It was only the preseason, and it got better as it went. But the growing pains for Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov were evident.
The pair got five of the Islanders’ six preseason games together and played over 25 more minutes together than any other duo on the blue line — evidence that coach Lane Lambert was hoping to massage any issues out of the way — and the results were not promising. The Isles were outscored 3-1 with the pair on the ice, outshot 38-25 and gave up 10 more high-danger chances than they generated, per Natural Stat Trick.
Maybe it is a fool’s errand to pull out advanced stats in the preseason. The whole point of the preseason is to work out the kinks, so there shouldn’t be any reason to ring alarm bells unless the issues carry into games that actually count.
“It’s been a work in progress,” Lambert said after the preseason finale, in which the pair had some, but fewer, moments in which they looked to not be on the same page. “We’ve known that. We’ve given them plenty of time together in game situations. I think they’re doing a really good job of starting to mesh.”