Islanders 2009-10 Schedule Analysis

Last year, on the day when the 2008-09 schedule was released, I did a post talking about the schedule and predicting how the Islanders would fare. Honestly, it was one of the most fun blogs I did all year. Now that the 2009-10 schedule is here, let's take a look at how things shake out for the Islanders.

- October is going to be a brutal month. Thanks to the Olympic Games, the schedule is super-compressed and starts earlier than it might. And it just so happens that the Islanders are getting slammed with quality opponents in the first month of the season. Let's check out this stretch starting on October 17 - home against San Jose, home against Carolina, at Montreal, home against Washington, at Montreal, home against the Rangers, at Washington. All of this takes place in a 14-day span. So, to recap, that's seven games against 2009 playoff teams, including two cross-country trips, in two weeks. To say this is a test would be an extreme understatement.

- Unfortunately for the Islanders, the real test comes in November. With the exception of a home game on November 7 against Atlanta, the Islanders will spend 19 straight days on the road. They'll stop in Buffalo, New Jersey, Washington, Carolina, Florida, Boston, Minnesota, St. Louis and Toronto. Five playoff teams in that group and three that just missed out. Oh, and the Islanders' Thanksgiving celebration is bookended with home games against Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. And after that, the Isles head out on the road again to play the Devils, Thrashers, Lightning, Flyers, and Maple Leafs.

- The silver lining is that after the Islanders come home after their December 9 game in Toronto, they'll spend virtually the rest of 2009 at home. The Isles' ten home games between December 12 and December 29 are all played in New York. They play two games at home, face the Rangers on the 16th, play four more at home, head to the Garden again on the 26th, and then play two more at home before traveling to Ottawa for a New Year's Eve game.

- The rest of the schedule pretty much follows the pattern of bizarre, long stretches at home or on the road. After a three-game Western Conference swing in January, they get six out of seven at home - which, of course, is followed by a four-game road trip. Then, in March, they play four out of five at home and follow that by playing four in a row on the road. Thankfully, the Islanders finish out the 2009-10 season by playing five of seven at home.

- That final stretch will be key if the Isles intend to make a playoff push. The Islanders' final ten games include two against the Rangers and two against the Penguins; they also take on the Flyers and Devils once. In other words, if the Islanders will prove if they're a playoff team or if they're still a year away during this stretch.

- Five. That's the number of times the Islanders will be forced to play games on consecutive nights with less than 24 hours between start times. I'm not talking about 30-minute differences, either. Most of these are 7 PM faceoffs followed by 5 PM starts the next day. As if it wasn't bad enough that they're scheduled to be playing two full games within a 24-hour period five times, on four of these occasions, the Islanders are traveling between games. So, for example, the Islanders will play a game at the Garden against the Rangers at 7, have to travel back home, and then host a well-rested Flyers team at 5 the next day. Do other teams have to do this? I sincerely doubt it.

- I know this will come as a surprise, but the Islanders don't look to be a popular candidate for NBC games this year. Not one of their Sunday games starts earlier than 5 PM - and as we all know, NBC has better things to show at 5 PM on Sundays than hockey. The Rangers, of course, have four Sunday games starting at either 1 PM or 3 PM. As for Versus, it's interesting to note that the Islanders don't play a single Monday night game after December 21. Presumably, this is so Versus can burn through the Islanders game(s) they're required to show and save the Mondays later in the season for more TV-friendly, playoff-contending teams. The Isles do have plenty of Tuesday night games, as the schedule largely sticks to the Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday norm we've seen over the years.

- The day when the Islanders don't have to promote the Rangers on their own website is a day I'll be a happy man. As it is, though, the Islanders' main page trumpets Rangers games as the biggest attractions on the schedule after Opening Night. That's sort of depressing. The Islanders, and their fans, will never develop their own identity if they're constantly comparing themselves to the Rangers. They're fun games and it's a fun rivalry, but come on. Let John Tavares and the young talent sell this team, not three visits from the cross-town rivals.

- West Coast teams that will be visiting the Coliseum this year: Los Angeles (sadly, they probably won't be wearing their awesome third jerseys), Sharks (I'd be there if my wife wasn't due to have a baby that week), Oilers (the Islanders of the West, basically), Blue Jackets (I'm there), Red Wings (awesome), Predators (when were they last here, 2002?), Blackhawks (ooh), Blues (good young team), Flames (good test for the Islanders). The Isles will be heading to Minnesota, St. Louis, Colorado, Dallas, Phoenix, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Columbus. So, for those who care, they're double-dipping against LA, Columbus, Minnesota, and St. Louis. Not bad.

- Looking at this schedule, I still see the Islanders much the same as I did beforehand - a team that should be good for somewhere between 80 and 85 points in 2009-10. I'm leaning towards the lower side of that number now, if only because the final weeks are going to beat the crap out of this team. Having said that, a healthy Rick DiPietro can make a huge difference for the Islanders. He might even get them in position to get them into the playoffs. Who knows?

- My friend Leslie, writer of The Lefty Stick blog, just purchased season tickets and invited me to call some games. Much to my surprise, I picked mostly games against Western opponents. In fact, the only game against an Eastern opponent I picked was a December game against Boston. I used to hate games against the West and actually loved the post-lockout schedule where there were only a handful of inter-conference games a year. Now? Seeing those Western teams is going to be a huge thrill.

- As for the rest of the league... as bad as the Islanders got the shaft, the teams that are worst off are the teams opening the season in Europe. Last year, those teams got a head start and were home before the season began for everyone else. This year? Not so much. Those teams actually play after some of the teams who will be opening the season from the comfort of their own homes. So these teams not only have to deal with flights to and from Europe, they have to do so on the same compressed schedule as the rest of the league. I sure hope these teams are being well-compensated for their sacrifices.

- The Winter Classic... ugh. It's starting to get ridiculous now. As we all know, the Winter Classic is no longer a bone thrown to the fans, a special moment in a very long regular season. Instead, the Winter Classic is like the Super Bowl or interleague play in baseball - it's something for the non-hockey fans who watch one game a year and act as if they follow hockey. If the NHL really cared about what the fans wanted to see, they'd have the Bruins facing the Canadiens, not the Flyers. But this is the NHL and NBC we're dealing with, and NBC is convinced there are only six teams in the entire league - the Flyers, the Rangers, the Penguins, the Capitals, the Red Wings, and the Blackhawks. Did you know that the Bruins and Flyers have a rivalry? I sure as hell didn't. And yet, Gary Bettman hails it as "a great rivalry". Um, NO. Speaking of rivalries, for those of you who are happy that the Rangers weren't a part of this year's game and are holding out hope for an Isles-Rangers Winter Classic, it's never going to happen. Bettman would never take the chance of an ugly incident happening in the league's showcase game, and Isles-Rangers can get a little intense at times - if not on the ice, then definitely in the crowd. Next year's game will obviously be Rangers-Capitals at Yankee Stadium, because God forbid NBC showcases a team outside of their usual favorites.