The Incredible First Half of the New York Islanders!!!

Welp, It's that time again. The End of the First half of the NHL Season.

We can talk all day about the NHL and all the other teams, but this is strictly Islanders. 

The Islanders have absolutely exceeded expectations that were set by the League, Insiders, Writers, Fans, you name it! 

In the beginning of the season, the Isles were projected to be a middle of the road team that would be competitive, but not too competitive and land up between being 6th to 8th in the Metro division. 

The Islanders are now in First Place in the Metro Division and ahead by 3 points heading into the All-Star Break and Bye Week.

The Islanders have a bye week this week and will Take on The Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings in Back-To-Back home games at the Coliseum. 

Goaltending:

The Biggest Improvement to the Islanders this season (On the ice) in my opinion, has been the Goaltending. Lets start with the Goaltender that is still with the Isles since last year, Thomas Greiss. Last year, Thomas Greiss had a miserable year, Allowing a lot of goals and having a 3.82 Goals against with a .892 Save Percentage to boot! Also, The team was allowing the Goaltenders (Both Jaro Halak and Thomas Greiss) to face 40 Shots, if not 50 shots a game! Not even the best of Goaltenders can survive that peppering each and every game.

This Year though, Thomas Greiss has improved dramatically! He now owns a healthy 2.50 Goals Against and a .920 Save percentage. 

Alongside Thomas Greiss is Robin Lehner, whose story has been heard about all throughout the NHL, if not the world. Coming from Free agency and signed to a 1 year "Show me" Deal, Lehner is doing a terrific Job right now as the Isles Starting Goaltender. Lehner holds a 2.02 Goals Againsat and a .930 Save Percentage. He leads the NHL in both Goals against and Save Percentage, something no one, and I mean no one could've predicted. With the Help of Goaltending Coach Piero Greco and Director of Goaltending Mitch Korn, Both Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss can be considered one of, if not the Leagues best Goaltending Tandems!

Defense:

Another Improvement to this team, was the defensive system. As I stated earlier, was the defense! The Isles defense has improved dramatically this season with the new system implemented by Barry Trotz! The Isles defense is clearing the Zone, Controlling rebounds and even Blocking more shots and reducing the shots on goal. Isles Goaltending went from facing 40+ shots on goal, now to an average of 30.5 Shots per game! An incredible difference and improvement! This Defensive system works and rightfully so! While Thomas Hickey, who was one of the Teams best defenseman this season is out with a Lower Body Injury, Devon Toews was called up and so far, the young gun has not taken 1 penalty in this young NHL Career, He plays a great defensive game, he's acclimated to the NHL Level and in 15 games he's played, he holds a +/- of a +9 and has 5 points in 3 goals and 2 assists! This kid is something else and I think he's a proven NHLer at this point!

Offense:

The offense on the otherhand has been different. Instead of having a leading goalscorer that leads in goals by like 10 or 20 or so, the isles offense is consistent of everyone contributing. Although the Offense has been down a tad since Tavares left and this was known going into this season, the offense still manages to get pucks on and in the net. I know Doug Weight is long gone, but I do give him credit for having a high octain Isles offense, but that's all I can thank him for, Maybe also helping Barzal become a Calder Trophy, but I digress! Barry Trotz' system has everyone all in on it! So much so that one Casey Cizikas is having a career high 11 goals so far and everyone you can say is almost at or has around rounded number of goals, meaning there isn't one player that isn't a goal scorer who has less than 10 goals. All others who aren't really goal scores have less than 10 goals or so. My point, The offensive minded players. However, When it comes to assists though, It's clear that Mat Barzal (The Kid who won the Calder) is the clear leader in that and I personally think (Along with others) that his assists totals will continue to grown will continue to be the leader ont he team in that regard, and who knows, Maybe he'll lead the team in goals!

Coaching and Overall:

With the Islanders having a Strong Bench Boss in Barry Trotz, Good assistants in Lane Lambert, John Gruden (Not to be confused with The Raiders Jon Gruden), Scott Gomez whose Power Play is very questionable but that's a entry for another time, Piero Greco and Mitch Korn have definitely turned this team around into a contender!

In Conclusion, If the Isles continue to play like they have been playing, stay in the top 3 in the Metro Division or even keep their lead in First Place, There is a possibility that General Manager Lou Lamoriello could add a big name via Trade leading up to the Trade Deadline and help this team get over the Proverbial hump!

Until the Next Blog my friends,

LETS GO ISLANDERS!!!