Saturday night’s comprehensive 5-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres clinched the once thought to be improbable: The New York Islanders are headed to the playoffs.
The Islanders became just the fourth team in the Eastern Conference to punch their ticket to the postseason with three games remaining. It was the first time they clinched at the Nassau Coliseum since 2002 and it will be just their fourth trip to the playoffs in the past 12 seasons.
It certainly wasn’t supposed to happen this year, according to almost every single hockey analyst out there.
Even I had the Islanders finishing seventh out of eight teams in the Metropolitan before the season started based off a roster that just didn’t look like it could compete in a very competitive division.
What I didn’t foresee was the ability of head coach Barry Trotz — who should be a lock for the Jack Adams Award (coach of the year) this season — to get his roster to buy into the defensive, structured, disciplined hockey that the Islanders have conveyed.
It just shows how far competence will go behind the bench and in the executive’s office (thank first-year president Lou Lamoriello for the Trotz hire). After all, this roster is largely unchanged from the one that allowed the most goals in the NHL last season.
Well, there was that small little matter of John Tavares jumping ship and going to the loaded Maple Leafs, which was the main reason why the Islanders were expected to finish so poorly this season.
Don’t look now, but the Islanders have two more points than that vaunted Maple Leafs team heading into their final meeting of the regular season at the Coliseum tonight.
Tavares will surely be faced with another “warm” welcome from the Coliseum crowd. Maple Leafs fans might want to start preparing now for another ‘John Tavares Appreciate Night’ where they gave the forward a standing ovation after facing an onslaught of vitriol from Islanders fans on Feb. 28.
I pity the Islanders’ first-round opponent who has to come to the Nassau Coliseum in the playoffs. There aren’t many more intimidating places to play in the NHL than there.
There is still plenty to play for in the final few games of the season for the Islanders. At 99 points sit just three points behind the Washington Capitals for the top spot in the Metropolitan. Should they finish in the top two of the division, the Islanders will have home-ice advantage in the first round of the postseason. It will be the first time they will host a Game 1 of a postseason series since 1988.
Wins in two of their last three games would give the organization its most points in a season since 1983-84 when New York recorded 104 and made a fifth-straight Stanley Cup Final appearances.
Yes, it’s been quite some time since the Islanders have been this good.
Literally, no one saw this coming. So I’ll leave you with a list of predictions made by a number of notable hockey analysts and publications, including us here at Metro.
Nothing like a nice plate of crow on a Monday morning:
Notable 2018-19 Islanders predictions:
Joe Pantorno, Metro New York: 7th in Metro
Andrew Gross, Newsday: 6th in Metro
Emily Kaplan, ESPN: 26th in NHL
Brandon Schlager, Sporting News: 8th in Metro
USA Today: 7th in Metro
Lauren Theisen of Deadspin in her 2018-19 NHL preview piece titled “A 2018–19 NHL Season Preview Of Every Team, From Best To Islanders”: Last in NHL
Sports Illustrated: 8th in Metro
Chris Ryan, NJ.com: 7th in Metro
Larry Fisher, The Hockey Writers: 7th in Metro
