He is Shocking Everything...

Sean Acheson is shocking everyone, or at least most Islander fans. I know a couple of you guys in the comments whenever I talked about his development were always bullish on the fact that he could play a lot sooner than I was saying, and it seems like a lot of you were correct. So hats off to all you guys, but Sean Acheson has looked absolutely awesome this preseason. We're going to just focus on him on this episode of Islanders Digest and also talk about some of other standouts. And I have to say, it was a really fun game to watch for the Islanders. It was a really rough first half, and I was not feeling all that good about the season. Then the Islanders score four goals, and all of a sudden, we are so back. And I know two of those goals were on Spencer Martin, who is the Rangers' fourth string goalie and just got placed on waiver today. But two of them were on Igor Shostakovich, and I completely blanked out on his name there. As you know, he is a pretty good netminder. And for the Islanders too, in addition to the young kids, I do want to focus on some of the veterans because typically, you don't really care how players look. But before this Islander scene, there were some pretty key takeaways, in particular, the guys who were hurt coming back, and that was really exciting to see. But overall, yeah, exciting first game. I consider it the actual first preseason game because you got to see most of the NHL players in that game. Of course, it was the second preseason game for the Islanders. Cole Isenman scored a goal in the first one. Didn't have quite as electrical performance in this one, but I think he looked pretty well as well. But you got to start talking about the defense. And this is where I think is the key battleground for the New York Islanders because after watching this game, I've got a lot of questions about what this defense is going to look like. Now, I will note, some people were a little concerned about what Matthew Schaefer looked like on the right side. I will point out, it's very evident watching this game that he was just playing with angles, trying to get different looks, clearly was probably told not to go too hard out there. I think he was trying to test some physicality, see what he can get away with this year that he couldn't last year. I'm not concerned at all about Schaefer playing the right side or the left side. As we watched in this game, regardless of what side he's skating on, he can just skate across the ice and go wherever he wants in the offensive zone. And I think Pellick is a really good partner to pair him with considering you want to see him jump up in the play more, right? Pellick is a lot more reliable than Ryan Pollock. I'm really curious in the next game to see how Ryan Pollock looks because of his age. But this is where things get interesting, right? You can basically have a four-player, I would say a three-player tryout between George, Aitchin, and Mayfield. I think D'Angelo is going to make this team. I have no reason not to think so. Though I am getting hints that perhaps he's going to be more in a third pair role as opposed to the top four, which I think is a better fit for him, right? If you have Romanov in your top four, he is more of a true top four defenseman. Then I think this defensive core, assuming they play well together, right? A big part of this sometimes is just how players match up with each other. But I think this defensive core is a lot stronger position. But basically you have George, Aitchin, and Mayfield playing against each other in these preseason games to see who can crack the roster. And at the start of this offseason, I would have told you, yeah, you know Aitchin, he might get a look. But in reality, he's not going to be a serious contender to make this team. If you were just factoring, say there was no, the preseason goes right into the playoffs, right? The Islanders made the playoffs in the scenario. You got to make a best possible roster to win that game. I'm taking Aitchin over these other two. He has looked really involved in the play, which we knew he'd be, right? We knew he'd be a physical presence. You know, he'd be throwing some projects, doing a little slash, getting involved in the nasty stuff. But what's been really eyeopening to me is just how invisible he's looked beyond that in a good way, in the sense where it's not noticeable when he is skating back, right? When he's going against players. He made a few mistakes here and there, but overwhelmingly he already looks like the skills are at an NHL level, right? That was a full Rangers lineup for the most part. When they're skating up against them, you're not seeing, oh, the discrepancy where he's given too much space or anything like that. In fact, I really liked his physicality in front of the net. I think that's been missing a lot. Again, he lost one more battle there. And for the record, I was also on Schaefer for not jumping up and getting Dorofeev, who was wide open. But beyond that, I think Aitchin looks really strong. Now, a lot of you are probably clamoring in the comments. Okay, so he should make the team. The one thing we're not seeing, and it's okay, because I was more concerned about making sure he could show he's a base level NHL player, right? Because that's where the variance question, right? In the past years, when we talk about Kashawn Aitchin, some people have talked about him as a hit or miss prospect. Either he's going to figure out all the fun stuff, or he's not going to be able to stick in the NHL. I think after watching that game and watching the previous game, that narrative is going away. This is a guy, in my opinion, who's clearly going to be an NHL defenseman, but we still haven't seen some of that more electric stuff, right? Jumping in on plays, big explosive hits, and that's why I think it still makes sense to send Aitchin, at