Mathew Barzal making Islanders road trip with injury return on horizon
SAN JOSE, Calif.— The Islanders set off across the country on Sunday, into a two-week stretch that looks like their moment to go from treading water in the playoff race into its deep end.Yes, it is still early, but with Thanksgiving historically a key indicator — a hair over 75 percent of teams in playoff position at the holiday have made it since the 2005-06 lockout — the standings are inching closer to relevance.More than that, this looks like a stretch in which the Islanders can and must rack up points.
They are on the road for five of their next six, starting with Monday night’s tilt against the Sharks, but eight of their next nine games are against teams at or below .500 as of Sunday morning.Not just that, but Mathew Barzal, Matias Maccelli and Ryan Pulock traveled out West with the Islanders.We’ve waited a long time to see what this team will look like with Barzal.
The wait could end this week in California.“Just exciting,” Victor Eklund told The Post on Saturday morning of Barzal’s impending return.“It’s cool to see how he managed to [shake] off his injury and come back.
You can kinda tell, he wants to be out there.”A cross-country road trip is never easy, but if you are waiting for easy, then this is the wrong line of business.What the Islanders have here is an opportunity, not only to put an ugly homestand behind them but also to prove to both their fans and the rest of the league that they should be taken seriously in the playoff race.You can give the Islanders some credit for surviving the injuries to their forward corps as long as they have, but Pulock’s injury in Minnesota last week seemed to be a breaking point.The Islanders’ last two games of the homestand that ended Saturday, losses to New Jersey and Carolina, were their two worst of the season by expected goals allowed at 5-on-5.
The Devils game was their worst by an entire goal’s margin.Those are two very good teams, but that also feels like a direct result of how st...