Islanders coach Lane Lambert won’t be getting much rest or relaxation during his team’s eight-day break. But getting away from a hectic schedule will be a moment for him and his players to take a needed breath of fresh air.
“We’ve played a lot of hockey, as has every team in the league, really,” Lambert said. “But we’ve had some travel through January. It’s been a tough stretch for us. It’s good to get away from the game to refresh, regenerate, spend some time with your family. Get in a frame of mind where you get reenergized coming back. And that’s just really all it is.”
The Islanders had a woeful January but finished it off feeling good. They swept back-to-back games at home against the Red Wings and Golden Knights to put a six-game losing streak behind them.
Brock Nelson and Ilya Sorokin will go to South Florida as the team’s two representatives at All-Star Weekend, and everyone else will get a break from a schedule that’s been unrelenting.
“It’s pretty hard to turn it off,” Lambert said. “You do your best you possibly can to do that, and I will. But overall, there’s always something going on.”
After the 2-1 win over Vegas on Saturday, in which Mathew Barzal netted the winner late in overtime, the mood in the dressing room was one of relief. The Islanders had won just twice all month going into the weekend, but now find themselves just two points behind Pittsburgh for the last wild-card spot. The Penguins do have three games in hand to add to their advantage, but the Islanders still having a chance after a 4-8-3 January is giving life to the group.
“Think if it went the other way these last two games, this break would’ve been tough,” Barzal said. “For us to put ourselves right back in the mix, huge going into this break.”
Adding to the optimism is that the schedule in the first week out of the break looks navigable. The Isles play four times in six nights, but three of their opponents are .500 or below in the Flyers, Canucks and Canadiens.
That should give them a chance to make a statement, particularly with management weighing what moves to make at the March 3 trade deadline.
If the Islanders are in a position to go for it, adding a scorer will be a must. The Isles rank 25th in per-game scoring and their power play, which is in the midst of a 3-for-64 run, is 31st in the league at 15.54 percent.
Most nights, their defense and goaltending has been good enough to at least keep them in games, but in a league where speed and skill is king, it’s hard to win many games without consistently scoring more than three goals. Not so coincidentally, the Islanders scored more than three times just once in January, a 6-2 win over the Canucks early in the month.
Lately, the goals have been coming from the second line of Anders Lee, Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, which has looked rejuvenated since Palmieri’s return to the lineup.
“I think it bleeds into everyone,” Lambert said. “When you’re watching the line out there and they’re playing the way they’re playing, you want to follow that up. And that’s what’s happening right now. The line is playing very well. It’s leading into other players playing very well.”
With a long vacation in front of them, the Islanders are happy to have something positive to reflect on.
“It was an important four points for us right before the break,” Semyon Varlamov said. “It’s nice to go into the break feeling good about the team, about ourselves.”
