Even the most optimistic of New York Islanders fans weren’t expecting this kind of season from their team. After losing their star captain, John Tavares, the ceiling for this team seemed to be competing for a wild card spot.
Although, admittedly, I thought this team would finish with a slightly worse record than last year, competing for a Wild Card didn’t sound outlandish based on their new coaching hire. Boy did we underestimate the Barry Trotz effect.
Trotz’s impact took a couple of weeks to go fully into form, but once it did the Isles began to heat up.