SEATTLE — Since junior hockey, Anthony Duclair had never changed anything about his stick. That flex, that curvature — it worked for him, so why touch it?
Except, when the calendar turned to the new year, it was no longer working the same way. Duclair had scored only once in his past 26 games, just four times in the season’s first 39 games and was made a healthy scratch in the Islanders’ first two games of 2026.
This season wasn’t as overtly miserable as last year’s for Duclair — he was healthy, and his relationship with Patrick Roy appeared fine — but he was languishing in the bottom six, showing little sign of recovering his scoring touch.
“At some point, I was tired. I was like, ‘I need to change something,’ ” Duclair said after the Islanders beat the Canucks 4-3 on Monday night. “I just grabbed [Casey Cizikas’] stick after practice.”
And?
“My shot was just unbelievable.
“I was like, ‘Screw it. I’m gonna use it.”
The next game, Duclair scored on his first shot of the night. Then he scored two more times, and assisted two more goals for a five-point performance against the Devils. It was the first five-point hat trick for an Islander in five years, and the best scoring output in a game of Duclair’s career.
So, yeah. He told equipment manager Jason Berger to order him a shipment of sticks to Cizikas’ specifications.
“Totally different model, curve, everything,” Duclair said. “I put my stick in the garbage. I’m using Cizikas’ now.”
Call it a coincidence, call it a placebo, call it whatever you want. But it is working.
In seven games with the new twig, Duclair has seven goals, including two Monday night in Vancouver that served to wake up the Islanders amid a woeful start to the game.
“I feel like he’s shooting with a lot of confidence,” coach Patrick Roy said. “For some reason, he’s positioning [himself] well. He scored two on this trip in the power play in the pocket. I thought that was a really nice shot from the side. Great feed by our guys, he took advantage of it. He deserves credit for that.”
Seven goals, by the way, is as many as he had all of last season.
The Islanders have been challenged for scoring throughout this seven-game trip which ends Wednesday night against the Kraken.
They’re missing Bo Horvat, their leading scorer, and Kyle Palmieri, who potted 24 goals a year ago, and the cracks have started to show.
Even with Horvat set to return from a lower-body injury before the Olympic break (Palmieri is done for the season with an ACL tear), scoring is a need Mathieu Darche may need to address before the trade deadline.
If Duclair can keep up this output and be the top-line player the Islanders thought they were getting a year ago, though, it might change that equation, or at least lessen the urgency a smidge.
His chemistry with Mat Barzal, long dormant since the Islanders spent the 2024 preseason with the two of them together on the top line, has reignited. He’s clicked with Cal Ritchie too, with the pair combining for two power-play goals on this trip, both in similar fashion (and, yes, if Duclair can help spark the power play, that too would be a game-changer for the Islanders).
For now, it’s still too small a sample size to avoid some caution, though Duclair has certainly earned a lasting stay in the top six even when Horvat comes back and pushes someone out.
If it really was as easy as changing up his stick, though, then maybe the Islanders have just solved one of their problems.
