When the Islanders have insisted that they’re still in the playoff race, it has often sounded more like a pipe dream than anything resembling reality.
Well, if they are going to prove themselves correct, this is their chance.
They are suddenly playing their best hockey of the season, having just swept a road trip of three or more games for the first time since October 2018.
Now it’s a season-high seven-game homestand coming up, with three of the first four games against teams around the Islanders in the standings, starting with Tuesday night against a Senators team they’ve already beaten twice this season in Ottawa.
The winning streak has come without much payoff in the standings so far — the Isles are still five points behind the Blue Jackets for the last wild-card spot.
For that matter, they’re still a game below NHL .500, and their last time over that mark was all the way back on Oct. 25. So nobody should be getting carried away just yet.
But the last few games haven’t been a mere run of good luck.
The Islanders are playing as good of defensive hockey as they have all season, with the Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock pair putting in vintage showings and the penalty kill — horrific all season long — going three games straight without allowing a goal for the first time since Games 2-4 of the season.
You don’t win three in a row on the road, including the Golden Knights, who have the NHL’s best record, by accident.
There are still injuries — Simon Holmstrom, Isaiah George, Hudson Fasching and crucially Semyon Varlamov — but Mat Barzal is starting to look like himself again, and just had possibly his best game of the season in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Utah.
Holmstrom, George and Varlamov (Alexander Romanov’s status is unclear after the defenseman was a late scratch on Saturday) should begin skating with the team again this week, per Lou Lamoriello.
There is something here.
And with the next two weeks at home and a relatively easy schedule — none of the next five teams the Islanders face are safely in a playoff spot — it is absolutely imperative to take advantage.
The Islanders won’t get a better chance than this.
Blow it and they may not get another chance, period. Certainly they’ve used up more than enough jokers.
No one is getting out over their skis yet, nor should they be.
Barzal was asked Saturday night if the season is beginning to turn a corner.
“Well, we can look at it that way,” he said. “But every day is a new day. We’re in such a tight race that we can’t get too high or too low. Just gotta ride this win streak and just ride this quality of play that we’re bringing every night.”
There is, however, a confidence inside the room different to what’s been there before.
The Islanders have talked a whole lot about belief, about not getting rewarded for good play and about what they think they can be.
Most nights, the only saving grace has been that the rest of the Eastern Conference has struggled so much that you can’t count the Isles out, because what if they got hot?
Seeing is much different than believing.
“We’re trying to climb out of something here and we have to take it one game at a time,” captain Anders Lee said. “We put a few together, but it’s all we can do. I think we’re playing the right way right now. We’re getting results because of it and it feels good. Let’s get back home and keep this thing going. Stay hungry and stay at it.”