The New York Islanders Got Off to a Bumpy Start in Their Preseason Debut but There Were Bright Spots

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. While it's almost time for your favorite NHL team to start the Chase for Lord Stanley's Cup, you might have a cup of your own to chase after. So check out Lockdown Podcast Network's Lockdown Fantasy Hockey to help secure your own fantasy championship. For 30 minutes every day, our all-star team of Steel Rodin and Flip Living Stone bring you the latest player insights, trend-setting draft strategies, and trade secrets to propel you to the top of your lead. Don't settle for mediocrity, aim for fantasy greatness with Lockdown Fantasy Hockey, available on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. The New York Islanders open the pre-season with an uneven effort and a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers. We'll have our key takeaways, including why there's no real reason to worry long-term. Plus, we take a look at Alexander Romanov and what would be a successful season for him. All that and more on today's Lockdown Islanders Podcast. Slides it out for Ekla, back to Hoppin, blocked by Polak and Christ, another spectacular stop. For Sart, tease it up, but a save is made by Mbrowski Nelson, Lars El with the Open Kennedy Scores! Hi and welcome to the Lockdown Islanders Podcast, Part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm your host, Gil Martin. I'm an Islanders columnist and historian, and I wrote the book Ice Wars, which covers the complete history of the Islanders rivalry with the Rangers from 1972 to the modern era. And welcome everybody to the Wednesday edition of the Lockdown Islanders Podcast, Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I want to thank everyone who makes Lockdown Islanders your first listen every day. Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts, so you can get new episodes as soon as they drop in. You can also now hear us on the SXM app of Sirius XM. Let's do a search for Lockdown Islanders. This episode is brought to you by Fandall Sports Book, Official Sports Book of Lockdown. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit fandall.com slash Lockdown to get started. We have got a lot to discuss on today's show, but first, if there's something Islanders related on your mind, do you have a question, a comment, maybe a subject you'd like us to discuss on a future episode? Send us an email at Lockdown Islanders at gmail.com, and if you leave your first name and where you're from, we're happy to mention you on the show when we talk about whatever it is that's on your mind. You could also follow the show on Twitter at Lockdown Isles, and you could follow me Gil Martin on Twitter at Ice Wars, NYR, VSNYI. We will keep you up to date on all things Islanders throughout the preseason, the rest of the training camp, the regular season, and I'm live tweeting during Islanders' home and road games, so make sure you join us for that. Alright, final score, Rangers 4 Islanders 2, and look, let's face it, if this was a regular season game, I'd have a lot more critical things to say. The Rangers really won this game in the first 3 minutes and 10 seconds, and that's really not good. I mean a goal, 15 seconds in, another 1 minute and 2 seconds later, and then the third goal at 3, 10, and look, these were sloppy goals, I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it, you have a giveaway by EngVal, you have a turnover in your own zone, you have a player left all alone, and you know, voila, you're down, 3 to nothing, before the game even gets started. And do I blame the starting goalie, semi-invarlamov, who made 20 saves into 24 shots he faced for any of this? No, honestly, I cannot. So you just sort of take it one step at a time and try to, you know, take a step back. The islanders were not ready to start this game, and I think the problem is for islanders fans that, you know, this is something that we saw a little too often last year under Lane Lambert, and it's something that the islanders do really need to correct. So hopefully it gets corrected, and you know, look, there were some real negative moments of this game. You know, a lot of the younger players took some hard physical hits, and you know, had slowly getting up, no one was injured to the point where, oh no, you know, what are we going to do? This guy's not coming back, so we didn't thankfully have any of that, but, you know, young guys got to get used to the speed and the intensity and the physicality of the game, and sometimes they're going to get knocked on their rear ends, you know, when they're making that adjustments. And I guess the slow start, and then from the middle of the second period until the last seven or minutes or so of the hockey game, the islanders just did not put together very much offense. And again, is that a surprise, no, not particularly, and we saw some different line combinations. We essentially had a combo of some of the older established guys and some of the younger players. So, you know, you had William Dufour out there, you had Orno Durando, Kyle McClain, Jackson Kate's playing Grant Hutton, and Isaiah George among the defensemen, and then of course Jacob Scarrick playing the third period for the islanders, and did not give up a goal, although, again, he only faced six shots. But what was it from the middle of the second period when the Rangers took out Igor Shostirkin until the middle of the third period, probably a little past the midway mark, I think it was about the seven minutes left in the game, so 13 minute mark, I think the islanders had a grand total of four, maybe five shots on goal during that long stretch, and you know, that's just not going to cut it. And if this was a regular season game, I could sit there and complain, oh yeah, Brock Nelson, he's supposed to be, you know, you're leading goal scorer and he didn't have any shots on goal, it's preseason, relax. The important thing here in preseason is to get these guys back up to game speed, to get them back into hockey shape, and it's not like it was in the old