What is wrong with the New York Islanders?

The New York Islanders have won three out of their last four games but some big concerns are still circulating around the franchise.

At the moment, the Islanders sit fifth in the Metropolitan Division with a 6-6-2 record. It is very early into the season, but with the way the Metropolitan Division is looking, the Islanders are in trouble. What is the problem with the Islanders? We start with the offseason.

In the offseason, Lou Lamoriello and the Islanders only acquired one player. That player is Anthony Duclair who seemed to fit extremely well with the Islanders on the top line of Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal.

Duclair has three points in his first five games (2G, 1A) but got injured in the fifth game of the season. Duclair was ruled out by the Islanders for 4-6 weeks for a lower-body injury.

When you make one offseason acquisition, it’s tough to be able to have success when a player goes down. Not having depth is a big problem with the Islanders and it seems to happen every year when the team adds minimal players in the offseason.

Another huge problem with the Islanders is blowing leads. Back when the Islanders had Stanley Cup Champion head coach Barry Trotz as their head coach, they were one of the best teams when having a third-period lead.

That narrative completely changed when Lane Lambert took over as head coach and for some reason, it has continued with Patrick Roy. In the 2023-24 season, the Islanders blew 27 leads and lost. With that being said, a lot of those games went to overtime/shootout.

The Islanders played in 24 overtime/shootout games last season and were two losses away from the most overtime/shootout losses in a regular season in NHL history. The Islanders got 16 points off of overtime/shootout losses which is equal to eight wins.

If you thought this season would be any different, you were wrong. The preseason started with a 3-0 and 4-1 lead being blown in the third period against the Rangers.

It happened again in the regular season when they went up 3-0 on the Florida Panthers in the first period. They let up six straight goals and lost 6-3. Even in this week's 4-2 win over the Senators they nearly blew it. The Isles were up 3-0 to start the third and in the blink of an eye, it was 3-2. This time they sealed the deal.

It’s gotten to the point where wins feel like losses because as the fans say “It’s never easy with this team”. The sentence has been tweeted so much over the past two years in correlation with the Islanders.

Injuries have screwed over the Islanders early with Duclair, Barzal, Adam Pelech, Mike Reilly and Alexander Romanov all being out. But, that’s no excuse to have zero depth and perform poorly. In the first 10 games of this season, the Isles have been shut out an inexcusable four times.

On top of that problem, the Penalty kill has cost the Islanders so many games. The Isles have a horrific 66.7% penalty kill percentage which is tied for 30th place. Luckily for them, they have taken the third least amount of penalties in the league.

With so many problems circulating this team, you have to wonder why general manager Lou Lamoriello was even re-hired for this season.

Was it because the owners were too scared to rebuild so soon after spending money or a brand new arena? Was it because the owners were too scared to lose money and have attendance drop?

None of those questions will probably get answered. However, if the reason they did not set off a fire sale and rebuild was due to attendance, then they might want to rethink that plan.

Earlier this season, the Islanders played their third home game of the new season against the Red Wings. The team gave fans zero reason to show up as they lost 1-0. The attendance was an alarming 12,739 in a brand-new arena that seats 17,250.

The team is not trending in the right direction and it appears the window has shut. The Isles refuse to blow it all up and restart and fans are unhappy and want change. Whatever comes out of this season may not be pretty, but it may be a wake-up call to ownership that change is evident.

Matt Becker is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please emailmcb6250@psu.edu.