If the Islanders can close the deal over the last two weeks of the regular season, the 60 minutes they played on Monday night provide a compelling case that they will be a hard out in the playoffs.
After two straight losses, Monday was a chance to make a needed statement against a Devils team that could conceivably be the Isles’ first-round opposition.
And after the Islanders’ 5-1 victory, one must wonder whether that is a scenario New Jersey would rather avoid.
This was the polar opposite to Saturday’s energy-lacking effort against the Sabres: a high-intensity victory in which all 18 Islanders skated with verve.
They owned the neutral zone, their defensemen stepped up with an aggressive forecheck as they forced the Devils again and again to go 200 feet while harassed by blue sweaters.
The result was a game in which structure trumped skill, the supposedly aging and slow Islanders looking to have every bit of the speed to handle a deft and talented Devils squad.
Ilya Sorokin stepped up as well, with 29 saves, but this was a win that should leave the Islanders confident about more than their place in the standings.
The moments of truth came following Erik Haula’s shorthanded goal, which tied the game at one 6:15 into the second period.
That was when, instead of folding, the Islanders bore down, stayed on top of the Devils and, eventually, retook the lead.
Kyle Palmieri netted what proved to be the winner at 14:21 of the second with a dazzling backhand finish to make it 2-1, roofing the puck after skating across the slot with it on his stick until the perfect lane opened up.
Sorokin was rarely more vital than early on in the third period, when the Islanders’ sensibility to manage the puck briefly left them, and the goaltender was called on to play hero.
But when has Sorokin ever backed down from that particular challenge?
For half a second, the Devils thought they’d tied the game when Tomas Tatar seemed to score at the 8:54 mark of the third, but the goal was almost immediately waved off for a kick.
That moment aside, the Islanders successfully walked a tightrope until Palmieri made it 3-1 with 4:35 to go, loosing a wrister past Vitek Vanecek after a puck came to him in the slot.
The Isles walked away with a heart-in-mouth two points that, combined with the Panthers losing 5-2 to Ottawa, leaves their playoff chances a total collapse short of golden.
Pierre Engvall gave the Islanders an early lead 7:37 into the match, cleaning up a rebound on Palmieri’s breakaway chance.
Haula got one back for the Devils with his shorthanded breakaway, but that was when the Isles’ resilience showed, and Palmieri would soon put them back in front.
The reason for optimism about the Islanders was how fast they played, how physical they were, how it was their fingerprints all over every piece of this game — sticks in every passing lane, bodies flying at every chance.
That went in particular for the second line of Engvall, Brock Nelson and Palmieri, which Lane Lambert left untouched as he shook up the first and third lines.
Much like the last game between these teams, a December thriller at Prudential Center, the Islanders were unfazed by a team that, on paper, should have every advantage over them in the speed and skill categories.
Also like that game, the Islanders proved to have a physical advantage, disrupting Vanecek in the crease constantly and without much of a response.
That, and the way the Isles rose to the occasion in a game from which they absolutely needed to take two points.
As a result, their gap to the playoff cutline rises to six points after Florida lost, with the Panthers holding a game in hand.
There are no certainties until an ‘X’ appears next to the Islanders in the standings, and that may not happen for some time.
But never have their playoff chances looked better.
