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The Islanders haven’t been hesitant to use the word “embarrassed” to describe how they felt about their performance as a team heading into the All-Star break. Casey Cizikas used it again Wednesday night, but to refer to the past.
In the week between a shutout loss at home to the Kraken and the 6-3 win Wednesday at Vancouver, in which the Islanders blitzed the Canucks with five goals in the first period, it’s clear everyone did some thinking about what this team had been and about what it should be.
Head coach Barry Trotz came up with a lineup that caused a double take. Cal Clutterbuck was on the first line. Ross Johnston was on the second line. The Identity Line of Clutterbuck, Cizikas and Matt Martin, one of few parts that had been working for the Islanders, was broken up as a result, with Anthony Beauvillier slotting in to the right of Cizikas.
“I know that Casey’s line has an identity,” Trotz said following the win, which got the Islanders (17-17-6) back to .500. “Why can’t we have that through our whole team?”
Though scoring has been the main issue plaguing the Islanders this season, Trotz chose instead to spread toughness around, putting two grinders in the top six. That resulted in the Islanders tying their highest scoring output of the year, with all four forward lines contributing at least a goal and the top line scoring two.
A few weeks ago, Trotz spent a series of games shuffling through players on Mathew Barzal’s right side, trying to find someone who could unlock the center’s playmaking ability. Clutterbuck, nobody’s idea of a scoring winger, was not one of the five players he tried then.
But there Clutterbuck was on Wednesday night, springing Anders Lee with a stretch pass so he could feed Barzal for a goal on a breakaway. With two secondary assists, Clutterbuck had his third multi-point game of the year. As it turns out, it’s not always the intuitive option that works.
“Just having Clutter up there, it just gets a bit more predictable hockey on every line,” Barzal said. “I thought me, [Josh Bailey], Leesy, we had some good games together, but obviously Barry shakes the lines up. Having Clutter up there, right away we scored early. He’s a heady player.”
Whether Trotz sticks with that configuration at Edmonton on Friday night in another massive game for the Islanders is an open question. Kyle Palmieri is set to return from paternity leave, which calls to mind Trotz’s own words from Tuesday, when he said he has had too long a rope with some players and too quick a trigger finger on others. Palmieri, who has one goal in 29 games and normally plays the spot Johnston occupied against Vancouver, would seem to occupy the former category.
Normally a healthy scratch, Johnston wasted no time making his impact felt Wednesday, getting into a fight with Luke Schenn less than four minutes into the game. Trotz said afterwards that he wanted to add “weight” to the top two lines. That did the trick just fine.
Wednesday, though, isn’t the first time the Islanders, against a middling opponent, have looked as if they have righted the ship. Consistency has been Trotz’s buzzword of late. The Islanders are going to need to find it, and quickly, with the March 21 trade deadline approaching.
“Once we leave here and we get on an airplane … this game, what we did today is done and I don’t know how the Edmonton game’s gonna play out,” Trotz said. “We were fortunate we jumped on them real quick, Vancouver, and we were able to capitalize. That may not be the case [against the Oilers].”
It’s worth noting, per Natural Stat Trick, that the Islanders were out-shot and out-chanced at five-on-five by the end of Wednesday night against the Canucks. Given that they spent nearly the entire game with a lead of multiple goals, that’s perhaps to be expected. But it’s also a reminder. There’s still a long way to go if they’re going to right the ship.
“If you go, ‘Hey, every game’s gonna be like tonight,’ — it’s not,” Trotz said. “That’ll be a frustrating way for us to live as a group. So just take the new challenge.”
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