It was a back and forth game full of hitting and scrappiness, but the Isles managed to walk away with two points against the league-leading Washington Capitals on the last day of the decade with the help from a Tom Kuhnhackl goal. Although December was far from a solid month for the Islanders, they are now able to look back on what went wrong and walk away on a positive note.
With back to back road wins against the Wild and the Capitals, both of whom are notably strong in their home buildings, it appears as if the Islanders are starting to find their way out of the funk that saw them go 1-3-1 over a five-game span while allowing 24 goals over those same five games. One of the biggest issues during the Isles slow start to December was a lack of scoring from the bottom-six forwards. Over the last two games, that has changed.
Kuhnhackl started the season with zero points in his first nine games. He has three points (2G, 1A) over his last three games.\

Leo Komarov had zero goals and four assists through his first 17 games of the year. He now has assists in back to back games.
Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas have also joined the scoring party, as Martin had a goal in Minnesota and Cizikas notched two in Washington.
Trotz’s plea for secondary scoring has seemed to work, as the Isles are heading into the new year getting more production out of guys like Martin, Komarov, and Kuhnhackl, which will be vital to their success the rest of the way. Obviously, it would be nice for Lou Lamoriello to go out and acquire some scoring help, but right now the Isles have to work with what they have, and that means that they need all four lines to contribute to the score sheet.
Who knows? Maybe Tom Kuhnhackl is the savior the Islanders top-six needed all along.