from Peter Botte of the New York Post,

The local football teams are disastrously down, the Knicks are still the Knicks, the Mets just hired another manager, and the Rangers and Devils are experiencing their expected rebuilding growing pains.

It certainly sounds weird for longtime observers of the Islanders to view them as one of the more stable sports franchises presently in New York, but that fully appears to be the case in their second year under GM Lou Lamoriello and head coach Barry Trotz.

Aaron Boone obviously has led the Yankees to successive 100-plus win seasons and playoff appearances in his first two years in the Bronx, but you also certainly could make the case that Trotz presently is the top coach in the local area.

After winning a Stanley Cup with Washington in 2018, he led the Islanders to only their second playoff series win since 1993 last spring. He also has them off to a rousing 9-3-0 start — including an eight-game winning streak, their longest in nearly 30 years — following Friday’s 5-2 clampdown victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Coliseum.

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