If the Isles want the make the playoffs, Barzal must produce as he’s done since Roy’s arrival

Patrick Roy was hired by the Islanders at the end of January and has lived up to expectations.

His club was able to make the playoffs in the Eastern Association, and now the challenge will be to see if Roy is still capable of leading his team into the spring tournament.

That said, with the recent additions of Anthony Duclair and Maxim Tsyplakov to the top-9, there will be high expectations in New York for the upcoming campaign.

For this to work, the Islanders will need their best players to lead the club in their own way.

And here, I’m thinking especially of Mathew Barzal, because he’s the one with the qualities to pull the team along.

The forward scored 34 points in 36 games under Patrick Roy last season, and he needs to keep it up.

In fact… it’s Patrick Roy who needs to find a way to center him at the heart of his attack to bring more offense into the lineup.

Because with all his talent, Barzal has the tools to become a player who can score a point a game like he did in his rookie season.

He’s got to stand up :

Mat Barzal:

– scores 85 points in rookie season
– supposed to be the successor to Tavares
– makes conference finals twice and loses to cup-winning Lightning
– never matched rookie season point total in 7 seasons
– didn’t make NHL Network top-20 wingers list

What’s going on? pic.twitter.com/Z93ubQM7cV

– Big Head Hockey (@BigHeadHcky) August 16, 2024

When you look at the Isles’ forwards, you notice that it’s not elegant for all that.

The club has some good players, but there isn’t a guy who is seen as a true superstar in the NHL.

Patrick Roy needs to find a way to get his forwards to produce, otherwise the Islanders’ playoffs are already a forgone conclusion.

And even then, it’s up to Barzal to lead the way, because he’s done it before:

That’s why the challenge of making the playoffs is so important over there.

The Islanders don’t necessarily have what it takes to compete with the league’s top clubs on paper, and we saw that in the last playoffs against the Carolina Hurricanes.

It remains to be seen whether Patrick Roy will have an impact on his players from the start of the season, given that this will be his first full season with the club.

And it will be interesting to see what happens if the results aren’t there this season, because we know that Lou Lamoriello has a short fuse…