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The New York Islanders will be competing in a slightly altered division when the NHL season begins this week. Leading up to opening night, I’ll be looking at how the Islanders’ roster compares to other teams in the East Division.
We’ve already released three articles in this series, which you can read here:
In today’s article, we’ll assess how the Islanders compare against the Washington Capitals.
FORWARDS
The Capitals have a few key aging players up front but the forward group remains very strong. Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and Alex Ovechkin may be on the wrong side of 30 years old but all can still certainly produce, while Evgeny Kuznetsov can consistently provide offense and Jakub Vrana took a huge step last season.
Advantage: Capitals
DEFENSE
On defense, the Capitals will turn to John Carlson, who led the NHL in points amongst defenseman last season.
Advantage: N/A
GOALTENDING
Although Braden Holtby wasn't the same goalie over the last few seasons, the Capitals are still taking a risk by relying on Ilya Samsonov as a starter, after just 26 NHL games. Samsonov was good last season and does project as a quality starter but the team is using an inexperienced tandem. This may give the Islanders an advantage in goal, based on the fact that they also have a young, high-end goalie in Ilya Sorokin but they also have experience in the form of Semyon Varlamov, which is what the Capitals are lacking. As a result, the Islanders have the advantage in net.
Advantage: Islanders
The Islanders and Capitals should be fairly evenly matched once again this season. Washington will still have their high-scoring offense but we can’t forget that New York took out the Capitals in five games during the 2020 playoffs.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Islanders Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Islanders for updates on articles, Islanders news, etc.***
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
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