The fourth line, no matter how Patrick Roy configures it, has been a black gap for the Islanders all season.
Thanks partly to accidents and partly to Roy repeatedly altering issues round, there hasn’t been a constant trio on the backside of the lineup.
The absence of a fourth line that may impression video games has caught out for a workforce that, for the higher a part of the final decade, derived its identification from the Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck trio.
Saturday’s 6-3 win over the Maple Leafs, although, lastly offered some hope on that entrance, with the trio of Kyle MacLean, Cizikas and Hudson Fasching recording an 8-3 margin on shot makes an attempt whereas enjoying the form of forechecking, high-energy hockey that the Islanders need from their fourth line.
It got here only a few nights after Patrick Roy was pleased with the road’s effort in a 4-0 loss to the Hurricanes.
“They played really well in Carolina, that’s why we kept them together again tonight,” Roy mentioned previous to the win in Toronto. “.. [Against the Hurricanes] I thought they had a lot of good chances, good looks, they only had one shift that was tough on them. The rest, they played a really good game. That’s the energy we want from them.”
It’s a small pattern, however there are just a few causes to be optimistic it will probably final.
Specifically that this trio has barely performed collectively this season, with Cizikas having been compelled to play up on the third line and Fasching going out and in of the lineup for a lot of the marketing campaign.
Previous to the Carolina recreation, the Isles used this fourth line simply as soon as all yr, with Martin having been a lineup fixture for a lot of the final seven weeks.
Cizikas — a fourth-liner for many of his profession — has struggled enjoying up the lineup whereas Martin, who didn’t make the workforce initially after signing a PTO in camp, has seemed the a part of a 35-year-old enjoying restricted ice time.
Enjoying a totally wholesome ahead lineup for the primary time since Oct. 19, no person seemed misplaced for the Islanders towards the Leafs.
Maybe which means a very good evening from the fourth line is greater than a meaningless one-off.
The Sabres, who misplaced in Boston on Saturday, come into Lengthy Island with a 13-game shedding streak — the third-longest such streak in franchise historical past.
In the event that they lose to the Islanders, it’s going to tie their second-longest shedding streak, a 14-game stretch in 2014-15.
Saturday’s win over the Maple Leafs was the primary penalty-free Islanders recreation since Nov. 1, 2015 towards the Sabres, per workforce statistician Eric Hornick.
