Rather than bolstering his roster and making an addition to help ensure the New York Islanders make the playoffs, team president/general manager Lou Lamoriello opted to hold onto his chips by standing pat at the NHL’s trade deadline.
It was certainly a bold choice, one that Lamoriello will be criticized for if the Islanders find themselves on the putting green rather than a frozen sheet at the end of the regular season.
But it was also a choice Lamoreillo felt firm in with the Islanders are currently playing their best hockey of the season, having won their five games. For better or worse, Lamoriello has given the Islanders his vote of confidence, and they’ll use it to fuel them the rest of the way.
“We’re playing some good hockey right now,” Kyle Palmieri told reporters in Anaheim on Saturday. “We want to keep this going. The trade deadline and just the lead-up to it, obviously, there’s a lot a lot of stuff going on. But we just wanted to stay focused on the task at hand. We’re confident in each other in this room, and it’s always good to see that confidence is there from him as well.”
Rarely has Lamoriello stayed stagnant at the deadline.
Since taking the helm of the Islanders in 2018, the Hall of Fame executive has made several deadline deals, often well before the market had a chance to take shape. That wasn’t the case this year, at least not in terms of adding a player, that is.
Instead, Lamoriello’s big move was hiring Patrick Roy as the Islanders’ new head coach in mid-January. Since then, the energy around the team has felt lighter, and their play in recent weeks has finally begun to resemble it.
“Everybody knows Lou. If there was something there that makes us a better team, I’m sure he would have done it,” Roy said.”But at the same time, the players put him in a tough spot because they’ve been there playing so well. You don’t want to break that chemistry right now. Chemistry is a very important thing, so the players deserve a lot of credit for what they’ve been doing.
Now, without any players coming or going, the Islanders can look around their locker room, knowing that it’s on them to prove Lamoriello right. With only 20 games remaining on their schedule, the only thing that stands between them and the playoffs is themselves.
“We’re confident in this group,” Anders Lee said. “We believe in what we’ve been working on and that when we’re playing our best hockey, we can go with anybody. It’s just continuing to work towards that and being as consistent at that top level as possible…The ultimate goal here is to see what we can do and continue to go after this thing.”
The Islanders have gained 10 points in the standings during their recent winning streak. A win tonight against the Anaheim Ducks will extend the streak to six and put them back into a playoff position for the first time since before Roy was hired.
Puck drop between the Islanders and Ducks from Honda Center is scheduled for just past 8 p.m. EST.
More must-reads: