There is no question the Islanders are a much better team when Josh Bailey is productive. But with no goals and three assists in his previous seven games before Monday, coach Barry Trotz decided to move the lefty-shooting Bailey out of his traditional position on the right wing to the left, in hopes of finding a spark.
In the one game on the left, a 2-0 win over the Blue Jackets, Trotz liked what he saw from the veteran while he played next to Valtteri Filppula and Leo Komarov.
“One of the things I wanted to do was get [Bailey] moving his feet,” Trotz said after Wednesday’s practice, with the Canadiens coming to the Coliseum on Thursday night.
“He’s a really intelligent player, he can make plays. I just felt he was getting locked in a little bit on the right side. This gives us some flexibility on the left side. I felt that he could make a lot of plays.
“[Filppula] is a real smart player, I really felt that would sort of unlock Bails. He was sort of jammed up a little bit. Sometimes you just have to think out of the other side of your brain a little bit, and it frees you up a little bit.”
Bailey, 29, in the first year of a six-year, $30 million deal, so far has put up 14 goals and 50 points through 69 games. He had a career season last year, when he spent most of the time on the right side of the top line with Anders Lee and the since-departed John Tavares. That was more of a scorer’s role; now he has segued back into more of a playmaker.
Defenseman Johnny Boychuk has not resumed skating, according to Trotz, but he is making progress after taking a shot to the head from the Flyers’ Jakub Voracek on Saturday night.
“To me, this year he hasn’t been as much a shooter,” Trotz said. “Between him and [Filppula], they’re both intelligent players, they play a little bit of a give-and-go game. Leo is a pretty straight-line guy to head to the net. Hopefully that works for us.”
“He’s getting better,” Trotz said. “He’s more day-to-day than anything. I wouldn’t say he’s week-to-week. He’s day-to-day — but not today.”
The hit earned Voracek a two-game suspension, which was upheld by commissioner Gary Bettman on Wednesday after Voracek appealed the ruling.
It seems as if the lineup will stay the same as it was on Monday, with Michael Dal Colle, Tom Kuhnhackl, and Ross Johnston as scratches up front.
That would also mean Thomas Hickey stays in on defense after he returned on Monday from a six-game stretch as a healthy scratch, his second game back after missing 10 weeks following a concussion suffered on Dec. 17.
“I liked his game,” Trotz said. “I thought he was pretty poised, he was efficient. I thought he didn’t look rusty.”