least for the start of season, down to the AHL, where he can start incorporating more elements to his game. He's shown now that he can play a safer game, and he understands where to go and when not to. He's not a reckless player that's just gunning for heads and causing mayhem. He can do that, but he's showing now that he can refine that, which is what you need to do in the NHL, right? There are moments where you want to go in and make an explosive hit, and there are moments where you want to defend a 3-2 lead, and we saw that with Aitchin. Now, I think it does still make sense to send him down to develop the rest. Isaiah George is one that I think is getting more controversy because he's made some mistakes this preseason, right? And I'm not going to sit here and say he's been a perfect defenseman. He's also looked really good in terms of the speed. I think the skating has really lit in pass. He's looked like an above-average skater. This season, you can really see in this preseason so far, you can see how he's able to use those escape plays, how he can catch up with plays and really move around in both the offensive and defensive zone. The skating is an asset, but I think at times he's struggling with his decision making. Where I think this is at for the Islanders is, I think George is clearly showing he belongs in the NHL, and it's more about, can you get more comfortable? So I think he deserves a look, and quite frankly, I think this should just be, yes, George is making some mistakes, but is he making more mistakes than Mayfield? Because we're going to kind of transition here and talk more about the veterans. Of the veterans, I think Mayfield looked absolutely horrendous in this game, and I think you can tell that the pressure's kind of on him to make an impression here. He got into that fight there, trying to show off against Liam Greentree, and I appreciate that physical element from Mayfield. And for the record, I'm not saying this player doesn't have use. When we're talking about a player being a seventh defenseman, realistically, that defenseman to at least 40 games. The seventh defenseman on most teams does play a lot, right? I'm not saying Mayfield should be sent down to the AHL. That's not at all the point of making, but I think it's clear that Isaiah George should get the first shot, and if this defense looks anything like Pellick Schaefer on your first pair, then you have Romano Pollock, and then you have Isaiah George and Tony D'Angelo, that sounds like a really good defense. Now, you do have questions about if that pair would be too volatile. Maybe you'll have to move some things around, right, like change different things. Maybe you get to a point where you go Romano Schaefer, this is what I thought about a lot, Romano Schaefer, then you get Pellick D'Angelo, and then George Pollock. I think that would be a really interesting way to kind of balance things out, ease George in, because I do think George is a player that once he plays a few games, he is going to become more comfortable in the defensive zone. I don't think people are looking at him making turnovers, making mistakes. I think a lot of that is just a lack of experience at this level. He plays a more high-energy game, so that comes with more mistakes. I do think he'll be able to iron out, though I'd love to know what you think about George in the comments below, but especially compared to other teams in the Metro Division, while I think the Allenders have a lot of weaknesses on forward, I think this defensive core is quietly becoming a stronger one. After having a lot of questions last year, being able to kind of have these younger players come up I think makes a big difference, as opposed to what they've had with anchors like Scott Mayfield playing on that third, especially no longer having Carson Soucy. I think all of a sudden, this defense is quietly becoming something that is a strength, and when you factor in how high I am on Romano, the fact that now he's coming back and playing on your second pair or third pair, you just have a lot more depth than you've had before. To quickly talk about the forwards, there was less of a story there, so I wanted to focus mostly on the defensemen. First, on what everyone wants to hear about the Eklund-Paggio-Eisman line, I thought they looked fine, but in reality, the one thing you notice from this line is kind of why both of these guys are not going to make the team right with this line. You can kind of tell that there were some defensive mishaps, poor reads, they're making some things happen in the offensive zone, but I think it's pretty clear that Eklund is likely going to get to stay with the club. I think he's been the more all-rounded forward, while Eisman is no longer, in my opinion, going to need a full season in the AHL. I think it's going to look more like, maybe like we were talking originally about with Cal Ricci, maybe until December, just get your feet wet, get comfortable scoring, and then make that transition once you're making some cleaner defensive plays, maybe closer to a trade deadline if the Islanders do end up making some moves selling, but that's where I think the timeline is there. I will also say with Eisman, the same way I talked about Aitchison, where at times people were talking about this prospect as a 50-50 hit-or-miss guy, I no longer see it. I now see him as a guy with an AHL floor, and the question is, how much ceiling can we now add to that floor with Eisman? There still are some more questions than there are with Aitchison, but I will also say I no longer see him as this hit-or-miss 50-50 prospect. At the very least, it seems very clear that the power play shooting, that is going to translate, and it seems like there is more of a floor with him being able to forecheck. When you compare it to players like LineA and guys who don't play well defensively, the key