Thomas Greiss may have played his final game as an Islander this season. As a pending unrestricted free agent and all signs pointing to Ilya Sorokin being Semyon Varlamov’s backup next year, Greiss may be the odd man out. For a team with a weak goaltending history, Greiss will stand out as a bright spot, having led the team to the second round of the playoffs in 2016, and winning the William M. Jennings Trophy with Robin Lehner last season.  Let’s look back at 2019-2020 so far.

The Good:

For the first half of the season, almost nothing got by Thomas Greiss. He had an eight-game winning streak from October 14th to November 21st; however, they were not easy wins. He had a 37 save performance against the Florida Panthers where he made some incredible saves in the first and second periods to preserve the Islanders’ one-goal lead. After that game, Mat Barzal had high praise for his goaltender.
“He had Vezina numbers last year, and again this year he’s been doing the same thing,” he said.
Greiss had an equally outstanding game against the Columbus Blue Jackets where he made 34 saves, including a highlight-reel stop on the goal line denying Boone Jenner. He later made a season-high 40 saves in a win against the Rangers on January 21st.  His only “shutout” came against Columbus on November 30th, a game he split with Semyon Varlamov.
Greiss is sitting at a record of 16-9-4 with a 2.74 goals-against average and a .913% save percentage when the pause in the season kicked in.

The Bad:

While Thomas Greiss’ numbers overall look good, they are definitely weighted to one side of the season. After starting the season 9-1-0 with a .934% save percentage, Greiss went 7-8-4 after his hot stretch at the start of the year. Barry Trotz seemed to favor Varlamov during the second half of the season due to Greiss’ inconsistencies.
After November 21st, and excluding November 30th and January 13th, Greiss only had a save percentage greater than the league average, .910%, eight times.  He played in 18 games during that span.
Greiss had a terrible game against the Nashville Predators on February 13th.  He allowed three goals on eight shots before being pulled.  It seemed like every time the Islanders made a mistake, it ended up in the back of the net.  Greiss sat on the bench for two weeks until he lost again at St. Louis in overtime. He was winless in the final month of the season, and his start in St. Louis was the only time after beating the Rangers that he had over a .900 save percentage.

The Expectations:

After Thomas Greiss’ dominant season last year, where he was arguably better than Robin Lehner was for parts of the year, there were high expectations heading into this year. The defense came into the season unchanged from last year, so there was no reason to expect anything less than last season. Unfortunately, the defense had some struggles and injuries, and Greiss struggled this year.

The Moment of the Season:

Greiss had some amazing performances in the first half of the season. What stands out the most is his game against the Florida Panthers, mentioned above. His controlled movements allowed him to track the puck extremely well, and make some saves that were really impressive. He kept the Islanders in an important game and kept the point streak alive after they lost their previous game in overtime to Pittsburgh.

The Verdict:

If it was only Greiss who underperformed in the second half, his grade would be much lower, but after Adam Pelech was injured on January 2nd, the whole team started playing worse. Greiss started to fall off by December, and Varlamov had some extremely strong games that month.  Despite a strong start, the bar was set high last year.  Greiss failed to consistently meet that bar this season.

The Grade: 79/C+

Ben Baruch

Born and raised on Long Island. Isles fan since 2009. Studying journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.