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About 10 days ago, the New York Islanders’ playoff chances looked pretty bleak.
They were coming off a single win in a stretch of six games, and seemed to be falling into the same issues as they were before Patrick Roy took over. So entering a crucial stretch with three straight games lined up against current playoff teams last week, the Islanders' chances of coming out of the stretch in an improved position in the East seemed unlikely at best. However, against the odds, New York managed to put together a surprise 3-0-0 streak, to start climbing back into the playoff race.
First was a tough overtime road win over Dallas, which featured the new-look line combinations, where Patrick Roy used Brock Nelson on the wing to form a more dangerous top unit.
Then came the win over Detroit, in which the Islanders got off to a great start and pulled ahead by two through 20 minutes, but ended up giving up the lead by the very beginning of the third period. But after trading goals from there, New York managed to re-take the lead off a Mathew Barzal goal, refusing to let yet another blown lead result in lost points, and hung on to take a 5-3 win on the road.
Then upon returning home to face the Boston Bruins, the Islanders were led by a first period hat trick from Kyle Palmieri, getting off to another good start to pull ahead with a huge lead through 20 minutes. After a dominant first 40 minutes, the Islanders cruised to a convincing 5-1 victory.
It’s not just that the Islanders managed to earn three straight wins, but it’s a matter of their quality of competition as well, and the way they earned those wins. Especially in the victories over Detroit and Boston, the Islanders were the clear better team for a good chunk of the game against strong opponents.
Then in last night’s game against St. Louis, New York put together a great first period - but when they couldn’t manage to open the scoring, the Blues were able to capitalize off a couple of mistakes early in the second period, and put the Islanders in a 2-0 deficit.
However, New York showed resilience to battle back in the same frame, first off a great effort by Kyle Palmieri to cut the lead in half, before Jean-Gabriel Pageau managed to tie the game back up, and New York entered the intermission carrying all the momentum through 40 minutes.
Bo Horvat then gave New York their first lead of the game from there, and after outshooting the Blues 32-21 overall, Mathew Barzal buried an empty netter, and the Islanders held on for yet another huge win.
Not only are the Islanders getting results, but they’re putting forth more consistent game-to-game efforts. Even last night, despite falling behind in the second period, the Islanders arguably deserved to be in a better position at that point in the game. Notably though, Roy’s decision to mix up the lines has given the Islanders a bit of a spark, with the team looking more dangerous offensively.
Moving Brock Nelson up to the top line on the wing, the biggest concern was that New York could lack secondary scoring and become a bit of a one-line team as a result. However, that hasn’t been the case to this point, with Kyle Palmieri and the new-look second line exploding over the last two games, to provide most of the Islanders’ scoring. Even down the lineup, Casey Cizikas is fully capable of centering the third line, given he was always more talented than the majority of fourth-line centers around the league, and Kyle MacLean has filled into Cizikas’ role nicely.
Over the four wins, the Islanders have scored 17 goals, so it’s tough to deny the success of the line changes.
Now, losing Scott Mayfield potentially for the rest of the regular season is a blow and the Islanders' inability to stay healthy on the back end remains a major concern. But if they can keep their top-four group in the lineup, they'll still be in a good position on the blue line.
Looking ahead, the Islanders have a real opportunity to capitalize. Of their next five games, four of them will come against teams currently not in a playoff spot.
New York currently finds themselves in a mix with a couple other teams currently on the outside looking in, standing just ahead of the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins in points percentage. But with the Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning each only four points ahead of the Islanders, and New York holding two games in hand on both teams, the Islanders have a real opportunity.
Typically, it may be a little more difficult to be optimistic, but they managed to sweep a very difficult stretch, and are facing a really favourable road over their next five games. One of the Islanders’ largest issues has been consistency, but if they can finally manage to build a bit of game-to-game momentum off the back of a few strong performances, New York has a good shot.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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