By just shopping for Brock Nelson this week, General Manager Lou Lamoriello undertook in the challenge of trying to recall the New York Islanders while keeping them in battle.
The islanders have a chance to get the task of seeing a little more manageable Sunday evening, as they continue a three-played California by visiting the Anaheim Ducks.
The islanders will complete a back-to-back set after they never hit a 4-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night. The ducks played by Friday, when they fell to the visiting St. Louis Blues, 4-3.
The win was the fourth in the last five matches (4-1-0) for the islanders, who won two days after Nelson and prospectus William Dufour were distributed to Colorado Avalanche for Prospect Calum Ritchie, defender Oliver Kylington and two drafts of election. They are three points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers in the race for the second Wild Card place in the Eastern Conference.
The islanders, with 65 points, were able to skip the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins-who all have 66 points and are free Sunday-with a victory and inches closer to the loser of the Blue Jackets-Rangers game, planned for earlier Sunday in New York.
Lamoriello, a Hockey Hall of Fame member who built three Stanley Cup champions with New Jersey Devils, is not the type to seek validation for his approach. But another victory on Sunday would give more evidence that he may have been correct when he had not demolished in the islanders, although he acknowledged that Offseason movements will be necessary for a team that missed the playoffs in 2022 and was eliminated in the first round during each of the past two years.
“There will be change this summer,” Lamoriello said before Saturday’s game. “Until there is change, you can’t say how much. But I can assure you will change.”
Meanwhile, the Öborna-led by 30-Somelings Kyle Palmieri, Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who could have been dangled at the time limit-to make sure that the playoffs for the sixth time in Lamoriello’s seven seasons with the club.
“The focus right now is that we are four points,” Lamoriello said Saturday. “And that’s how our coaches feel. That’s what our players feel.”
The ducks, whose average age of 27.6 years bind them with the Utah Hockey Club for the sixth-fucked list in the league, kept their future in mind for a quiet deadline. Anaheim acquired Kylington from Islander’s moment after the Nelson affair and sent defender Brian Dumoulin to New Jersey Devils for Prospect Herman Traff and a conditional second round of this year’s draft.
Anaheim, who is nine points behind Calgary Flames in the race for the second Western Conference Wild Card place, is likely to miss the playoffs for the seventh straight season, but Ducks 61 points are more than they collected in one of the two previous seasons and have them on the pace for their most points since the campaign in 2018.
“We will see to always continue to improve,” said Duck’s general manager Pat Verbeek Friday. “It’s just our way of thinking here. But at the same time we allow our young guys to continue to drive forward and develop, we will see how this group can do during the last 20 games and I am excited for this group.”
-Field level media
