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PHILADELPHIA — This is not the Tony DeAngelo Revenge Tour.
It is not about proving something to the teams that cast him off or those that did not sign him over the summer.
It is about the here and now: helping get the Islanders into the playoffs and making good on their decision to bring him back to the NHL.
“I think just me being back proves it enough,” DeAngelo said Thursday morning before the Islanders faced the Flyers in his first game back in his home city since being signed last weekend. “It is what it is. I’m just looking to take advantage of this opportunity, help this team get where it needs to go.”
It took mere seconds into his debut with the Islanders for the importance of having DeAngelo on the right side of the blue line to become all the more important, when Ryan Pulock went down and later joined Noah Dobson on injured reserve.
He’s picked up a heavy dose of minutes on the top pair and does not look to have missed a beat while playing for SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL.
The 29-year-old who twice reached the 50-point mark can still move the puck at an elite level, filling a hole that was evident even when the Islanders were completely healthy.
There has not been an obvious adjustment period, thanks in part to the Islanders employing a similar system to what DeAngelo played in Carolina last season.
“Everybody has little tweaks,” DeAngelo said. “My feeling is a lot of teams in the league are starting to play similar. That’s the way to win, basically. So the way we’re playing in this league is easy for me to pick up. You gotta use your skating in this league, you gotta be tight on guys. I think we got a good five-man unit which has been good so far. Guys are always in the right spots. If we do get in trouble, we have guys there to help. That’s a big plus for a defenseman.”
Lou Lamoriello’s move to bring in DeAngelo was met with mockery on social media and cast as something desperate.
But if not for the history that appeared to be the biggest reason DeAngelo ended up in Russia to begin with, you would wonder how the NHL ever let him go to begin with.
“How calm he is with the puck, he’s capable of escaping by himself a lot. He moves it really well,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “Our structure’s pretty close, defensively, to what they do in Carolina. I was pretty confident that he’d adjust pretty easily to it. The way that he’s been escaping, the way he’s been moving that puck, the poise and how calm he is. And I feel like he’s a really good partner for [Alexander Romanov] right now. They’re both playing really well.”
It might have been a risk to take DeAngelo on. But a one-year deal on a prorated league minimum is not going to be a drag on the cap sheet forever.
From the team’s perspective, there was not all that much to lose here.
If the Islanders were taking a risk, then surely DeAngelo himself was taking a bigger one, pushing in a whole lot of chips with a team willing to give him a shot.
As a matter of skill and talent, it is plainly obvious that he is an NHL player.
And as a matter of first impressions, he is making a good one on the Islanders.
It was put to DeAngelo Thursday that a few days prior, Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour had expressed surprise that nobody had signed the defenseman over the summer.
“I had a good relationship with him. Really good relationship,” DeAngelo said. “He’s a good guy, great coach.
“Nice words. But this is the team that signed me, so this is the one I’m worried about.”
