The central theme of the 2026-27 Islanders, or at least the very early stage of the season, is how close they are on any given night to Pete DeBoer’s vision of what they can be.
We know what DeBoer’s teams look like when they are rolling. He wants the Islanders to keep teams out of the middle in the defensive zone, the defensemen to get involved in the rush and for the offense to sustain purposeful possession. He wants the power play to be interchangeable, and for the Islanders to play with speed.
We know, too, that this is a process with a proven record. DeBoer-coached teams have made the conference finals more often than they’ve missed the playoffs over the past decade.
And at least for some spurts and moments Wednesday night — the first seven minutes, the last 10 and occasional shifts in between — the Islanders started to look like what DeBoer envisions. On the night, they either narrowly won or narrowly lost the expected goals, depending on your preferred advanced stats website, and DeBoer will use the numbers as a barometer for how his team is adapting.