days before the 80s, where guys actually used to play themselves into shape because they had offseason jobs and sat behind a desk for, you know, two, three months, no, these guys are in shape, you know, 24, 7, 3, 65, but again, you're getting a look at some of the kids, none of your line combinations are exactly right, I mean, yeah, Cal Klutterbuck played, but no Matt Martin and no Casey Cisekis, you know, Brock Nelson, Pierre Engvall were out there, but they weren't necessarily on the same line, Kyle Palmeri, still not in action, so again, you take all of it with a grain of salt, but at the same time, you know, you wanted to see a little bit more intensity, one of the guys who did have the intensity for most of the game, Ross Johnston, Ross LeBoss, dropping McLoves, defending his teammates, and it was strange to be honest with you, seeing Ross Johnston fighting Matt Rempi of the Rangers, the strange part was, it was a pretty even fight, I'm not going to say that Johnston lost it or won it, it was pretty close, but the weird thing about it was that very rarely do you see Ross Johnston being the shorter player in a fight, so again, you know, Ross Johnston knows that he's got to do what he's got to do to have any chance of being even an extra forward on this team, and it would probably take a couple of injuries for him to get there just because of the cap issue with him, but you know, again, just a couple of stretches where this team had trouble clearing the puck out of their own zone, I did not particularly like the defensive pairing of Scott Mayfield and Samuel Boldouk, they were both minus two in this game, and you know, at the end of the first period, all six Islander defensemen were a minus one, so the first three minutes each Ryan or each defense pair gave up a goal, that's not the way you want to start the preseason, Isaiah George and Ryan Pollock ended up even at, you know, zero plus minus Mayfield and Boldouk were minus two, Aho and Grant Hutton minus one, so you know, you take preseason with a game grain of salt, but there were some things I really didn't like, but when we come back, we're going to talk about the things that I really did like, and it's nice to see that there were some reasons for optimism in this game, so we've got that and a whole lot more still become on today's Locked On Islander's podcast, and oh yeah, if you're looking for a clue on our Islander's birthday of the day, well, I'm going to give that to you right now, this is a player who is better known for playing for other teams, was only an Islander for 18 games at the end of his career, which was during the 1998-99 season, a center, so let's see if anyone can guess this one, it's pretty tough. 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If you're a business owner listen up, your company could be mentioned right here with the NHL season right around the corner, Lockdown has a special local's only NHL kickoff package, two local businesses, yes only two local businesses can sponsor this podcast for the upcoming NHL season find out how you can get this exclusive sponsorship and hear your business on this podcast text the word advertising to 33777 or visit lockedonpodcast.com slash advertising and let us know who you are our team will assist you to achieve advertising success with Lockdown once again text the word advertising to 33777 or visit lockedonpodcast.com slash advertising we look forward to hearing from you so there were some things to like in this game and I'm pleased to see the fact that William do four ended up scoring the islanders first goal now he was a minus two in this game still needs work and here's the thing that you sort of you know you want to see the positives from these young players and it was a power play goal it was a nice shot from an angle and I like the fact that he went after the loose puck shot it from down low and he scored off you know Igor Shasturkin which is an accomplishment and I'll say this the power play itself yeah they scored the one power play goal didn't score on their other chances but I like seeing the fact that this power play both times that they had the man advantage were actually moving the puck quickly and passing it quickly and all I could say is finally I mean every dayers you know I've been calling for that move the puck pass it quickly and move when you don't have the puck I've been saying that for the better part of two seasons now and two John McLean and Lane Lambert's credit they were doing that now it worked once where they got a goal and other time it didn't result in a goal but at least they are moving the puck and at that makes your penalty killers chase you chase the puck it tires them out and it creates an open man and it did help create an open man on the goal by William Dufour also Arno Durando a goal and an assist now in practice and in the scrimmages Durando has been playing with Bo Horvat and Matthew Barzall neither of them played in this first game but Durando you could put him in there with you know two five year olds he's gonna hustle he's gonna give you everything he's got and he's got a nose for the net so Durando a goal and an assist good to see and he again is trying to make a case to be on this roster this year Jackson Cates getting an assist in his you know preseason Islanders debut Hudson Fashion with a great pass that set up the Arno Durando goal and you want to look at the shots on goal five for Ryan Pollock so he led the way in that category but you know Matthew Maggio also with a helper and you know only had one shot on goal but I think you know Dufour and Maggio did not look out of place I think Dufour still needs a lot more work on what he's gonna do when he doesn't have the puck Maggio did not neither one of them looked very slow it wasn't like they were unable to change direction or they were unable to keep up with the pace of play but again some work on what do you do when you don't have the puck and I could tell you right now these guys could be really dangerous goal scorers but if they can't back check if they're not sound defensively they're not going to play a lot