and some strong showings, but not nearly consistently enough. And it’s tough to keep bringing up that same narrative because it felt like Beauvillier had turned a corner earlier this season.
Beauvillier came flying out of the gates to start this year. He was clearly one of the Isles’ best forwards from opening night till mid-December, which drew praise from Trotz and the coaching staff.
“Beau looks like a different player this year,” Trotz told Newsday back in October. “A lot of that has to do with the type of playoff he had last year . . . When it’s the most important time of the year, and you’re able to elevate your game, it sort of carries over. I think there’s a lot of confidence in that and who he’s playing with, and they’re having success.”
That quote from Trotz feels like it was years ago because of how long this shutdown has prolonged. But it was the right thing to say at the time; Beauvillier did look different. Then the inconsistency and the scoring droughts took hold again, and that’s why we’re back at square one.
For a player who has proven he has 20-25 goal capabilities — he’s tallied 21, 18, 18 in his last three seasons — Beauvillier has been given every opportunity to show he can be relied on as a top-six forward. Very rarely this year did Trotz move him off the second line before the hiatus, due to the fact that he’s one of the very few skilled forwards that the team possesses.
Now, with the influx of possible top-six forwards, particularly wingers, in the pipeline — Oliver Wahlstrom, Kieffer Bellows, Otto Koivula and Simon Holmstrom — Beauvillier’s future with the Isles isn’t as clear as it was a few years back.
He does have one more season remaining on his two-year, $2.1 million contract, which will take him to age 24 by the time it ends. But how much longer is the organization willing to have faith in a player who is heading into his fifth season and hasn’t progressed to where he should be?
There are a few options to consider:
Does the brass give him another shot to solidify himself in the top-six moving forward?
They could, but he would need to produce and do it on a nightly basis.
Would Beauvillier be slotted better as a third-line presence?
It’s worth looking at after Trotz had to keep coming up with makeshift units for that line all season. Beauvillier would bring some much-needed skill and speed to that part of the lineup.
What about trading him to regroup one or two of the draft picks the organization traded away?
At 22, Beauvillier is still young and raw enough to have a good amount of value that teams believe would help them now or in the future.
Could he be a part of a bigger package that brings back a big-name forward? Could they swap him in a one-for-one deal?
The Islanders offense was abysmal at too many points this year, and dealing Beau for a more productive piece would help solve one of the club’s biggest problems. Beauvillier’s name has always floated around in trade talks, most notably when g.m. Lou Lamoriello was pursuing Matt Duchene and Mark Stone at the trade deadline a year ago.
All those possibilities make the next few months very interesting for Beauvillier and for the Islanders.
Not too long ago, Anthony Beauvillier was perceived as one of the key pieces to what the Islanders were building upfront. It’s been a bit of a rocky road since then.
And it’s going to continue as the Isles ponder their future about how he fits into the club’s plans moving forward.
With that, it marked the end of the franchise’s five-year run of playing games in Brooklyn.
But, to be blunt, the end of the Isles and their rocky relationship with Brooklyn had come well before Lamoriello spoke Monday. It actually was the moment the story broke that the Isles’ ownership group — Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky — were already exploring their options about a possible new home at Belmont Park back in July 2016.
The Islanders didn’t win the bid for Belmont that day — that would come several months later in December — but they made their intentions clear: they wanted out. They had wanted out for a long time before that too.
Nearly a decade ago, former Isles owner, the late Charles Wang, had exhausted every possible avenue to help build a brand new facility for the franchise in Nassau County. He schmoozed with Nassau County politicians and did everything in his fiber to get this organization and its fans the arena they deserved. Wang tried with the Lighthouse Project — which he would have paid for on his own — and that failed. Then came the Referendum, which was a plan to build a new arena from taxpayers’ money. That failed miserably.
It left him no other choice: Brooklyn. And that’s what Wang decided.
On October 24, 2012, Wang, former Barclays Center majority owner Bruce Ratner, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the team held a press conference outside Barclays Center and announced that the team would be starting play full-time there at the conclusion of the 2014-15 season. The lease was “ironclad” for the next 25 years, and hence gave the notion that the Islanders were saved.
Three years passed by and the Isles were now a city team. As weird as that sounds, the fans were now taking the trains and subways to the games, and so were the players. The building was dark and dreary, but the retired numbers hung and so did a specific banner that showed all the division and conference titles the franchise won in its history.
The Isles were on the upswing too and their fans were feeling the same. They had just come off their best season since 2001-02 and had lost a physical, hard-fought seven-game series to the Washington Capitals in the opening round of the playoffs. Some of that good feeling was immediately tested when they released a new third jersey. A black and white concoction that literally showed no affiliation to the franchise whatsoever. The new threads didn’t receive much positive feedback and was the first hint that this partnership wasn’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows.
Strike two was just as bad.
During one of the first preseason games in the building, a new goal horn blasted after the Islanders scored in the third period. Fans were furious and it forced Brett Yormark, CEO of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment at the time, to go on the radio the next day and tell the fans they were reversing their decision, bringing back the old goal horn the fans were used to.
Things didn’t progress from there. Seats with the obstructed views, Yormark telling fans who can’t see at one end to download an app to watch the game, poor game presentation, and this unreal incident all just made for a worse look.
Mind you, this all took place the first three months since the team had arrived. After that things began to settle down and the Isles made the playoffs again. Barclays got its first chance to prove it could be a home-ice advantage, and it didn’t fail per se, but it was obviously different. The atmosphere, crowd, and overall advantage the building brought didn’t stack up to the Coliseum.
Following that first year with a postseason appearance, the building and team just never meshed well. The bad ice was never improved, the arena and its staff never truly embraced the fans and their passion, and even the former captain, John Tavares, nearly got seriously hurt because of poor playing conditions.
With the Isles still battling for a playoff spot with seven games left in the 2016-17 season, Tavares suffered a hamstring injury in a win over the New Jersey Devils due to a rut in the ice.
“You see a guy’s heel dig in like that, it doesn’t happen other places,” forward Cal Clutterbuck said after the game that night. “It’s something that doesn’t get addressed … It had been a little better the last few games, but not [Friday] night.”
Again, it was just one of those aspects of the team’s stint at Barclays that was an eyesore.
There were some good times though. Tavares and Thomas Hickey’s OT game-winners in the 2016 playoffs. The dramatic 7-6 comeback against the Red Wings in 2018. The team’s domination of the Rangers and Western Conference when they played. Their two-year run of barely losing in regulation from last year into this year. And the franchise’s first playoff series win in 23 years.
A lot of people will look to this era of Islander hockey and sigh, but it’s all a part of where the franchise is now.
The Belmont Arena will be here before you know it, and it will signify the new true home of the Islanders for generations to come.
Barclays Center could have been that. They saved the franchise from an unknown future. But they squandered a huge opportunity and didn’t get themselves any sympathy in the process.
The last Islander game in Brooklyn was supposed to be a Sunday evening four days from now against the Carolina Hurricanes. That won’t be the case. The last one will be remembered not just as a 6-2 throttling by the Montreal Canadiens but as the ending to a missed chance for possibly something special.
