Better luck next year: The New York Islanders are always the same

This season looked just like every other recent New York Islanders season. Not awful. Not great. Just kind of there.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be officially eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention: The New York Islanders.

The 2023-24 New York Islanders looked a lot like the 2022-23 New York Islanders, which looked a lot like the 2021-22 New York Islanders, which looked a lot like … well. You get the idea.

That is not any kind of an exaggeration, either. This team never changes. Never. Nothing about it.

The roster rarely changes. The style of play never changes. The strengths and weaknesses never change. The on-ice results never change.

It is never awful. It is never great. It is always just a team residing in the middle of the NHL standings that usually looks terrible, plays a dull style and somehow at the end of season has aimlessly stumbled its way to 92 points and a spot in the playoffs. It is like some sort of hockey zombie that just keeps coming back no matter how many times you punch it in the face.

Sometimes it will win a round or two in the playoffs, but the past two years it did not and this season ended up losing Carolina Hurricanes in five games, again leaving them in the middle of the league without any real direction.

Just look at their league-wide rankings over the past six seasons dating back to the start of the 2018-19 season when Lou Lamoriello took over as general manager.

Like I said … this team never changes. They are in the same range in the same categories year after year after year after year.

Let’s talk about this.