for the New York Islanders and if they do get called up and play I can also tell you right now you're going to see them make a mistake or two mistakes and then get benched so you don't want to see that that is you know not what you hope for that's the kind of thing that ends up hurting a player's confidence and can hurt their development now I think the good news also I believe is that Lane Lambert is a little better at communicating the tough love and if you want to put that in air quotes be my guest but he's a little better at communicating the tough love than Barry Trots was although I'm not so sure William do four would fully agree with that after what he went through during his only game last year and oh yeah Isaiah George I know a lot of people were excited about George and he showed you some of the reasons to be excited but he also you know had a share of giveaways and and just sort of played a little bit a little bit sloppy at times in his own zone so again you you take this with a grain of salt nobody is expecting 19 year old Isaiah George to make this team and if he does I can tell you right now he's not playing more than nine games this year and then getting sent back to junior because he's ineligible to play in the a HL he either plays in junior or the NHL he can be with the big club and play in nine games but that's it I don't even think they do that I think it's better for his development and his uh and and for his confidence for him to go back down to junior now if he plays out of this world the rest of the preseason and in training camp yeah maybe you give him a reward with a game or two but I really don't think that is likely for the New York Islanders and we'll see what they decide to do but Isaiah George showed promise but also showed that he has a way to go uh Sebastian Aho I think did a fairly good jog for block shots for Aho III for Brock Nelson in an exhibition game I got to say I give credit where credit is due for those guys for hustling but overall after the first three minutes and change this wasn't a terrible game if the islanders would have showed up from the opening faceoff they might have had a chance to win this one I think the Rangers would be a little happier with the way this game was played than the islanders uh will be but there are some bright spots it is preseason half the guys on the ice are not regular NHL players and I just think there's no need to panic at this point if you are a New York Islanders fan look at the bright spots some of the good things the kids did the the puck movement on the power play and you know the the good goals by by uh Arno Durando who did a nice job and he's always hustling that kid I really like the way he plays you certainly have to be happy with a goal by William Dufor and you just sort of build on that and and just look at the potential that these players have and enjoy the ride as they learn and develop into potential NHLers all right we have got more to get to on today's show we continue our player by player look at the islanders what role they're expected to play and what they need to do to be successful for the islanders this year with Alexander Romanov and we've got our islanders birthday the day all that and more still to come on today's lockdown islanders podcast Patrick Mahomes and the chiefs eaked out a 23 to 20 win over the New York jets on Sunday in front of Taylor Swift this wasn't a game where they had to run the football order to set up the pass this was a game where they had to run the football order to just hold on to things the Celtics have acquired Drew Holiday this is a very expensive team that's going for it right now and the New York Liberty are advancing to the WNBA finals where they will take on the Las Vegas aces I think this is an opportunity to truly showcase the best collection of talents that the WNBA has for more on all these stories go check out Lockdown Chiefs Lockdown Celtics and Lockdown Women's Basketball then listen to Lockdown's interview series Paving the Way each episode highlights a different voice from across the network a Lockdown host whose journey in the industry has helped pave the way toward creating a more inclusive and diverse media landscape that's Paving the Way presented by State Farm available now on the Lockdown Presents Podcast Feed so we continue our player by player look at the islanders raster with Alexander Romanov every day yesterday we did Scott Mayfield so we're going through this entire raster and Romanov last year was a tale of two seasons in the first half of the year he was kind of tentative and you know made a lot more mistakes wasn't as confident wasn't as consistent in his own zone and look Romanov is the kind of guy who to be effective has got to be physical and he's got to play well in his own zone finished the year with 198 hits but the previous season with the Canadians had 227 so you want to see more of those and I'm not worried about offense when it comes to Alexander Romanov but to me if if you were to ask me what is his successful season for Alexander Romanov number one stay healthy we know he adds shoulder surgery in the offseason Lula Morello had said he wasn't sure if if Romanov rather was going to be ready for the start of training camp he was so stay healthy give me 75 plus games be physical I want that hit total closer to 225 than 200 which you know he came close to last year and give me 20 plus minutes again he had 2024 with the Canadians two seasons ago last year went down to 1927 I'd like to see it on the north side of 20 I would like to see Romanov even involved in killing some penalties you know he did have one shorthanded assists last year but he's got to do a better job and again just be more consistent of getting the puck out of your own zone and we all know I wonder fans know this is something that almost all of the members of this team struggled with at one time or another but essentially if we get second half of the season last year Alexander Romanov for you know 60 of the of the 75 or 80 games that he plays if he picks up more or less where he left off I think that's a successful