The Islanders have won just eight games in regulation.
The Islanders struggled throughout November.
The Islanders' special teams are notoriously terrible, and the third period is no different.
The Islanders somehow manage to qualify for the playoffs.
Perhaps that says more about the state of the Eastern Conference than anything else.
But despite their second straight win of the season with a 4-2 win over the Senators at Canadian Tire Center on Sunday, the Islanders remained below the playoff cutline despite playing fewer games. Ta. However, that depended on the Flyers-Utah game later in the evening.
Of course, it's too early in the season to start watching the scoreboard.
But the fact that the Islanders didn't play to get out of a team situation during a period in which they won just three of the 13 games that ended with Saturday's win over the Hurricanes, and that they're right now It says something that we may be beginning to see progress.
So might the fact that the Islanders, who played badly all night, managed to win this game in the final period, which started tied 2-2.
And they, yeah, really did that on the back of their power play.
Their game didn't immediately improve in the third period, and it played out much the same as the second period.
A penalty kill that scored early in the game provided the decisive kill midway through the period after Oliver Wahlstrom stumbled in the offensive zone and took a penalty, but there was little offensive momentum.
It ended up being a power play, with Kyle Palmieri taking a 3-2 lead with a shot from the left circle at 13:46 of the third following a tripping penalty on Josh Norris.
They endured another 6 minutes and 14 seconds in the defensive zone, with plenty of help from Ilya Sorokin, who made 28 saves in his second straight night of play, before pulling off an ugly victory.
Bo Horvat sealed it with an empty-net goal, and the Islanders, who had found a way to lose so many times this season, found a way to win.
It's amazing what a functional power play can be.
Ottawa dominated the puck early in the game, with a feed from Noah Gregor creating a crease for Adam Gaudette, who put the Senators up 1-0 at the 5:37 mark.
But the Islanders took advantage of the power play to reverse course, with Anders Lee cleaning up the trash on a Noah Dobson rebound at 12:27 of the first.
Just over two minutes into the game, it was Kyle MacLean who tipped a pass from Dennis Cholowski into the box.
That gave the Islanders the lead, but just 37 seconds into the second period, Josh Norris scored a power-play goal behind the Islanders' net off a feed from Drake Batherson.
The Islanders, who finished the second period with only two dangerous 5-on-5 chances, struggled to carry the puck or establish a forecheck for much of the first 40 minutes, resulting in a ton of puck possession and zone time. handed over. .
Regardless of the score, things needed to change in the final period.
That's certainly true, and at least for now, the Islanders suddenly look as if their worst moment of the season is behind them.
They've (finally) won back-to-back games, the line combinations Patrick Roy put together on Saturday are working, and Thursday's disastrous loss to Seattle seems to have woken up a group that had been asleep for the past month. .
They're back at NHL-.500 and in the thick of the playoff race thanks to overtime points with a light week at home coming up.
Perhaps we are turning a corner.
