13+26=Success?

13+26=Success?

By Ryan Maher

East Meadow, NY- This morning at the Islanders team skate we saw Mathew Barzal skating alongside you guessed it, and you have been begging for it... Oliver Wahlstrom.

Islander fans have been begging, and I mean begging for Lou Lamoriello to bring in a scoring winger to play alongside #13. In usual Lamoriello fashion, he has not done so.

So, is there an option within the organization that can score goals alongside Mat Barzal?

Kyle Palmieri got the first shot at that... he is goal-less through six contests.

How about Anthony Beauvillier? He skated next to Barzal against the Devils and a bit in Tampa. He was scratched in the next game.

So, who is it going to be?

The look we got at morning skate and probably the one that makes the most sense. Oliver Wahlstrom.

This morning Oliver Wahlstrom skated alongside Mat Barzal and Josh Bailey on the club’s top line.

Wahlstrom is the clear and best shooter on this Isles roster. He leads the team in five-on-five goals and is going to be rewarded for it as it appears he will get the opportunity to play on the top line with Mathew Barzal.

Under Barry Trotz, the combination of Barzal and Wahlstrom was rarer than a UFO sighting. Trotz just refused to allow Wahlstrom to move up to the top line and score some goals with one of the league's best playmakers.

Towards the end of last season, Trotz finally gave the fans what they wanted to see, and hey look it worked!

According to analytics done at moneypuck.com, in 163.2 minutes of ice time with Barzal and Wahlstrom skating together, they scored 9.7 goals. Even though it is a small sample size of ice time from about eight games, when 13 and 26 were together, they scored at a rate of every 16.8 minutes.

Last season, Barzal averaged 14.6 minutes of five-on-five ice time a game, if Wahlstrom were to play alongside Barzal, at that rate the Barzal line would be generating just about a goal every game in five-on-five time alone.

Now add the powerplay, Barzal’s vision and Wahlstrom’s blast is a nightmare for opposing penalty killers. Wahlstrom tallied five of the Islanders 44 power play goals in just 73 minutes of extra man time. The Islanders had 335 minutes of power play time. Meaning Wahlstrom scored roughly 11% of the Islanders power play goals in just 21% of their cumulative power play time the entire season! That is absolutely remarkable.

Keep in mind, this was all least season under Barry Trotz. Now with Lane Lambert, the two will receive only more offensive freedom together. That can only help.

If the Islanders are in hopes for more offense and scoring, it sure seems to make sense to glue Oliver Wahlstrom to Mat Barzal and it looks like Lane Lambert is just about ready to do that.