Plenty at stake for Isles in N.Y. battle
In no particular order, the stakes of Saturday afternoon’s Battle of New York for the Islanders include, but are not limited to:
1. Clinching a playoff spot, if the Islanders win and the Capitals (against Tampa) and Red Wings (in Toronto) both lose.
2. Defending the honor of Adam Pelech and Noah Dobson after Rangers coach Peter Laviolette accused both of “vicious” hits during a 4-2 Islanders win over the Blueshirts on Tuesday.
3. Learning the status of Dobson after the young star left Thursday’s victory over Montreal in the first period with an upper-body injury.
4. A chance for Ilya Sorokin to regain confidence and assert himself as a potential playoff starter after the Islanders have ridden Semyon Varlamov down the stretch.
5. Throwing another wrench in their archrival’s chances of a first President’s Trophy since 2015, and increasing the chances of a first-round Battle of New York in so doing.
So you might be forgiven for calling this one an important game, while wondering why on earth the NHL thought it permissible to have these teams play each other just three times last season.
Following a sixth-straight win on Thursday night coupled with a Washington loss and a Detroit overtime defeat to the Penguins — who now occupy the second wild-card spot — the Islanders’ sine wave-like playoff chances are peaking. According to MoneyPuck’s calculations, they now sit at 91.4 percent — and even in the event of a regulation loss at The Garden, would drop only to 86.4 percent. Finally, with just three games left in the season, the Islanders appear to have given themselves a small margin for error.
Of course, that is no reason to ease off the gas.
“With what’s at stake right now and the teams that are chasing us, we’ve put ourselves in a spot where we control our own destiny,” Casey Cizikas said. “We control what we do and every single night we’re competing, we’re playing like that. You can see it on the ice, you can feel it in the dressing room. Guys are buying in.” This has been an unpredictable team in an unpredictable playoff race. The last thing the Islanders want is a winner-take-all Game 82 at UBS Arena against the Penguins, who demolished them by a 7-0 score in the last game between the two teams on Long Island.
Just like last season, the Islanders are finally finding their game late in the season. Unlike last year, it should not have to come down to the very end.
“I really do think we have a great group in here,” Pelech said, asked about the commonality. “Everyone obviously wants to make the playoffs, wants to play well for these fans and everything, so I just think heading into the final months of the season, we’ve taken it to another level, which is exactly what we needed to put ourselves in this position.”
Because the Islanders did not hold practice on Friday, there was no update on Dobson, who has contributed 24:31 per night over a superb season that will land him on many a Norris Trophy ballot a week from now.
If the 24-year-old defenseman cannot go, the Islanders likely will be forced to play both Sebastian Aho and Robert Bortuzzo in a leftyheavy defense configuration, though Aho is by now used to playing on his off side. Samuel Bolduc would also be an option, but has not featured since Jan. 27, making a lineup return unlikely.
The power play, 0-for-4 and looking more than a little bit lost on Thursday, would be the first area of concern, followed shortly by how to split up minutes and matchups along a blue line missing its horse.
“He’s obviously extremely important to this team,” Pelech said. “Plays a ton of minutes, all situations, he’s having a great year for us. So it’s tough to lose him so early, but I think the other five defensemen and the whole team did a good job picking up the slack when he exited.”
Aho’s 22:46 on Thursday represented his secondhighest minutes workload of the season. Ditto for Mike Reilly, who ended the night with 22:27 ice time after the Islanders went most of the evening with just five defensemen.
The irony is that for most of the season, Dobson had been the one whose minutes were inflated thanks to injuries. Now it may be the reverse, in perhaps the highest-stakes afternoon of the season.