Barzal out week to week potentially long term

[yave1964]

    six teams fighting for two playoff spots in the east, the Islanders went all in adding Bo Horvat and are hoping to get one of the two spots.

 

  A potentially huge loss is Matt Barzal who was injured in a hit by Craig Smith of the Bruins in the first period of Saturdays 6-2 spanking by Boston. he left the game and did not return.

 

   Coach Lane Lambert is playing it coy, just stating it is a LBI, and he is week to week.  Whispers are that it is potentially longer, possibly even season ending. If so it could be a disaster for the Isles who after adding horvat simply must make the palyoffs.

 

  The only good news may be if it is indeed long term and Barzal is placed on LTIR the Isles could possibly use the money savings to make another move. The bad news is that other teams would smell desperation and blood in the water, and force the Isles hand into trading a top prospect such as William Dufour or Collin Adams. The Islanders are an aging team with little to show from the core which has been together for years, and very little in the pipeline, they traded their top prospect in Raty in the Horvat deal.  They have had oly one first round pick in five years and he, Simon Holmstrom is looking like he is going to be a potential bust, doing little in the AHL this year and even less in the NHL when called up due to injuries. 

  So no first round pick, very little in the way of prospects, in a must win situation and now Barzal could be out long term on an aging team in what is shaping up to be the wildest six team scramble in the nhl in years fighting for two spots.

 

  

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Funnily enough (or NOT funny if you are an Isles fan), the addition of Horvat, which was supposed to bolster and rejuvenate the Islanders hopes for deep playoff runs, may turn out to be the player being put into a situation where he may see his numbers actually slip from when he was with Vancouver!

The Canucks may have been deficient in many areas, especially goal prevention, but the one thing they did right, and Horvat was a big part of it not only because of himself, but the forwards around him, was generate offense.

Barzal is supposed to be a big part of that formula for the NY Islanders, who inherently are a defense first team....and now, if Barzal is out long term, Horvat is left to either carry the load himself, or elevate the remaining forwards to levels similar to what he was accustomed to with Vancouver.
Tall order on all fronts.

I mean, who do the Islanders have left for the offense to create from?
Anders Lee who has been hit n miss all season?
Brock Nelson, who is a decent player and simply MUST batten down that 2C spot and not sulk because he was displaced by the addition of Horvat?
The shells (or as @yave1964 is famous for coining...the HUSKS) of Kyle Palmieri and Zach Parise??
A bunch of other guys who will now need to play above their pay grade or get called up from the AHL in the hopes they can somehow help offset the loss of Barzal?

The Islanders were once considered a team of great depth, needing only a high end player or two to really take the next step.
Amazing how the loss of just ONE player, albeit it an important one as Barzal is, completely upsets that depth, and forces the added high end player, Horvat, to have to stretch himself beyond what would be ideal.

Unless some of the call ups start panning out, and unless some of the vets, secondary players, and husk players step up..... the Isles are in big trouble.