DENVER — After the Islanders suffered two more injuries on Friday, with Kyle Palmieri and Cal Clutterbuck both going down and missing Saturday’s win over the Golden Knights, who knows when they’ll be fully healthy next.
Whether that is on Monday night against the Avalanche or later down the line, though, Lane Lambert will need to carefully consider his options. Hudson Fasching is forcing a decision on the Islanders coach that didn’t exist when he first drew into the lineup two weeks ago.
After another superb performance from Fasching on Saturday in Vegas, in which he scored a highlight-reel goal and played an efficient 11:58 of ice time, the question is no longer whether Fasching deserves to stay on the roster once the Islanders have their health. intact. It’s whether he should stay in the lineup every night.
“He certainly is playing well; there’s no question,” Lambert said Saturday. “He drove the net, he skated, he tracked pucks. Yeah, I think he’s making a compelling case.”
Fasching, minus the goal he created all on his own at 4:30 of the second period Saturday, is not a particularly electric presence on the ice. He plays a straight-line, workmanlike game, and he’s not about to fix the Islanders’ scoring issues on the wing. But it’s been hard not to notice his play, especially in comparison to the rest of a forward group that has far too often struggled of late to manage the puck and break it out of the defensive zone.
Fasching has checked those boxes, and his gritty, below-the-hashes offensive game has helped lead to scoring chances. If he continues to do that, he’ll soon send a top-nine player to the bench, and maybe even boot Clutterbuck off the fourth line and up to the second, where he played last Tuesday against the Bruins in order to accommodate him.
“You like to think so, of course,” Fasching told The Post, asked if he was doing enough to stay in the lineup. “I gotta make sure I’m showing up on details in the end, can’t be turning pucks over and stuff, but gonna keep trying to work as hard as I can to try to earn that spot.”
This much is true — Fasching has played just five games with the Islanders and doesn’t have an extensive NHL history to fall back on. Since making his NHL debut in 2015-16, he’s never stuck for more than 11 games in one season at this level and the Islanders don’t have the time to accommodate a learning curve if he falls back down to Earth.
Given their position in the standings, though, it would be hard to justify going away from a hot hand. And Fasching, unlike it may be, is boosting their chances with every game he plays right now.
“I just think he plays a simple game,” Matt Martin said. “He looks to make plays and he’s a big body that can bring the puck to the net, but he’s not going out there doing anything flashy, I would say. He’s just working hard and finding ways to be productive, whether we get on the scoresheet or not. When he’s been with us, we’ve had pretty effective games.”
Right now, the Islanders have no shortage of underproducing wingers. Josh Bailey has just 12 points this season and Lambert has shown no hesitation to make him a healthy scratch. Anthony Beauvillier has points in his first two games since coming back from injury, but has disappeared from games far too often this season. Oliver Wahlstrom has only one goal in his last 10 games.
Maybe Fasching will cool off, but if things keep going this way, a spot in the lineup could soon be his to lose.
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