Complete Preview for the New York Islanders' 2014-15 Season

It was May 18, 2003, when the Philadelphia Charge faced the New York Power in a WUSA soccer match in Uniondale, New York.

The Charge emerged victorious that day, as Marinette Pichon scored twice in a 2-1 win. Charge goaltender Hope Solo made one save on that historic day during the final season of the WUSA's existence.

What does a women's soccer match have to do with the 2014-15 season of the New York Islanders?

For the first time since 2003, there is Hope on Long Island.

Absolutely terrible joke aside, there probably hasn't been this much optimism around the Islanders since the Jimmy Carter administration. General manager Garth Snow signed real-live helpful hockey players this summer, including a pair of goaltenders who may not be in that elite level with Hope Solo but are upgrades nonetheless.

Yes, the Islanders have been to the playoffs three times since that one-save performance by Solo in 2003, but those teams all leaked into the postseason and were mopped away with mostly ease by superior opponents.

This year, there's a real possibility the Islanders could win their first playoff series since 1993.

Paul Bereswill/Getty Images

What We Learned in 2013-14

You can't win with terrible goaltending. It seems like an obvious lesson anyone who has watched hockey for 45 seconds could learn, but the Islanders were like Joshua taking his sweet time figuring out that the only way to win at global thermonuclear war is not to play.

Evgeni Nabokov, Anders Nilsson and Kevin Poulin combined for an .899 save percentage in 2013-14, which is the equivalent of using a slightly worse version of Ondrej Pavelec for 82 games. To the surprise of no one, this recipe led to the Islanders missing the playoffs by 14 points.

But bad goaltending wasn't anything new to the Islanders.

Since 2003-04, the Islanders have had one goaltender post a save percentage above the league average while starting at least 40 games: Rick DiPietro had a .919 in 62 starts in 2006-07, the first year of a 15-year, $67.5 million deal that didn't work out the way the Islanders and DiPietro had hoped.

Seven years later, the Islanders have a genuine, real-life No. 1 goaltender and not the goaltender-like substance they've been pouring into the crease.

While the Islanders were the third-worst defensive club last season, they finished 16th in scoring, which isn't great but is plenty good enough to reach the playoffs when paired with respectable goaltending. It's also an encouraging finish considering John Tavares missed the final 22 games of the season with an injury suffered during the Sochi Olympics.

The Islanders were doomed with or without Tavares down the stretch, as they were already 12 points out of a playoff spot. As long as a shooter tutor was in net and Andrew MacDonald was playing 25:25 per night against top competition, the playoffs were never happening.

Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

A note of optimism: After the Islanders traded the possession quicksand that is MacDonald, they went 11-5-3 and allowed 2.63 goals per game, which is about half a goal below the season average.

There was a whole lot of negative around the Islanders last season, but they appear to be…learning.

Outlook for 2014-15

I like to picture the first day of Islanders training camp going something like this.

Jaroslav Halak and Chad Johnson arrive at the same time. They exchange pleasantries. They turn around and begin hanging up equipment, placing their skates and mask atop the locker. They laugh because they both saw Neighbors over the summer and thought the ending didn't make all that much sense. They turn around together, and there it is.

Left wing	Center	Right wing
Josh Bailey	John Tavares	Kyle Okposo
Nikolai Kulemin	Mikhail Grabovski	Ryan Strome
Michael Grabner	Frans Nielsen	Brock Nelson
Cory Conacher	Casey Cizikas	Cal Clutterbuck
Matt Martin, Anders Lee, Colin McDonald

The entire Islanders team is staring at them as if they were twin unicorns.

Kyle Okposo approaches slowly and gently pokes Halak in the shoulder. He turns back to Tavares and the team and yells, "Yes, they are real goalies!"

Halak's career save percentage is .918 and had a .921 with the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals last season; Johnson's career save percentage, primarily as a backup, is .926, and he had a .925 for the staunch Boston Bruins last season. If Halak and Johnson match their career save percentages (.919 on 8,445 shots), that's a savings of about 67 goals on the 267 the Islanders allowed in 2013-14.

Left defense	Right defense	Goaltenders
Lubomir Visnovsky	Travis Hamonic	Jaroslav Halak
Thomas Hickey	Calvin de Haan	Chad Johnson
Brian Strait	Matt Carkner
T.J. Brennan, Matt Donovan, Griffin Reinhart

If the Islanders simply bolstered the goaltending and did nothing more, they'd be legitimate playoff contenders. But they took steps to improve their forwards too.

The Islanders added Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin as free agents, giving them a top nine that can compete with anyone in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders' centers are Tavares, Kulemin and Frans Nielsen, who had 25 goals last season.

Before we plan the parade down the Hempstead Turnpike, it's not all Grabovskis and Halaks for the Islanders.

The defense corps is the question mark, although not a big one. It's a medium-sized question mark. Think of it as having a font size of somewhere between 16 and 20.

Travis Hamonic is a solid top-pairing defender, although he lacks an offensive side to his game. Calvin de Haan has potential to be a legitimate top-four defenseman, and Thomas Hickey is functional. But Lubomir Visnovsky has battled concussion issues, Brian Strait is more like Brian Crooked and seriously Matt Carkner has a contract.

The goaltending is better. The forwards are better. The defense is better through addition by subtraction.

Are all the moves good enough to propel the Islanders from 14th in the conference to a top-eight spot?

Only time will tell.

All statistics via NHL.com or Extra Skater (this was written way in advance).

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.