5 Reasons the New York Islanders Will Make the Playoffs This Season

As an Islanders fan, after seeing the team miss the playoffs for a few years in a row, I believe this will be the year the New York Islanders paint themselves back into the playoff picture.

The Islanders are a young team—one of the youngest ones in the league—but they're also one of the teams with the most heart.

This year, they won't come up short, and I have five solid reasons why.

1. The Skill of the Young Players

As I mentioned, the Islanders are a young team built on both homegrown prospects and those acquired from other teams.

The Islanders are a team that let everyone have a chance, which led to the blossoming of three of their best players, Michael Grabner, PA Parenteau and Matt Moulson. All three were young players from other teams who the Islanders picked up to give a chance. They became stars for the Islanders.

Obviously, there's the homegrown group of skilled players like John Tavares, Blake Comeau, Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey.

All of these players have the potential to score over 20 goals, some even may be able to reach the 30-goal mark.

When you have about seven or so players that can reach 20 goals, that's pretty impressive. Not to mention the fact that all of them are still improving.

The young, talented offense will put many pucks in the net for the Islanders this year.

2. They Will Have a Healthy Mark Streit

Last season the Islanders were without world-class defenseman Mark Streit for the entire season.

Having Streit for his offense, defense and leadership on the blue line would've been a huge for the Islanders.

However, barring any injuries, Streit will be healthy this season and will help the Islanders greatly.

His production will help the team become much better.

3. Veteran Leadership

One of the things the Islanders have been lacking the past few seasons was veteran leadership.

Last season, the team lost their captain Doug Weight as well as Mark Streit, two of their very few veterans.

Even though Weight retired, Streit is healthy now.

Garth Snow also made a few deals in the offseason to bring some veterans to the Isles.

The Isles acquired Brian Rolston and Marty Reasoner, two solid veterans. The duo will surely be able to help a lot of the young players on the team.

Having some veterans for confidence, and stability is huge for any hockey team and is one of the reasons the Isles have been falling short recently.

Now that the problem is solved the Islanders will be a stronger team.

4. Stability in Net

Last season was a roller-coaster ride for the Islanders as far as the goaltending situation was concerned. Oft-injured Rick DiPietro had some more injuries last season, so the Islanders had to rely on young guys like Kevin Poulin, Nathan Lawson and Mikko Koskinen.

Along with those three, the Isles brought back a goalie that hadn't played in the NHL for a while after being released by the Rangers, Al Montoya.

In DiPietro's absence, Montoya and Poulin proved to be the strongest netminders.

Through all this was the Evgeni Nabokov saga. After being claimed off waivers by the Islanders, Nabokov refused to report to the team.

He recently cleared the air, saying he didn't report because the Islanders were out of the playoff picture, and he had to get ready, since he hadn't skated in a while. He said by the time it'd take him to get ready, the Isles would be well out of the postseason. He said if it were the Red Wings, they'd be in the postseason for him to help out even after getting ready.

Nabokov agreed to report to the Islanders this season. It's still unclear whether Snow plans to trade him or use him but Nabokov will attend training camp for the Isles.

The frontrunners for the position will be DiPietro, Poulin, Montoya and Nabokov. So there are four solid goaltenders to help the Isles this season.

Goaltending shouldn't be an issue next season, something that has hampered them the past few years.

5. Positive Atmosphere and Willingness to Win

I always read articles on how close the Islanders are as a team. Chemistry is one of the very important things to a team's success, something that is often overlooked.

The Islanders have fantastic chemistry. They always support each other, and are as close as glue.

Being a young team, they're all friends and I don't think there's one enigma in the locker room. Chemistry on a team always helps the team become better.

The Islanders have a huge willingness to win. They know they have many people who believe they can't make the playoffs. They're hungry to quiet their naysayers and are determined to win.

Heart is one of the key ingredients to success and the Islanders have one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen in sports.

Conclusion

The Islanders have finally solved all the pieces of the puzzle.

They found more than enough stability between the pipes.

They now have veterans to help lead the team.

They have young talent and skill to spare.

They have one of the biggest wills to win, and have a huge desire for success.

With all their problems finally solved, the Islanders will be sure to make a great run at the playoffs.