It Finally Happened

It finally happened. Six games into the Islanders' season, Matthias Maccelli and Kyle Palmieri finally scored their first goals of the year. And these are big storylines for two different reasons. We're going to discuss the different wingers on this team on this episode of Islanders' Digest with a heavy focus on these guys who are showing that they can make an impact for this team. It really felt like an Italian-type night. I know, it's funny. I don't think Maccelli is actually Italian. I'm pretty sure he is from Finland. But anyway, the Italian sign and names, it would have been really nice if Tony D'Angelo got in there with a goal as well. So far, he's been pretty quiet. I'm not too worried about him. Although it is worth noting that you watch game by game how much time each player is playing. He's not getting a lot of time with the defensemen, but we'll see how that changes. We'll also look at the upcoming schedule and mention one storyline. I don't want to dedicate a whole video to, But what I'm noticing is I'm really questioning some of the Islanders' decisions on who should start on what night. Now, for the record, it worked out that the Islanders might have needed Sorokin to beat the Vancouver last night, which is a bit concerning. But let's talk about the positives first. And I think the first one we're going to talk about is Matthias Maccelli, who's quietly having a really strong season for the Islanders so far. Has five points so far this season and perhaps not too loud with that, right? so far. There's been a couple chip-ins on the power play, which for the Islanders is absolutely important. I will note, he's not really doing that well with the entries, but once they're actually in the zone, I think he's really facilitating well. It'll be interesting to see once Barzell comes back, does he stay on the first unit, does he become a second unit type guy? I'm really curious to see what happens there, but one thing I am confident with is, especially after last night's game, Matthias Maccelli is staying in this lineup and looking at his shooting chart, I know it's really early, right? I think that can go up a bit or I think there is more he can provide but one thing is clear he's getting 15 minutes about on ice per game that's more than he had the previous season he's getting more of an opportunity and so far showing that I think he belongs in the top six and as we'll get to talking to on this video at the end of this game right he ended up playing with Bo Horvat I think that's where he should play all season long right especially if the Islanders are doing the thing where they should split up Matt Barzell and Bo Horvat and with the way the second line is playing I've kind of adjusted my feelings maybe they do need more of an impact player there i think barzell can do that fit however you shake it up right you mix up the top six top however you mix things up i think Matias Maccelli should play with Bo Horvat or whatever you talked about a lot in this offseason about how i feel like in the past he's looked like a knockoff type barzell i know the word knockoff sounds negative but i mean it in a positive way right he's looked kind of like barzell in the way he can make those impact passes And a few seasons ago in Arizona, which is not too far behind, he put up a 40 assist Even last season on Toronto, where it wasn't thought to be that good of a season for him, put up 25 This is a guy who can dish the puck, and I think that's a better fit for Bo Horvat and some of the other options they have of playing with him So really positive for him. I like the way he's playing out there. And I think we also have to give credit to Kyle Palmieri who I will admit is not looking as sharp as Maccelli, right? I think he has struggled with it at points but he now has those first two goals. And I think that's going to be big for Kyle Palmieri's confidence And I'm not concerned about Kyle Palmieri, right? I understand you would have liked to see more early on, right? But he is coming from an ACL surgery. And while I do think he will be able to have a solid season, he's also 35, right? So keep in mind there, I don't know how much of this is age. How much of that is returning from the surgery? But what I will say is he's still shown that he is worthy of a role. I'm curious to see as the season goes on, maybe he gets moved down to the third line, play him with Pajot, see if they have some chemistry, right? See what happens there. Or maybe this is just a thing where you put him back with Matt Barzell. That's a connection that we've seen in the past. Even though for surprisingly the amount of times the Islanders haven't really stuck with it, it's shown that it really works. And perhaps Barzell's speed can distract from the lack of speed from Kyle Palmieri. And we'll talk a bit about Barzell, too, here. Why not? You know, I love to jump from topic to topic. But I'd love to know, as we kind of talk more about the lineup as a whole, what you're thinking about some of these wingers on the New York Islanders and what this lineup should look like, right? I'm not going to quite get into the who should sit out when Barzell comes back conversation. I'll wait until we get more of an update that he's practicing with the team, right? I think that'll be the good cue that it's time to do that video because I do think once he is revving up with the team, it'll probably be just a few days from there, hopefully that soon. We really don't know what the situation is going to be like, but I thought a lot of wingers really stood out for the Islanders in this game against Vancouver. Listen, it wasn't a perfect game. We'll talk about some of the flaws in a bit. I think the defense really looks lousy at points, and sometimes that comes from the wingers as well, and the forwards in general. I don't think Pajot has had a very good season in particular. This is not me saying take