EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — A four-game Pacific Northwest road trip could have gone better for the Islanders. Much better.
But it also could have come with significantly worse results in the standings.
The Islanders won just one of three games in their trip to Edmonton, Seattle, Vancouver, and Calgary — the two points coming on the final game of the swing against the Flames in a 5-4 shootout win. It ended what was a seven-game skid that saw the club tumble down the Metropolitan Division standings to seventh out of eight teams.
Picking up an overtime and shootout loser’s point in Vancouver and Seattle, the Islanders did manage to pick up four of eight points, but they were plagued by a penalty kill that has struggled mightily over its last eight games, posting a meager 55.6% success rate. It’s played a major role in the team’s inability to hold on to third-period leads, which have been available despite the recent swoon.
“You go on the road and I think we were kind of digging ourselves some holes at moments,” defenseman Ryan Pulock told amNewYork. “At the end of the day, we came home with four points. Yeah, we would’ve liked to have had more, but I think we were able to at least come back with something.”
“We kind of held on for dear life there for a bit,” center Bo Horvat added.
Despite the downturn in performance and their standing in the division after 17 games played, the Islanders find themselves just three points out of the No. 3 and 4 spots in the division — third place being the last divisional playoff spot up for grabs while fourth would get you in the Wild Card conversation.
“I think if we go through a stretch like that and we’re only three points out, that’s big for us,” Horvat said. “It’s still really early in the year… For us to climb out of it is huge for us right now. I’d rather go through that kind of stretch now than before the playoffs. We have to keep going now. We can’t fall back into win one, lose one. We have to go on a little bit of a run here.”
A Thanksgiving Eve meeting with the Philadelphia Flyers, who sit in second in the division, at UBS Arena supplies that much more incentive to get back on track — and the opportunities don’t stop there. The Islanders have three games in four nights with two home games against the Flyers sandwiching a trip on Friday to Ottawa to face the Senators.
But there isn’t much time left to waste. Thanksgiving is usually a clear marker in the NHL standings. Teams in playoff spots by the holiday usually stay there for the remainder of the season — about 75% of the time, in fact, per Sportsnet.
“You hear all the time that the standings are usually kind of set around Thanksgiving,” Horvat continued. “You hear that all the time. To know we’re definitely not in a playoff spot right now, we have to keep winning hockey games to get up there. That’s motivation for us and we can’t just be happy with where we’re at right now.”
“There has to be a little bit of desperation just to right things here and be more consistent,” Pulock added. “At the same time, it’s a long year and we can’t focus on that. Our focus is finding a way to win a game tonight and you continue to do that through the end of the year. If you’re successful at that, then you’re going to be in the playoffs.
