The wild-card race to the bottom of the Eastern Conference reached a level of debauchery never seen before on Saturday, when all four teams – Washington, Philadelphia, Detroit and the Islanders – played and all four lost. Reached.
This was actually a case of the Capitals and Red Wings being lucky to lose the shootout against regulation, but gaining points on the field and allowing Washington to leapfrog the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division. It meant that.
Indeed, this has to be the only playoff race in the history of the sport where losing means no chance.
The self-destructive dynamic gives a whole new meaning to Monday night’s game between the Islanders and Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center.
Not only is this a game with a four-point swing in the standings, but the Islanders could mathematically control it and finish ahead of Philadelphia, if not Detroit.
A game where at least one team is guaranteed to pick up two points in this quagmire of mediocrity.
Sadists may get excited about it.
Still, with the field’s woes ranging from the Islanders’ 2-7-1 record in their last 10 games to four-game losing streaks for both the Flyers and Red Wings, there’s been some positive movement in the standings. The possibility of doing so is of great significance. Their goal differential against the Capitals is minus-31, third-worst in the Eastern Conference.
Someone has to make it.
And putting aside recent play — admittedly, an odd thing to put aside in the context of playoff contention — there’s no reason it has to be the Islanders.
Things have gotten so dire in recent weeks that Saturday night’s 4-1 loss to Tampa, when it never seemed like a real win, was viewed as optimistic.
“What I liked was how we bounced back in the second and third,” coach Patrick Roy said. “That’s what I’m thinking [from] Today’s match. It was a one point difference game. [going into the third period]. …The difference was that in the second period, we couldn’t convert our chances. That’s how I see it. ”
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, the Flyers lost 5-1 to the Blackhawks, who were ranked 31st out of 32 teams in the league, and there was no satisfaction in the situation.
“Tonight was a disaster,” Flyers coach John Tortorella lamented to reporters. “We didn’t execute the death penalty. We didn’t make a single play.”
So at least the Islanders could be a confident team going into Monday.
If there is something that islanders should grasp in reality, rather than just a fancy phrase, there are two things.
First, Semyon Varlamov had a great performance in goal on Saturday and could be in line to start a third consecutive game, but Roy spoke to goalie coach Piero Greco after the game about Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin against the Flyers. He said that he needed to discuss which one to hire.
“If I was in that position, I would feel good about myself,” Roy said. “I would have gone out there and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be mad if we lose.’ But he knows he played a strong game and he gave us a chance and as a goalie, he knows that. That’s the way of thinking.”
Second, the front that Roy came up with during the second period was much more competitive than the front that Roy started the game with, even if he couldn’t get past Andrei Vasilevskiy in Tampa’s goal. Ta.
“I think we created some offense tonight,” Anders Lee said. “I can list many opportunities that we had.”
As rhetorical exercises go, optimism is hard for Islanders to maintain.
But this isn’t necessarily a playoff race for excellence.
Beating the Flyers would give the Islanders a chance to survive.
And once the second season begins, it won’t matter who got there or how.
