The Islanders screamed and cheered at the start of Monday’s practice, giving a mock ovation as the two goaltenders and a small group of players joined the rest of the team on the ice at the Northwell Health Ice Centre.
Ilya Sorokin raised his glove in greeting.
The whole list gave blows.
This is a team coming towards the end of a trying season.
The Islanders went through a coaching change in January.
They lost more than they gained.
And they lost a disproportionate number of dramatic, emotional games in the final minutes.
This has a certain weight.
Finally feeling good about themselves, on the heels of a four-game winning streak that put them two points ahead for third place in the Metropolitan Division Monday morning with five games left in the season, is pretty good. .
“I think that’s what it’s like when you win,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau told the Post. “We put ourselves in a good position, a good opportunity to continue to climb the standings and maintain our playoff spot. … Keep winning games, keep playing the same way, keep playing a full 60 minutes. I think that’s our mindset, it’s worked well lately. So obviously, the mood is pretty good at the moment.
At the same time, the islanders are anything but safe.
A loss to the Rangers on Tuesday in the first of two Battles of New York this week, which will have gigantic implications for both sides, would be just as bad as four wins.
Before the Penguins faced Toronto on Monday night, the Islanders led the five-player field that also includes Pittsburgh, Detroit, Washington and Philadelphia with 85 points.
However, no one has had fewer than 83, and the Islanders’ 26 regulation wins are the fewest of the five.
The Rangers, meanwhile, are fighting for their first Presidents’ Trophy since 2015 and first place overall, with a three-point lead over the Bruins and both teams with four games remaining.
It’s not just a matter of pride, but avoiding the Lightning in the first round in a rematch of the 2022 conference finals that Tampa Bay won in six games.
The Blueshirts won the first two games between these teams, first in a close 6-5 overtime game at MetLife that the Islanders led 4-1 before collapsing in the third period, then in a 5-2 much less memorable. victory at the Garden in which the Islanders never looked competitive.
“I thought in the game we lost in overtime, we were moving faster,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “We moved the puck faster, we played faster, we were up north. Compared to the last game where we had a few turnovers. … If we want to be successful against these guys, we have to move the puck well. We need to move the puck north and keep our game very simple. »
Nothing in this winning streak suggests domination by the Islanders.
They cut down on mistakes, defended hard, put in consistent effort and got immense goaltending from Semyon Varlamov, who will be in net Tuesday night after a 41-save shutout against Nashville.
The joke following the 2-0 win over the Predators was that the Islanders played hockey with Barry Trotz in the third to cut into the lead, but it’s hard to imagine Trotz being happy to allow 20 shots and eight high-danger opportunities over a period of time. this was spent almost exclusively in the defensive zone.
However, the situation has escalated a notch.
The same goes for vibrations.
“The energy is better and the confidence is better,” Matt Martin told the Post. “It also allows us to play better hockey. You try to exploit it and hang on to it as long as you can, obviously.
Long enough, the Islanders hope, to see an X next to their name in the standings.
New York Post
