Which Islanders Team Shows Up Tonight?

OR

There’s 2 ways you can look at the Islanders – 1) As an OK team that overachieved for the vast majority of this season, or 2) As a very good team that faltered big time down the stretch. And really the argument can be made either way. The larger body of work was when this team was a first place squad from October through February. 90 somethin points through 60 somethin games or whatever it was is no fluke. That wasnt luck.

The more recent and currently indicative body of work was March and April, when the Isles looked as mediocre as it gets. 10 points in the final month of the season. So it depends on which you think was the real Islanders. Do you believe in the ability to shake off that final month of regular season play? Do you believe they’re one of those teams that are backing in to the playoffs only to get hot at the right time? Do you subscribe to the idea that anything can happen in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and that this team is one Halak Hot Streak away from making a run?

Or do you expect their mediocre play to continue? Will the late period softies continue? Will the inconsistent play plague this team and lead to a first round exit?

Two major things right now in my mind working against this team. A) Capuano being the worst coach maybe ever. He will over-think everything and undoubtedly get out-coached. B) No lead seems to ever be safe with this team. Even throughout the bulk of this season when the Isles led the Metro, 2 and 3 goal leads were routinely blown. Down the stretch if they were lucky enough to have a lead it almost always evaporated away. 2 things that do not bode well for postseason play.

But if Halak’s April can look more like Halak’s November, literally anything is possible. Couple a hot goaltender with an offense led by John Tavares and there’s nobody in this league they cant beat. The defense will remain a question mark – with or without Hamonic – but somewhere inside of these guys is that team that dominated play for months on end. Routinely beat the best teams in the NHL. I guess this is just one of those teams where you just have to believe once again. Everyone else doubting, everyone else hating, only the Isles faithful realizing that its fucking written in the stars that this team will face the Rangers in the playoffs. Its scripted. Its been predetermined. And nobody – not Ovechkin, not Backstrom, not Hotlby, and certainly not fucking Nate – can stop it. Isles in 4, 5, 6, 7 whatever. But its the Isles moving on to inevitably square off with the Rags.