Pajot out of the lineup, but it's just worth noting that he in the past has been a third-line center where you don't worry about third-line. I'm not worried about that third line. And I'm also not excited when they hit the ice either. And it's not in the, really, you would have told me at the beginning of the season, on a line with Palat, Pajot, and Duclair, I would be most concerned about Pajot. I wouldn't have believed you, but I think Duclair has been moving his legs really well. And I think it's worth noting, Palat and Duclair, I don't think, have been rewarded on the score sheet for how well they have been playing. Michele, I think, was in that same category, finally got rewarded in that game. There's a tweet I saw, too, somebody saying, like, oh, you shouldn't take anything out of these goals. These are gimme goals. In a team like Vancouver, you should score a bunch of goals. Listen, it was a 3-2 game. Those goals were absolutely important, and not for nothing. Like, they almost took that game to overtime, right? I couldn't believe how long Vancouver held that puck before making that final pass. I was screaming, like, hover the front of the net. They sweeped away with one, right? We'll kind of talk about how much Sorokin's playing, stuff like that, too. But I do want to quickly give shout-outs to players who are playing well before we kind of focus on these wingers here. One of note for me, absolutely, I got to give him credit. I was very critical, not of the Stanley signing, but the amount they were playing him to start the season. He looks good next to Schaefer. I know some of that might just be Schaefer being that incredible, but we haven't really seen that with everyone that's played with Schaefer this year at times. Plouffe looked rough with him last season at points. Scott Mayfield certainly didn't look great when he played with him to start the year. So give him a ton of credit there. I think the second pair has been a little rough. And the fact that we have P and P back together and they're not really doing their thing, that is a storyline that I'm keeping a look out here. I think it's more Pollock than Pellick, but that's something to keep an eye on. And I'll note, Tony D'Angelo seems to be playing a lot less with Pete Tavor. That's something interesting to keep note of. Hasn't left the lineup yet, but that is worth noting. And I have to say, Kessel was a player who I wasn't impressed with at all in preseason. I thought he looked pretty solid in this game. I know it is the Vancouver Canucks. You got to see how he looks against a more offensively pressuring team. But I think he deserves more of a look here after that one game. So that is a positive note to bring up here. with the forwards, too. The one player I really want to talk about, these aren't the most up-to-date lines, because the Islanders switched it up as the game went on, and what I like about Pete DeBoer, too, is he seems to really promote players in-game when they're playing well to play with Bo Horvat, and I like that, right? What I didn't like that Patrick Wall would do last season is he would just seemingly put everyone through a blender if they didn't score for a period to try to see if he could find some magic, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason of who's playing with who. with Pete DeBoer while he does move people up and down there seems to be logic so like oh so this guy's playing really well or these guys have chemistry so I'll keep them together and I really like Maccelli finish off this game playing with Horvat as we talked about before I really want to see that for a few games right I think it just makes sense to put Bo Horvat with a playmaker Maccelli he also has some finish right it's not like he you look at his career highs his career high is 17 goals right it's not like he can't score out there I think it's a good match with Horvat to really maximize his scoring as opposed to when he's playing with Hyman and yeah Hyman scores a lot in those situations but he's not contributing a ton of assists I like Hyman right you hear people saying like he shouldn't be playing or he should be in the fourth line maybe he is a fourth line player I actually don't hate the idea of putting him with Holmstrom I think that can be a really interesting line with Cizikas I also think Holmstrom will find his way here right you got some people who are really low on him look hasn't had the greatest start to the season he tends to be a player like that where he'll get cold and he'll get really hot for a bit um in terms of my hopes for him breaking out that definitely isn't encouraging but uh people saying that Holmstrom should not be playing he's like one of the best penalty killers on the team and does his job well defensively so i completely disagree with that but yeah i think right now i don't mind him a lot kind of playing on the third line getting a look there again even though that the line hasn't put up points at least that's funny of all three of them Pageau has the most points i think he has been playing the worst uh give him credit where credit's due he's winning face-offs uh he's not doing much else and i will also note i was hoping that the Richie Ekblad line especially Richie Ekblad would have a really sharp one in vancouver kind of put up a few points uh they kind of struggled a bit defensively we'll see if they say i would really i really wonder if maybe this would be a situation where i have a young player in Richie playing center maybe it's not the best idea to have Ekblad on that line as well maybe you kind of do a flip here, where you put Ekblad with Horvat and Macelli, see how that works. Maybe try Palmieri on the second or third line. Wouldn't mind to clear those. I think the Islanders have a lot of interesting wing options, right? When we talk about the Islanders lacking scoring talent, I don't think it's weird. You assume that the Islanders' third