Islanders News: Well, it was nice to care for a couple of days

It was still a bit of a long shot heading into last night’s game, but we’re back into “farfetched dream” territory.

It was fun for a little while there, wasn’t it?

The New York Islanders finally notched a three-game winning streak halfway through the season, which on its face would tell you, “Oh, this team must be way out of it!” Given how bad the bottom half of the Eastern Conference has been, that wasn’t necessarily the case heading into last night’s game, a big test to see whether we could actually start taking a playoff run seriously. It was a game against the Ottawa Senators, one of the teams the Islanders will need to chase down if they want to make the playoffs, who had an AHL goalie in between the pipes. Coming off three big road wins, the hope was that they would come home guns-a-blazing.

So naturally, the Isles laid an egg and allowed the Sens’ AHL goalie to get a shutout. In so doing, the Islanders gave their own AHL goalie, who played great against the only other NHL organization he had ever known, no run support.

The Islanders now sit at 17-19-7 (so 17-26), second-last in this miserable conference and seven points out of a playoff spot. I’m not sure how anyone could take a playoff run seriously at this point unless they sweep the rest of this homestand—an unlikely scenario when considering how bad they have been at UBS Arena this season.

Also, we’ve got six more games on this homestand: Don’t do the wave, especially when your team is losing.

Islanders News

Recaps from yet another deflating dud: LHH | Islanders | Newsday | Post | THN | Skinny

• Pre-game story: Lou Lamoriello’s vote of confidence gave the Islanders a boost—for just two games, evidently. [Newsday]
• Somewhat related to the last story, Patrick Roy was concerned with the team’s “hunger” and “intensity,” or lack thereof, given the stakes of last night’s game. Yeah, some guys look totally checked out. [THN]
• J-G Pageau was sick and had to miss the game against his former team, so Marc Gatcomb was emergency recalled and made his NHL debut. He looked pretty good for his role. [Isles | Post]
• Yesterday in Islanders history: Denis Potvin became the first defenseman to hit 300 goals (1988); Evgeni Nabokov notched his 300th win (2012); the Islanders opened the weird 2021 COVID season with a shutout over the Rangers.
• Scott Wheeler bumped the Islanders up to 25th in his annual midseason prospect ranking. Hooray. [The Athletic]
• If I were writing about another team in, say, last year’s playoff race, I’d say a team in the Islanders’ position was dead in the water. Different race this year, but, yeah.

Elsewhere

Last night’s NHL scores include the Blue Jackets winning their fifth straight game against the Isles’ next opponent, the Flyers, and the Rangers letting the Avs tie the game with just over a minute left and then losing to Colorado in overtime.

• Other games include the Sharks snapping the Red Wings’ seven-game win streak. [Sportsnet]
• Colorado coach Jared Bednar said their win was “unimpressive.” [Sportsnet]
• The Lightning scratched Brayden Point in their loss to the Bruins for missing a team meeting. [Sportsnet]
• Evgeni Malkin’s home was burglarized, and his three Cup rings are missing. [Sportsnet]
• Seth Jones made an egregious turnover that led to a shorthanded goal against in the Blackhawks’ loss to the Flames. He says he has to “find a way to be better.” How much time is left on that big contract again? [NHL]