difference between Eisman and them at this point is that Eisman cares. A player who cares to learn to play defense, who is that prolific of a shooter, will figure it out. I think it will take a few months, but I think it will come. Positives. When it comes to the top six, I have two key ones. One, Richie does clearly look stronger, especially when he's going into the boards. I think he looks more confident. Last season, he kind of felt like a fill-in player to be a part of this team's second line. Make no mistake, he cannot be the best player on the second line. That's kind of how it's structured right now. That is not good enough, but once Matt Barzell comes back, I feel very confident with him and a Barzell-Richie duo being able to cause a lot of damage. I think that will provide another element to this offense. On the highs, I will also note Matias Micheli is exactly the player that I thought he would be, making a lot of electric offensive moves. He had a few turnovers early, which made me a little nervous, but one thing about Micheli is he makes some offensive turnovers, but he's not sloppy in the defensive zone. He's kind of just a basic average, maybe slightly below average defensive player. He makes no big mistakes, maybe doesn't make as many big plays as he wants to make, but that's absolutely fine. He works hard, and you could tell in the power play. He adds another element this team hasn't had, moves the puck really quickly. I'm really liking that acquisition for the Islanders, and I really feel like on this team, a team that does not have a ton of offensive potential, he can go back to being that guy he was in Arizona, where he was able to put up 57 points, maybe closer to 50, but I do think that potential is here with the Islanders because he's getting a lot of minutes, because frankly, looking at this forward core throughout watching this game, I was asking myself, if not Micheli, who else is going to be playing in this top six, because now to some of my negative notes, Shen, and I know it's preseason, right? I have my hopes that this is just so warm your feet up game. Shen looks slow. He looks slow. I'm starting to get more and more concerned with this player, especially because unlike a player like Anders who obviously was slow, he just doesn't have that same element of intimidating size that's gonna allow him to last, but we'll see. I'm just not too encouraged at this point. Chaffee, Chaffee, I got to figure out how to say that name. I was really impressed with him. I thought he had good energy at the time they brought him in. I was like, why are we bringing in another fourth liner? I get it. I would like to see him make the team play with Zizekas, maybe McLean or Palat. I don't mind the idea of having Palat on the fourth line, as I've talked about before, but that'll be an interesting little battle to see if he can carve a spot for himself. At this point, I haven't seen him play. I'm already predicting two players gonna look awful, and Engvall already looked as horrible as we expected in the previous game. And then a final note, Holmstrom, Corvette weren't really doing all that much. I think they weren't really giving this a full effort, which absolutely is fine in preseason, but I do want to finally note the two players who came back from injury who I was impressed with. I thought Kyle Palmieri was not gonna be a perfect game. He doesn't have all his senses. It's not all fully clicking yet, but what you did see was a player who's still ready to battle physically. He's taking penalties. He's getting right in there, shoving guys. I saw some good movement at points where he had burst of speed. Not that Kyle Palmieri has ever been particularly fast, but he kind of looked like the same Palmieri he's always been, maybe trying a bit less hard because of the preseason, but that was a really encouraging sight for me, especially when we saw him right away getting into battles. It shows that he's not nervous about that leg. He feels good. Definitely wasn't watching him being like, oh man, what happened to this player? Which, so at this point, I'm feeling a lot better about him having to be one of the top six players on this team's scoreboard. And then most importantly, I got to give a huge shout out to Varlamov, not just coming back in to play a preseason period, but like not letting any goals, the movement looks sharp. He looks like he's well in control. I wasn't at all nervous about him at all. After he came to the game, I was trying to watch to make sure he felt okay. Like we'll see how it lasts. That's gonna be the concern with Varlamov, especially considering he's had injuries in the past. There is going to be concerned about how healthy he can stay throughout the season, but I have a lot more hope that this Sorokin-Varlamov tandem can not just be the tandem for this season, but produce wins for this team, right? So that's my final takeaway. Let me know you think about all this in the comments below. I feel a little better about this team, honestly, than I did. I know it's just coming off a win. I'm not trying to look too much into the preseason, but some of the players that we've needed to see some signs of life from are showing those signs. In particular, I'm talking about Cal Ritchie. I'm talking about Matias Micheli. Yeah, the biggest concern with the Islanders, at this point, I don't feel concerned about the defense. Even if it struggles to start the year, I think you just make changes. I think you just bring in those younger guys. I feel good about the defense, right? The question now about the Islanders forward core is just, can you get enough offense? And while I'm not going to say that's definitively going to be a yes, you're seeing some encouraging signs from those young players. And that's going to do it for this episode of Islanders Digest. Go Islanders! Yeah, I'm looking forward to the season.