line is worse than any third line on a team that scores more goals than them. I don't think that's the case. I think it's just more the first line doesn't have the firepower that most teams have. You take an example for a bad team for example you take the Detroit Red Wings like yeah the Islanders depth is a lot lot lot better than their depth but their first line of Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond like the Islanders can't really compete with that line at least one-on-one right defensively you can like even like the score I think that's something the Islanders have shown early on they're getting better at like I think the Vancouver game was a setback this next game I think is gonna be a good challenge for them but let me know what you think about these lines before we move on to oh yeah the standings here i think it's still too early for us to consistently look at the standings but worth noting right now they're kind of 500 like for the islanders to make playoffs they definitely have to increase their pace but it's too early to talk about i think right now it's more about individual games and looking at the next few games uh i think it is worth noting for the islanders if we get the uh games come up right here there we go uh this game against the senators is going to be a tough one and then you have the toronto maple leafs this is where i did want to mention I'm not loving the play in Sorokin against both the Chicago Blackhawks and then the Vancouver Canucks you needed him in that game so maybe I take it back maybe you just need to take the points where you know you can get them uh but Varley I still think it's a question mark on what we're getting night to night it's going to take him a few games to get going uh Pete DeBoer mentioned he wants to play him realistically once a week right now which isn't going to put a heavy workload on Sorokin but I assume Varlamov is getting into one of these next two games I would maybe just put him in against the Senators. The Senators are absolutely rolling. I think the Islanders can beat the Leafs. They're kind of a dysfunctional team that scores a lot of goals. The Senators are an absolute unit. And then after that, this is a pretty tough stretch for the Islanders. You have the Ducks who I think after listen, you can criticize all the moves. I think they made horrible moves, but they're young players so much, especially the defense, are stepping up in a big way so far. It looks like they're going to be not taking the step back that they thought they would. So they're looking really good. The Kings are looking like a mess but I don't know just tend to play the Kings not so well for some reason maybe I'll change this year it is a different look at that team then you get the Stars that's going to be an absolutely I think underrated game with how much attention is to these two teams it's a shame that Romanov is already out for the season I would have loved to see him inflict some revenge against Mikko Rantanen hopefully another Islander will do that though because that guy deserves some revenge then the Predators that's a pretty light matchup and then the Wilds so you do have some any game in the NHL is winnable but you have some games that you expect to win but overall it is a tough stretch for the Islanders coming up and I think this will tell us a lot about what this team is right I think right now at 3-3 it's way too early to definitively say the Islanders are a good team the Islanders are a bad team right I can still see that maybe honestly I think at this point worse than the Metro is reserve for the flyers congratulations it is all yours what are they won they won zero games out of eight now absolute joke they have three loser points though uh i don't think the Islanders are in that eighth place conversation but i still think there's a scenario where this is the third best team in the metro i think they can be the seventh best team in the Metro I think it's really fluid Washington surprisingly is a team that hasn't shown me what I thought they'd show me so far The Rangers look like an absolute wagon, but you know what? Everand's hurt now. Anything can happen there, even though they played well so far. I like Grant. I don't like him that much. This is going to be a wide-open division. I think the next few games are going to tell us what the Islanders can be. I definitely have more hope for them now than I did in the beginning of the season, even though a 3-3 start doesn't sound great. It's that they played pretty well without Barzal, and I'm heavily picturing when we look at these games, even the game against Vancouver where they won, didn't look all that good and you wish there was more offensive control but then you think you know Yeah, one of the best offensive drivers in the entire NHL and he's not on this lineup what is this gonna look like when he's back I thought of that the same way when they lost the Rangers even the Tampa game I'm like if you can have Barzal driving that play it's gonna change a lot for this team it allows some different matchups right uh even though I think Ritchie has been holding his own as a center I'm really curious to see what he looks like kind of taking that pressure off again uh playing him on the wing and this is not me to say that Ritchie's not gonna be a center I I think the plan this season for Richie was to get him some looks at center but kind of bounce him back and forth uh so when Barzal comes back if he moves back to wing I think that really makes an interesting look for this team but let me know what you think let me know how you're feeling and uh you know what predict the score for this next game against It's the Ottawa Senators. And as a bonus, tell me who's going to score the game-winning goal. I think that's a fun game to play sometimes. That's going to do it for this episode of Islanders Digest. Let's go Islanders. Get a big win tomorrow.