Is that this going to matter?
That’s the massive query proper now for the Islanders, who’re doubling down on this season on twin tracks — discovering their recreation on ice whereas the entrance workplace continues to ship indicators that it’s not going to lie down, play useless and unload elements.
This was the message on a Friday evening when the Islanders received a 3rd straight recreation to make it six of eight, beating the Flyers, 3-1, at UBS Enviornment mere hours after the staff introduced in Tony DeAngelo as its Noah Dobson substitute, Dobson having suffered what seemed like a critical right-leg damage Monday evening.
Relying the place you sit, the transfer learn someplace between desperation and pragmatism, however what it mentioned loud and clear was that Lou Lamoriello’s place has not modified from earlier this month — he’s not but fascinated by promoting.
The Islanders, at 20-20-7, are again at NHL .500 for the primary time since Dec. 12, with an opportunity to recover from the mark for the primary time since Nov. 14 once they face the Hurricanes on Saturday.
For the primary time all season, they’re taking part in like a staff with an identification, sustaining their stage from recreation to recreation and dealing by means of adversity on the fly.
There’s actual momentum right here.
Gamers and administration are aligned in desirous to defy the narrative.
“I think we’re playing to our identity,” Bo Horvat mentioned. “I think we’re playing to our strengths. And that’s simple: We’re forechecking well, we’re playing well structurally defensively, we’re doing a lot of little things like that, which is helping us, for sure.”
The rub is within the standings.
Even after profitable a four-point recreation towards the Flyers on Friday, the Islanders nonetheless sat fifteenth within the Japanese Convention, needing to cross seven groups and make up six factors on the Blue Jackets — who maintain the final wild-card spot — to be above the cutline.
For now, this nonetheless is a low-stakes recreation, with the pot inching larger and better till the March 7 commerce deadline.
Apart from risking damage to a tradable asset or a DeAngelo-induced public relations fallout, there may be not a lot to be misplaced by letting issues play out for a few extra weeks.
At the least on Friday, the Islanders didn’t appear like a staff that was going to let the season go simply.
In a low-event match by which the tone was set early after Alexander Romanov ran over Cam York within the defensive zone, the Islanders had been the staff setting phrases and the staff in management.
“He plays physical all the time. That’s his game,” Ryan Pulock mentioned after No. 28 completed with six hits, 5 blocked photographs and an help over 23:22 of ice. “When there’s a body to be played, he plays it. So I think, obviously, it set the tone tonight. Just a great game from him.”
There was a whole lot of bumping and never a lot free ice on this affair, which in basic trend featured the Flyers instigating scrums at each alternative after each coaches mentioned pregame there can be no carryover from final Thursday’s match, when Max Tsyplakov injured Ryan Poehling.
The Islanders, after taking place 1-0 on Tyson Foerster’s opener, began clicking — seemingly realizing that for all of the physicality on this one, there can be rush probabilities on supply.
Throughout the primary and second intervals, the Isles proceeded to attain the subsequent three targets, with Anthony Duclair and Bo Horvat doing so 55 seconds aside late within the first earlier than Brock Nelson added one at 13:56 of the third — all on fast breakouts resulting in odd-man rushes.
In the meantime, the protection — in its first recreation minus Dobson — clamped down, with coach Patrick Roy rotating his pairs to assist shelter Isaiah George and Dennis Cholowski in compensation for Dobson’s absence.
“I thought they were outstanding,” Roy mentioned. “Gave up more shots in the third, but it’s normal. They had, what, 14 after two periods?”
And whereas the Islanders have been something however good over the previous two months, one factor they do have a 100% success fee at for the reason that begin of December is closing out video games with a third-period lead.
That also leaves the query: Is any of this going to matter?
Provided that the Islanders — who can be joined by DeAngelo on Saturday if the defenseman clears waivers, a mandatory step as a result of he’s coming from SKA St. Petersburg within the KHL — could make it matter.
They’ve made a step towards doing so.
However there’s an extended, lengthy option to go.
