Early returns suggest that things will be pretty interesting on Long Island this season.
Not only do the Islanders have a wunderkind rookie in Matthew Schaefer, but they’ve also been a roller coaster through the first five games of the new campaign.
The Isles lost their first three games by a combined score of 13-7, but they’ve rebounded with two wins on the spin, including a wild one in Ottawa on Saturday.
The Isles are big favorites over the lowly San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
The Isles have been one of the most high-event teams in the NHL through the first two weeks of the season.
A total of 35 goals have been scored in the Islanders’ first five games of the campaign, with at least six going into the net in each of them.
Part of the problem has been mediocre goaltending from Ilya Sorokin, but another contributing factor is the improved depth of the forward corps.
Gone are the days when Bo Horvat, Mat Barzal, and Anders Lee needed to shoulder the scoring load for the Isles.
The additions of Maxim Shabanov, Jonathan Drouin and Schaefer have raised the ceiling for Patrick Roy’s side.
It’s a good thing, too, because the Isles are struggling to find consistency in goal and on defense.
A showdown with the Sharks should provide the Islanders a chance to get things right in their own zone (and blue paint), but San Jose does have some pop with Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Tyler Toffoli and Michael Misa, who was taken No. 2 behind Schaefer during the NHL Draft in June.
With their young core, the future should be bright in San Jose, but the immediate term doesn’t look great.
The Sharks are the league’s only winless team, and their underlying numbers are not pretty.
San Jose is conceding 4.02 goals and 3.4 expected goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 through five games, both of which are the second-worst marks in the NHL behind the Anaheim Ducks.
The Isles should tilt the ice in this one, and they’ve got the offensive chops to turn this into a rout.
The Play: Islanders -1.5 (+120, DraftKings)
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
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