Islanders need elusive win streak to get back into playoff hunt
SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The Senators did it. The Canadiens did it. The Red Wings are in the midst of doing it.
Why can’t the Islanders?
“I think if we’re gonna have a chance, we’re gonna need to win some [on a] streak,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau told The Post. “Not only two in a row.”
Even two in a row — which the Islanders will go for Thursday against the Golden Knights — has been a tough ask of the Isles so far, with just two instances of back-to-back victories this season, neither of which was followed by a third straight win.
Still, the state of the Eastern Conference, where the 15th-place Islanders are somehow just five points out of the last playoff spot with a game in hand over the current-occupant Blue Jackets, is such that a relatively short winning streak can shift a team’s narrative completely.
The Senators won six in a row in mid-December.
Montreal won six of seven to finish out 2024, and the Red Wings are currently on a five-game winning streak after replacing coach Derek Lalonde with Todd McLellan.
Earlier this season, all looked like they were going nowhere, and all are now very much in the playoff chase.
If there’s a case for the Islanders to turn it around, that’s it.
On a relative scale — relative being the operative word — it is not that impossible.
“It’s close for a couple teams. You put a string together, you never know what can happen,” Scott Mayfield told The Post. “I think of St. Louis [in 2019], end of January, start of February, they were in last place in the league or something. And they won a Stanley Cup that year. It can turn around, but you have to have that belief. You can put in the work, you have to have that belief. I know it’s in here, we just have to do it.”
Coach Patrick Roy said Anthony Duclair — who’s played seven games since returning from a suspected groin injury — still has “a little bit to get there” in terms of returning to full effectiveness.
“I’m very comfortable with what I’ve seen so far,” Roy said. “He’ll be fine. I’m not worried about him at all.”
The Islanders lines and pairs were unchanged in practice from what they ran on Sunday in Boston.
Ilya Sorokin came off the ice first, indicating a likely start Thursday.
