Islanders Shutout The Capitals In Washington, The Streak Is Officially Official
On Wednesday I tweeted out how the upcoming back to back against Pittsburgh and Washington had but two outcomes. We wake up Friday having suffered through two terrible losses and are staring at a season that’s dead and buried or this Isles club does enough for us to hold on to what little hope is left in what has been a god awful season through 23 games.
I’m not going to sit here and say I was entirely right, but following Wednesday’s 5-3 win over the reigning cup champs and last night’s 3-0 shutout in Washington, I may or may not have spent most of my morning looking up playoff probabilities.
Now as much as I’ve been throwing the B word around, two wins against very, very good teams by no means is a sign that the Isles are back, or that the season has officially been saved; but what this current 3 game winning streak the Islanders currently find themselves on is for starters, just that – a start.
Last night was easily the most fun I’ve had all year. Honestly, now that I’m putting some real thought into it, it might be some of the only fun I’ve had this year. Princey was putting up numbers along his new linemates in Strome and Ladd [a line combo I think has some real potential], Heel Tavares made a brief appearance in the 2nd period so at least we know he’s still alive down there somewhere, and Jaro followed up a strong performance from his counterpart in Thomas Greiss against Pittsburgh with an even better performance on the road against a Capitals team that was rested and angry coming off a loss to Toronto several days earlier.
What we’ve seen these last few games has been a different team. We’re finally seeing some line combos that work and are able to produce, the defense is chipping in and scoring goals [something that has played a major role in this team’s success in recent years] and the goalies are bailing out the team when all else fails in their own zone. It’s like they’re a real life professional hockey team again, and it’s a wonderful feeling.
The question now is – will they be able to sustain this level of play going forward? With Fransie set to me his return to Brooklyn as the Isles host the Red Wings on Sunday, followed by bouts with the Rangers, Blues, & Columbus we could very well look back on these last three wins and see it was just a flash in the pan. As I am sure many fans and media alike already believe to be the case. But not I sir. Not this blogger.
With 59 games remaining and just 5 points out of a playoff spot, it’s time to start chipping away at the rock piece by piece. The insurmountable boulder that has been this season has the potential to be moulded into a wonderful work of art. Consisting of joy and wins and playoff contention and GIFs of John Tavares eating. With each game serving as another chip off the block towards the Venetian statue that is a playoff spot, it’s gonna be one by one by one. The ball is rolling in the right direction, you have your base for what can prove to be a huge turnaround, now it’s time to build off what you have and it starts with Detroit on Sunday. Let’s go streaking.
Dead to Back Meter™ currently set at 65/35