TORONTO - Seven games is only 8.3% of an 84-game season, so there’s still plenty of time for the Islanders to sort themselves out.
Still, a few truths are starting to settle in as they finish their two-game Canadian trip Saturday night against the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. Matthew Schaefer has taken another step after his standout rookie year and looks even more composed in his sophomore season.
Bo Horvat has been the right call as captain for now, even with his six-game point streak ending in Thursday night’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Senators. Semyon Varlamov appears ready to give the Islanders the reliable backup behind Ilya Sorokin that they’ve been looking for, after stopping 18 shots in Ottawa while working back from two partial knee replacement surgeries.
And the team’s defensive structure has been solid, with just 17 goals allowed.
The record says 3-3-1. The pattern says win, loss, win, loss. The bigger picture says there are still plenty of questions.
Mathew Barzal is the biggest one.
He has been out since the first day of training camp because of inflammation in his left knee, which traces back to the kneecap injury he suffered in February 2025 and needed surgery for. He’s skating on his own, but he did not travel with the team on this road swing, and the timeline for his return has already been pushed back more than once.
The Islanders need the version of Barzal who put up 53 assists and 72 points in 81 games last season while managing the knee discomfort. That kind of production matters.
Then there’s the scoring as a whole, which remains thin.
Pete DeBoer has tried to build a balanced four-line attack and has spent plenty of time shuffling forwards up and down the lineup to find the right mix. Horvat has carried the offense so far with four goals, three on the power play, and seven points.
Everyone else on the roster has combined for 16 goals, leaving the Islanders 24th in the league in scoring. The plus-three goal differential is more a credit to the defense and goaltending than to any offensive surge.
There are individual names that need to give more. Simon Holmstrom has one goal and one assist and was moved down to the fourth line. Cal Ritchie also has one goal and one assist, and he did not play the final 11:30 of regulation or overtime in the loss to Ottawa.
“He wasn’t the only one,” DeBoer said. “There was a group of guys that fell out.
The players make those decisions for me. We had some puck management issues at different points.
We took some penalties, which you can’t do on the road.”
Anthony Duclair and defenseman Matt Kessel were benched in the middle of the third period as well. There’s also a chance Kyle MacLean, who has yet to play this season, and defenseman Scott Mayfield could draw in Saturday.
The road record is another area worth watching, even if the sample is tiny.
The Islanders are 0-2-1 away from UBS Arena. Two of those games were decided by one goal, and the 5-2 loss to the Rangers on Oct. 6 at Madison Square Garden was only that wide because of two late empty-net goals. Still, getting a win away from home would help steady things.
“The start of the game was going to be a little more adapting to playing on the road,” Schaefer said after Thursday’s shootout loss. “Seeing what it feels like after having a little home stretch.”
DeBoer’s preference for matching lines gets more complicated without last change, which makes the road even trickier. Before this swing, the Islanders had played three of four at UBS Arena, with the trip to the Garden as the other game.
On the roster front, general manager Mathieu Darche may eventually have to decide whether to add help.
Barzal has no return date, Alexander Romanov is out for the season with a right knee injury, and Logan Stanley has held up well since arriving late, with four assists and an average of 19:38 while paired with Schaefer. But Stanley was never expected to be a top-pairing fixture when he signed on Sept.
- That’s why there’s already speculation about whether Darche could try to land Simon Edvinsson from the Red Wings or Alexander Nikishin from the Hurricanes, both restricted free agent defensemen looking for major deals.
The power play, at least, has been a positive.
The Islanders are 4-for-22 to start the season, good for 18.2 percent and 17th in the NHL. That already outpaces last year’s 40-for-242 mark, which ranked 30th.
The entries have been cleaner, the puck has moved better, and the unit looks less stagnant. For a team still searching for offense, that kind of improvement could matter a lot.
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Alexander Romanovs season took a brutal turn early, when the Islanders defenseman went down with a knee injury in the third game of the year and now faces a long recovery. The team has already been forced to plan without him for most of the season, and the next stretch is about more than just the surgery and rehab process. It is also about making sure Romanov does not have to handle the grind alone.
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