Isles Cap off a win

What does it say about the Islanders that amid so many distractions, they are playing their best hockey?

In what might have been the most impressive victory this season, the Islanders beat the first-place Capitals, 3-2, on Tuesday night at Barclays Center. With news their future at their second-year home in Brooklyn is becoming more tenuous, and with head coach Jack Capuano having been fired on Jan. 10, the Islanders are now 7-1-1 in their past nine games and are back in the playoff picture.

“We’re digging ourselves out,” interim head coach Doug Weight said following the team’s first game after the All-Star break. “We said [we were] entering relevance a week or 10 days ago, and I think we’re in the conversation now. We have a long way to go, but the guys believe.”

The Islanders (22-17-9) are now three points out of the second wild-card spot, with three teams to leapfrog. But it was a big confidence boost beating the Capitals (3311-6), who were 13-1-1 in their previous 15 games.

“We’ll look at the standings tomorrow,” Weight said, “but we’re going to keep the same focus and move forward.”

This was the kind of game the Islanders had lost so often over the first half of the season. They went into the third period tied, 1-1, after trading goals from Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alan Quine. But Ryan Strome got the go-ahead goal at 6:31 of the third to make it 2-1, Johnny Boychuk added an empty-netter with 1:08 to play, then Alex Ovehckin scored his 24th of the season with 47 seconds to play just to make it interesting.

Goalie Thomas Greiss finished by making 15 of his 28 saves in the third period and putting the game away.

Asked why it might be the biggest win of the season, Weight smiled.

“Well, hopefully we’re saying that a lot in the near future,” he said.