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The Islanders talked for so long about finding their identity that it almost became abstract.
The team that made its hay with a checking fourth line, wearing down teams into exhaustion and making it within a game of the Stanley Cup finals last year — that was gone. These Islanders were a poor facsimile. A slower, sloppier, error-prone copy.
That was the case for long enough that the team will likely be a seller at next week’s trade deadline, and that barring a complete miracle, it will miss the playoffs this spring.
But finally, ahead of Thursday’s game against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, the Islanders have found something resembling the identity they’ve so often preached.
“I think just playing more Islander hockey, what we’re used to,” Noah Dobson told reporters Tuesday night following a 4-3 shootout loss at Washington. “I think when we’re playing that way, we got all four lines chipping in, all six D and we get great goaltending. I think it’s been more of that consistently.”
Dobson couldn’t put his finger on why that’s been the case lately, but any neutral observer will back up his assertion.
The Islanders have gotten points in four straight, winning three in a row in regulation for the first time all year ahead of the loss to the Capitals. In Washington, they fought back to tie the game and get a point at six-on-five before failing to score in overtime.
Dropping points to the Capitals — the team they’re ostensibly trying to overtake for the last wild-card spot — isn’t an ideal outcome. But a 19-point gap between them makes it clear that, at this point, the focus is as much on just playing better and proving they can still reach a high level as it is trying to make the playoffs.
The Islanders won’t outwardly admit that their playoff chances are cooked — they’re a competitive group, and until the math says otherwise, they are technically still in it. But they can read the standings like anyone else.
“We’re competing,” Anders Lee told reporters. “We’re in every game. Top to bottom, I think we’ve all played pretty solid hockey from the goalies on out and we’re just trying to continue to put these good games together. And when you start getting results and you start feeling good about yourself and your team game, then things start to come a little easier.”
Few people in hockey expected the Islanders to head to Madison Square Garden for the first time this season as the team squarely out of the playoff race, facing a Rangers team that expects to make a postseason run.
But, at least, the Islanders go into Thursday feeling good about their play. If nothing else that stands in contrast to the first rivalry matchup of the year, back in November, when the Islanders were in the midst of an 11-game losing streak and played a lineup filled with AHLers due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
“We couldn’t put a full 60 consistently playing that Islander identity,” Dobson said. “And I think we’ve just been doing a better job of that as of late.”
For the next six weeks, the Islanders can play with that in mind, knowing that even without the playoffs, they can prove to themselves that their identity is still intact.
“You want to know where you stand, you want to know the guy next to you’s gonna be with you when the bullets fly and from now until the end of the season, we’ve gotta have each other’s backs,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz told reporters Tuesday night. “We gotta be in the foxhole with each other. And just leave it out there and just see what happens.”
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