It is no secret that the defensive side of the puck was what led to the success that the Islanders had last season. When people mention this, they generally talk about Barry Trotz’s new defensive system being able to win games, but don’t really expand from there. In this article, we will get into the “why?” Why does this system work so well in the National Hockey League, and why should this be able to lead to continued success in the future?

Importance of Defense in the NHL
Before specifically focusing on the Islanders, it is important to emphasize the importance of defense in the NHL, and this can simply be proved statistically. Obviously, scoring is extremely important, but when a team’s focus is so offensive it takes away from attention to defense, the consequences will be felt, particularly come playoff time. Here were the top 7 teams in the 2018-19 Season in terms of Goals For per Game (via Fox Sports).

1. Tampa Bay- 3.9
2. Calgary- 3.5
3. Toronto- 3.5
4. San Jose- 3.5
5. Pittsburgh- 3.3
6. Winnipeg- 3.3
7. Washington- 3.3

Only one of seven of these teams made it out of the first round. On the other side of the coin, if you look at the LEAST goals given up per game in the 2018-19 season, a pattern develops (via Fox Sports).

1. New York Islanders- 2.21
2. Dallas- 2.23
3. Boston- 2.43
4. Nashville- 2.49
5. St. Louis- 2.55
6. Carolina- 2.55
7. Arizona- 2.55

Five of these squads made it out of the first round, and St. Louis went on to win the Stanley Cup. The old phrase “defense wins championships” is true, and with the Islanders defensive composure, they should stay competitive for that very reason.

The Islanders’ Young Defensive Core
As for the Islanders, their defensive core is primarily very young. They also have many valuable and potentially elite young defensive prospects, most notably in Noah Dobson and Bode Wilde. This is great for the Islanders. These young defensemen, including Devon Toews, Adam Pelech, Scott Mayfield and Ryan Pulock, have shown incredible stability in their own end. However, this blossoming hasn’t been seen until Trotz was hired. Here is a look at a few defenseman’s +/- Rating in the 2017-18 season when Doug Weight was the head coach and 2018-19 when Trotz was hired (stats via NHL.com).

• Ryan Pulock: Improved from -4 to +21
• Nick Leddy: Improved from -42 to 0
• Adam Pelech: Improved from +7 to +22
• Scott Mayfield: Improved from -6 to +18
• Johnny Boychuk: Improved from -8 to +10

These are obviously drastic improvements, but it didn’t just magically happen. The coaching staff emphasizes specific defensive tactics to get this result, which will be expanded upon in this article.

The Specifics of Trotz’s Defensive System
It isn’t a solid enough analysis to say that the Islanders defense has played solidly because they have Trotz as a coach. The specifics of the system and the way it runs need to be understood in order to grasp why the Islanders’ defense is so solid, which is what will be explained in detail in this section.

1. Defense First: This concept is pretty simple, that defense is the number one priority on this team. The defense should never crumble or break down, as maintaining defensive composure and stability consistently is the most important piece to the puzzle.
2. Tough Angle Shots: One thing the Islanders’ defense is stellar at is not allowing many opportunities from the slot. This is a relatively basic idea, but it is crucial to maintaining that defensive composure. The defensemen on the Islanders do an exemplary job of driving players to the wall, and outside of high percentage scoring areas. This forces the opposition to try to take a low quality shot on net, which the netminder should be able to keep aside.
3. Conservative Playing Style: The Islanders’ defensemen don’t like to take many risks. The defensemen very rarely pinch in the offensive zone, with the exception of an occasional famous Pelech pinch. “Playing it safe” is a good thing in terms of defense. Why would you want to potentially give up a goal when you don’t have to?
4. Man-on-Man Coverage: This applies particularly to the defensive zone. The Islanders’ defensemen do not lose the man they are covering often, and this elementary concept doesn’t allow the opposition to create time or space for themselves, therefore leading to a smaller amount of quality chances against.
5. Defensive-Minded Forwards: This is a big one. Having a solid defensive core is great, but if the forwards don’t have any defensive awareness, that leaves only two defensively competent players in the zone. If this were the case, the defensemen would be heavily outnumbered, making it a much tougher task to keep pucks out of the net.

This last season, the forwards had a much more defensive mojo. This took a significant amount of time to adjust to, and decreased offensive production a bit as a result. However, the offensive play improved greatly by the second half of the season, as the players (particularly forwards) had successfully adjusted to the system.

Takeaway
In essence, the Islanders have a very young and talented group of defensemen that can only grow from here. They have a defensive-minded bench boss running the operation. As previously mentioned, defense is what wins championships. The Islanders have the right defensive core to do it, and it is hard to see it going backwards from here. With the use of simple, fundamental defensive concepts and natural skill, it is pretty hard to argue that the Islanders do not have the best defense in the National Hockey League.