Long story short, forgetting the record, we have not seen the NYI of 2018-19 other NHL franchises were outworked by, sometimes handily to the point everyone was astonished how easy some games were.
It's a simple question, but how many games win or lose does Washington, Carolina, Florida, Boston not show up, and work hard? Very few if any. That's not happening with 2019-20 New York Islanders, and it's where they need to be to win head to head, or an 82 game race for playoff spots vs those franchises.
Expect a lot of teams to break their slumps (Toronto will blame everything on Babcock) with Tampa, and others will go on big winning streaks. There is no hiding the lack of offense from Lee, Eberle, Dal Colle, and a few others, the players sitting are not the offensive answer in 2019-20.
The days of sitting home at Northwell for days is also over, they have to start, traveling/playing 3/4-4/6, and not lose in regulation. Both goalies have to continue their mostly strong play.
