Islanders Blue Line Turning on Red Lights

Scott Mayfield flipped the script on Saturday night.
The Islanders defenseman is usually the one clearing players out from in front of the net, but in the Isles 7-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks, Mayfield was the one doing the digging in the crease, jamming in the game's opening goal. While the opponent's crease isn't Mayfield's natural habitat, his aggressiveness in joining the rush was indicative of the Islanders new push to have defensemen involved in the offense.

Through two games, the defense has been heavily involved in the offense. Islanders defensemen have scored six of the team's eight goals to start the year, with two each coming from Noah Dobson, Robin Salo and Mayfield.
To put it in perspective, the Islanders didn't have six goals from their blue line until the 27th game of the 2021-22 season. The Islanders haven't gotten five goals from defensemen in a game since Jan. 12, 1993.
"It's important in this league nowadays to get your d-men involved," Ryan Pulock said. "I think we've done a pretty good job of, when we have those opportunities, getting up in the rush, helping out that way, and getting pucks through from the blue line, having a shooting mentality, and always being ready to shoot when that puck comes."

Aggressiveness is a focus of Head Coach Lane Lambert's system, and that aggressiveness showed in the defense's shot attempts.
Against the Ducks, Pulock attempted seven shots, Salo and Mayfield each attempted eight, while Dobson attempted six. Against the Florida Panthers in the opener, Dobson attempted 11 shots. Across the two games, 27 total shots on goal have come from the back end.
"If there's guys at the net, we're always going to get shots through," Salo said. "We have such good guys here at screening the goalie and tipping the puck, it's always dangerous if you get shots through. I know guys are going to be there, they're going to the net, so you just have to trust that. They're good screeners, so it definitely helps us to get the puck to the net."
The defense has also been active on the rush in the first games of the season. Lambert said after the opening game against the Panthers that he wanted the team to transition the puck faster north to south, instead of going from defender to defender before moving it up ice.
Against the Ducks, Lambert said he was happy with the improvements made in that area.

"We saw a little bit more of it coming into play," Lambert said. "We moved up a little quicker and we were together as a group, and as a result, it led to more transition."
Mayfield's second goal was also indicative of this approach. The rangy defenseman broke up a cross-ice pass from Max Comtois before sending the puck up the boards to Zach Parise and eventually Mathew Barzal. After a good defensive play, Mayfield joined the rush, finishing off a pass from Barzal and the sequence he started.
"You can strip pucks, have good gaps and turn pucks over and then you can generate offense," Barzal said. "We've got long D: Pelech,Pulock, Mayfield, Dobson, guys that can just get their sticks on a lot of pucks and break up plays, so it'll help our transition game."
While Pulock didn't score in Saturday's seven-goal outburst, he too got involved in the offense, setting up an open Anthony Beauvillier with a nifty feed to make it 5-0. Pulock's seven shots on net are tied with Barzal for second on the team, trailing Dobson by one.

Dobson scored 51 points for the Islanders last season and was expected to quarterback the top power play unit and make a big offensive contribution this season.
But Salo, who played just 21 games last year, Pulock and Mayfield, have all been contributing offensively on the scoresheet as well.
"We've made little tweaks here and there, just more aggressive up the ice," Dobson said. "We changed the way we played a little offensively, but I think there's also different guys that have different talents that are here this year as well. It's been good so far, but we just want to continue to build our game and get better each night."