It was only the preseason, and it got better as it went. But the growing pains for Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov were evident.
The pair got five of the Islanders’ six preseason games together and played over 25 more minutes together than any other duo on the blue line — evidence that coach Lane Lambert was hoping to massage any issues out of the way — and the results were not promising. The Isles were outscored 3-1 with the pair on the ice, outshot 38-25 and gave up 10 more high-danger chances than they generated, per Natural Stat Trick.
Maybe it is a fool’s errand to pull out advanced stats in the preseason. The whole point of the preseason is to work out the kinks, so there shouldn’t be any reason to ring alarm bells unless the issues carry into games that actually count.
“It’s been a work in progress,” Lambert said after the preseason finale, in which the pair had some, but fewer, moments in which they looked to not be on the same page. “We’ve known that. We’ve given them plenty of time together in game situations. I think they’re doing a really good job of starting to mesh.”
When the Islanders acquired Romanov via trade at the July draft, the appeal of him playing alongside Dobson was obvious. Romanov is a heavy hitter who can play physical on the defensive end and skate well enough to transport the puck up ice. Dobson is blossoming into a star whose calling card is his ability to join the rush and create chances in the offensive zone.
He needs a partner who can play defense, but not one who leaves him to do all the work of getting the puck up the ice on his own, as Zdeno Chara did last year when the Islanders had him serve as a mentor for Dobson in what ended up being his final season in the league. Romanov, a 22-year-old, has some developing left — everyone involved knew that when he was acquired — but it’s easy to see how he can be that player.
Thus far, though, the problem has been twofold. Romanov is learning to play a new system. And Dobson is learning to play with a partner who is not always holding down the fort in his own end. The result has been a series of errors in the preseason as each player learns to anticipate where the other is.
“He’s a great guy, great partner,” Romanov, who for his part casts a remarkably upbeat demeanor, told The Post on Wednesday, when asked about Dobson. “A lot of communication. We’re trying to play [with] each other on the ice. … He’s a great guy, and as everybody knows, he’s so talented and a skill guy.”
It’s hard to see the two needing much more time to learn to play with one another. There is a reason Lou Lamoriello handed a $12 million bridge deal to Dobson and traded away his first-round pick to get Romanov. If and when that happens, there is a future in which the current top four of Dobson, Romanov, Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech becomes a permanent fixture on Long Island for the foreseeable future.
But making that happen will require Dobson to adjust his game a bit. Lambert has talked of Dobson needing to read situations at a higher level.
“I think Alex is just up the ice a little bit more than his previous partner,” Lambert said. “What [Dobson]’s doing is he’s reading [off Romanov], and Noah is obviously a guy who likes to join the rush. So he’s getting better reads as to when he should go and when he shouldn’t go reading off Alex from that standpoint.”
Lambert has encouraged his defensemen to be aggressive in joining the rush and getting involved in the play offensively — it’s been one of the talking points of training camp. That’s a marked change from how the Islanders played under Barry Trotz. But they still don’t want to suddenly be caught in a game of odd-man rushes and trading chances. They are not well-equipped to win under such conditions.
It’s worth adding that changing up the defensive pairings from their current configuration would not be ideal. The Islanders badly missed having Pelech and Pulock together last season when they were initially split up, and then when Pulock got hurt. Robin Salo and Sebastian Aho, the other two lefties who could play alongside Dobson, present more extreme versions of the same problem as Romanov with regard to getting up on the play.
That leaves one option: figuring it out.
Romanov feels they’re well on the path to doing so.
“First game was tough, ’cause we never played together,” he said. “But the last two games, I think they were good games and really showed how we can play together. We were feeling great.”
A new answer to the roster problem
When the Islanders announced their roster on Monday, I wrote that, upon Cal Clutterbuck’s return from injured reserve, the team would likely need to send one of Oliver Wahlstrom, Nikita Soshnikov or Kieffer Bellows down. Ross Johnston wasn’t a part of that equation based on the assumption that the Islanders see him as they have in the past: as an integral extra for the fourth line when Clutterbuck or Matt Martin need rest, with his physical game fitting well with the checking line.
Well, it now looks like with Clutterbuck out, Soshnikov — not Johnston — will be in that spot on the fourth line, at least if practice lines are any indication. If that is indeed the case, the puzzle here becomes rather easy for the Islanders. If Johnston, who carries a $1.1 million cap hit, isn’t the first call to fill in on the fourth line, then it’s tough to see why he should stay on the roster over Wahlstrom, Soshnikov or Bellows, all of whom can play a top-nine role if called on.
Johnston would need to go through waivers to be sent down to AHL Bridgeport, and that is still the X-factor here. Wahlstrom, who skated with the extras on Wednesday, is the only one of the group who is waivers exempt, and there is an argument to be made that he would benefit from a stint in Bridgeport. But there is also an argument to be made that such an assignment would shake Wahlstrom’s already tenuous confidence, and that Johnston’s salary makes it hard to imagine another team claiming him if exposed to waivers. Moreover, Wahlstrom likely has more to offer at the NHL level, even if he is not in the everyday lineup.
If it is Johnston, then there is another conversation to be had about the four-year extension he signed last fall at $1.1 million annually, which seemed steep even at the time for a player who at age 28 has never played more than 32 games in a season. But that is for another day.
Lineup projection
Clutterbuck’s injury and Soshnikov’s emergence changes the picture from last week. The top nine, though, remains the same:
Anders Lee-Brock Nelson-Anthony Beauvillier
Zach Parise-Mathew Barzal-Kyle Palmieri
Kieffer Bellows-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Josh Bailey
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Nikita Soshnikov
Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock
Alexander Romanov-Noah Dobson
Robin Salo-Scott Mayfield
Scratches: Oliver Wahlstrom, Sebastian Aho, Ross Johnston
IR: Cal Clutterbuck
Credit: Source link
