Awful New York Islanders push youth movement

Photo credit: Game Face

Young Isles Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen figure to see more ice time. (Photos: Getty)

By Bill Weisbrod

The good news for the Islanders is that veterans Doug Weight, Bill Guerin and Mark Streit have been healthy and productive for much of this season.

The bad news is that the struggling team’s younger players haven’t.

The NHL-worst Isles (12-26-4) are on pace for their worst season since 2000-01, with only 25 points through 42 games. The prospect of relying on aging veterans doesn’t prefigure long-term success for the franchise.

Fresh off a four-game West Coast swing that produced zero points in the standings and extended their winless streak on the road to 13, the Islanders plan to get their under-30 players in the lineup on a regular basis for the rest of the season, and to figure out what roles their top draft picks from the past few years will play.

First-year Islanders coach Scott Gordon said the team can live with the growing pains of players it considers its future — just so long as those pains are figurative and don’t keep anyone off the ice.

Starting Tuesday night at home against the Rangers (25-15-4), there are regular NHL shifts, in 2009 and beyond, for the taking.“The biggest thing is the continued development of our younger players,” Gordon said, “getting them to progress in the second half and having them have something to build on for next year.”

Weight missed the last two games of the Western trip with a leg injury and isn’t expected to dress tonight, so if the Rangers can contain the Streit-quarterbacked power play (17th in the NHL compared to the Rangers’ 27th), the success of the Rangers’ defense-and-goaltending-centric approach will depend on stopping the Islanders’ younger skill forwards.

“In particular Josh Bailey, Kyle [Okposo], Blake Comeau, Frans Nielsen,” Gordon said. “Those are second-year players. Those are the guys we want to see make the biggest strides just for the fact that they are potentially going to have a big role for us.”

Through the first 42 games, Weight and Guerin, 37 and 38, respectively, lead Islanders forwards in both points and ice time per game. Streit, an All-Star defenseman, leads the Islanders in both categories.

But Weight has joined center Mike Comrie and goaltender Rick DiPietro on the list of Islanders who have lost large portions of the season to injury.

Bailey, Okposo and Nielsen have also missed significant time with injuries this season, but the team wants its blue-chippers to fill the void.

Former first-round draft picks Okposo and Bailey each have a goal and an assist this month, including the first goal of the 19-year-old Bailey’s NHL career. Comeau, a winger who started the season with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL, has two goals and four assists in his past eight games.

Nielsen, a center from Denmark, hasn’t played since Nov. 21, but has resumed skating in practice and is expected back in the Isles’ lineup soon.

Gordon said having bodies back in the lineup will give the team some continuity from one night to the next.

“The biggest change is that we’re getting guys back healthy,” he said. “If we can get those guys back healthy and try to keep some kind of consistency with our lineup, that will be huge for us.”

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