season give me two goals and and 20 plus points and I'll be thrilled keep the penalty minutes under 50 he did that last year be a plus player he was a plus 13 last year and help out on the penalty kill you do all those things and you're smart and physical in your own zone you've got a good season for Alexander Romanov and you know to me he's been in this system now for a year he knows his teammates he knows what Lane Lambert expects of him and just overall I think that this is a great opportunity for Alexander Romanov to take that step forward and remember he's only 23 years old which defensemen and power forwards tend to take longer to develop than most other forwards goalies tend to take a little longer as well but 23 for a defenseman is still considered you haven't reached your potential and prime yet and this is only his fourth NHL season so you know you think he's a little older than he is based on his experience but he is still developing and I think we're going to see a better performance overall out of Alexander Romanov this year so I like what we got out of Romanov last year in the second half now we need to see more of it and look he's earning two and a half million dollars a year this year and next year then you got to either you know sign him as an RFA restricted free agent or you got to let him go so Romanov has plenty of incentive to play for that contract I think he's worth it so far I think he's shown a lot of potential now we need to see him take the next step for the New York Islanders all right let's hope he can get that job done time now for our Islanders birthday of the day and we are a day late on this but yesterday Tuesday was the 56th birthday of former Islanders Center Craig Janney that you may not remember Janney with the Islanders he only played with them for part of one season literally 18 games with the Isles originally a first round pick of the Boston Bruins back in 1986 spent two years at Boston College and made his NHL debut during the 87 88 season a native of Hartford Connecticut so he is from the Tri-State area played with the Bruins the Blues the Sharks the Jets the Coyotes the Lightning and then join the Islanders for 18 games during the 1998 99 season scored a goal had five points and four penalty minutes in those games with the Islanders we go back and look at his best game as an Islander and he did it against his old team the Boston Bruins at the Fleet Center February 4th 1999 Felix Potman the goalie for the Islanders Byron Defoe the goalie for the Bruins and in the second period of this game with the Islanders down three to two Craig Janney gets his fifth goal of the year but his first and only as an Islander the assist to Trevor Lyndon and Ted Denato that tied it at three Ziggy Palfee put the Islanders ahead the Bruins tied it late in the second period and then the only goal of the third period Mark Lawrence gets the game winner Islanders beat the Bruins on the road five to four 37 saves for Felix Potman Islanders outshot in this one 41 to 38 so this was a wide open game but for Craig Janney our Islanders birthday today his only goal with the Islanders and you know his last NHL goal so in 760 career NHL games 188 goals 751 points 170 penalty minutes that's not a lot add 120 playoff games 24 goals 110 points and 53 penalty minutes so Craig Janney only briefly an Islander but a very solid NHL player is our Islanders birthday of the day I want to thank everyone who makes Lockdown Islanders your first listen every day every dayers tomorrow on the show we will talk more about the Islanders preseason they are playing again tomorrow against the Philadelphia Flyers that is a home game so we'll have some key takeaways from that and we will talk a little bit about Hudson Fashing as we continue our player by player look at the Islanders until then stay safe everybody have a great day and of course let's go Islanders James Allen dot com is the online destination to easily design a customized engagement ring and save up to 50% compared to traditional stores you pick a diamond whether it's lab created or earth created James Allen has over 200,000 conflict free stones then you pick your ring setting and metal and if you need some help they have real-time diamond consultations available where an expert can walk you through it all get 25% off your order at james Allen dot com code Lockdown that's james Allen dot com code Lockdown if you're a business owner listen up your company could be mentioned right here with the NHL season right around the corner Lockdown has a special locals only NHL kickoff package two local businesses yes only two local businesses can sponsor this podcast for the upcoming NHL season find out how you can get this exclusive sponsorship and hear your business on this podcast text the word advertising to 33777 or visit lockdownpodcast.com slash advertising and let us know who you are our team will assist you to achieve advertising success with Lockdown once again text the word advertising to 33777 or visit lockdownpodcast.com slash advertising we look forward to hearing from you Patrick Mahomes and the chiefs eaked out a 23 to 20 win over the New York Jets on Sunday in front of Taylor Swift this wasn't a game where they had to run the football order to set up the pass this was a game where they had to run the football order to just hold on to things the Celtics have acquired Drew Holiday this is a very expensive team that's going for it right now and the New York Liberty are advancing to the WNBA finals where they will take on the lost Vegas aces I think this is an opportunity to truly showcase the best collection of talents that the WNBA has for more on all these stories go check out Lockdown Chiefs Lockdown Celtics and Lockdown women's basketball then listen to Lockdown's interview series Paving the Way each episode highlights a different voice from across the network a Lockdown host whose journey in the industry has helped pave the way toward creating a more inclusive and diverse media landscape that's Paving the Way presented by State Farm available now on the Lockdown Presents Podcast Feed