Islanders Focus Shift: Final 8 Games Should Be Used To Gauge 2025-26 Organizational Depth
The Islanders might as well see what they have before the season ends.
Entering Tuesday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was impossible to think about the New York Islanders’ 8-0-1 run in their final nine games a season ago to sneak into the playoffs.
Could the team catch Lightning in a bottle — pun intended — and do the unthinkable for a second straight season?
Their 4-1 loss, with the Montreal Canadiens winning, put them five points back of the second wild-card spot. It felt like the final dagger in what’s been a roller coaster of a season.
Could they go 8-0-0 to end the season? I guess the percentage chance of that is not zero, but like head coach Patrick Roy likes to say, “If my aunt was my uncle…”.
But, regardless of the Islanders’ record over these final eight games of the regular season, these games are tremendously valuable, if used to the club’s advantage.