The 2024-25 NHL season hasn’t gone as planned for the New York Islanders. They are the only team in the Eastern Conference unable to amass double-digit win totals in the regular season and sit three points back of the last wild-card position with three more games played.
Some blame can be placed on New York’s inability to stay healthy this season. Defenseman Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly are currently positioned on the team’s injured reserve and forwards Mathew Barzal and Anthony Duclair are on the team’s long-term injured reserve. Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News shares that things are about to change with the two latter players.
Rosner writes that Barzal has finally resumed skating for the Islanders after missing his 17th straight game a few nights ago. New York’s most talented player has been dealing with an upper-body injury since late October after blocking a shot from Columbus Blue Jackets’ forward Yegor Chinakhov. Likewise, Duclair has been skating for the last few weeks and should be activated from LTIR before Barzal.
The two have missed a combined 39 games for the Islanders this season, and their offense has struggled in their absence. New York has typically hovered around three goals per game since the 2018-19 season but has now fallen to last in the Eastern Conference with a 2.48 GF/G average.
Barzal wasn’t a game-changing threat when healthy this season, scoring two goals and five points through his first 10 games. His absence was felt elsewhere, though, as teammate Bo Horvat has lost nearly all goal-scoring touch without his typical linemate. Horvat scored three goals in 10 games with Barzal and has only two scored two goals in the 17 subsequent games without him.
Duclair’s absence has also aided in the offense’s stalling out. He’s typically a surefire bet to score 25 goals when healthy and potted two in his first five games with the Islanders. Furthermore, New York’s powerplay has dropped to 31st in the league with an 11.84% success rate with the man advantage.
The Islanders still have 55 remaining games to recover the season and there should be growing optimism with Barzal and Duclair’s return on the horizon. It’s difficult to imagine New York qualifying for the playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons if its offense doesn’t recover from the dismal start.
