Scare bears
Islanders’ tall task: Ending skid vs. Bruins
To keep their momentum going after sweeping the Stars and Red Wings on the road, the Islanders will need to do something they haven’t done in over two years.
That would be beating the Bruins, who have swept their last six meetings against the Islanders dating back to Feb. 17, 2022, and who will come into UBS Arena in the middle of a fight for their second straight President’s Trophy.
Winning consecutive road games for the first time since Nov. 30-Dec. 2 was a great way for the Islanders to start climbing their way back into the playoff race. But taking at least three out of four points at home against Boston and St. Louis is now a must before the team heads off to California.
It is the Islanders’ last real chance to show general Lou Lamoriello he should add at the trade deadline — they play San Jose on deadline eve, but that won’t mean much if they lose these two games. And it is the precursor to a 10-day, four-city road trip that is their longest of the season.
Beating the Bruins would certainly be a statement.
“They’re one of the best teams in the league,” Matt Martin told reporters following a short practice Friday. “Play the right way all the time. Dangerous power play, very dangerous top line. We gotta be smart in managing the puck and managing the game, but at the same time, going after them. Putting pressure on them to try and create offense.
“Nobody, obviously, wants to play in their own end. We want to play in their end as much as possible and create chances.”
A win Saturday would mean the first three-game winning streak put together by the Isles since winning four in a row in mid-December. That streak was ultimately snapped by … the Bruins after Mason Lohrei’s goal at 16:51 of the third period marked the third blown lead of the night for the Islanders, who ultimately fell in a shootout.
“One of the better teams in the league for a reason,” Anders Lee said of Boston. “They play a great team game, very structured and they’ve got high-end skill.”
The Islanders are 11-13-7 over the 10 weeks since that loss, having seen their playoff chances dwindle lower and lower.
But they finally feel like they are finding the form that had them easily in a playoff spot during the season’s first 10 weeks, with newly revamped forward lines beginning to mesh.
“Offensively, I thought we were jumping quick on pucks. Defensively, breakouts, we were playing north-south, we were doing really well,” coach Patrick Roy said Thursday following the 5-3 win over Detroit. “We had a good rush, the line of [Casey] Cizikas with [Pierre] Engvall and [Simon] Holmstrom had a solid night, they were really good. In the third, I thought the line of [Bo] Horvat with [Mat] Barzal and [Brock] Nelson, they started to connect more together like the other three lines. Even the line with [Kyle] MacLean was really good, [Jean-Gabriel] Pageau’s line was really solid and the defensemen had a great night.”
Roy noted Friday that in his first three years coaching in the NHL with the Avalanche, he could not recall a game in which nobody finished with less than 10 minutes of ice time, as was the case Thursday.
So yes, the Islanders are clicking. But the last couple of months have been pockmarked by false starts, and this can still become another one of those if it is not followed by collecting points at home.
It would be only fitting if their entrance back into the race was punctuated with two points against the same team that started their fall out of it.