ahh what a start to this season
I'll leave this open to discussion about everything
ISLANDERS! ISLANDERS! ISLANDERS! saw them play the av's saturday night, won 5-2, woot woot! 
All I can tell you about the Isles is that they will not place in 15th place like the populous says they will, and that the team who signed a 1 way forward to a 100+ million dollar deal thats struggling to even put shots on the net *cough cough* Devils *cough cough* are and will be the most overrated team for a while to come.
Islanders have way too many issues with injuries and personnel to be a significant factor. Losing Okposo and Streit for a prolonged time is going to hurt.
(Also, are you talking about 15th in Conference, or 15th in the league?, btw)
Looking at the Conference, I don't think you can say that the Isles have a realistic shot at anything over 12th-13th place. Saying anything else, 5 games into an 82 game season is dreaming. They just don't have the players. In the East, you're not going to compete, I'm sorry to say. Atlanta, Florida and Carolina are the only teams that you have a good chance of finishing over, and ALL of them have a bigger upside than the Islanders do over the length of schedule.
I will side with you on the Debbies for now. The Kovalchuk sweepstakes probably killed their hopes of returning to prominence as Marty's skill set erodes, by putting all of their eggs in Illya's bags. That, and trading away Paul Martin....
Did you see that the Devils only dressed 15 skaters the other night? The CBA states they can't do that, minimum is 18 skaters + goalies ... NHL is really trying hard to keep them in Jersey, it seems.