Isles Re-establishing Identity in Quest for Playoffs

Internally, the New York Islanders knew something had to change heading into this week.
Embroiled in a 4-5-1 skid in the 10 games prior to Monday night's 2-0 win over Columbus, the Islanders found themselves deviating from their uniform structure and newly embraced identity that previously had reaped results worthy of being a first-place contender in the Metropolitan Division.
With a pair of matchups against wild card hopefuls, two games that presented crucial playoff implications, the Isles regrouped, reflected and rededicated themselves. They won both contests, by a combined 4-1 score, getting back to what Barry Trotz coined as "Islanders Hockey."

"This time of year, you want to raise your level not based on the opponent, you want to raise your level for yourself," Trotz said. "You want to raise your battle level. The trick is raising your battle level from now until the end of the year. If you do that, then you're ready for playoffs. Where players or teams get mixed up is, they look at the opponent and they play to the opponent. If you do that, you're not preparing yourself."

The modifications began with reinforcements, as a healthy Cal Clutterbuck returned to the lineup to reunite with Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas on the Islanders 'Identity Line.' Trotz let his energetic fourth line set the tone when he sent them over the boards for the opening faceoff against both Columbus and Montreal earlier this week. The Isles are 29-12-6 with the 'Identity Line' intact and 12-10-1 when they are not.
"Whatever they've got, they've brought," Trotz said following the win against Columbus. "In every sport there's combinations that when they're not together they don't have the same chemistry...They were an impact for us. I can't say enough about them. They give us a great identity. They give you energy every night and they give you everything they have."
The reunion of the 'Identity Line' was just the first of a few areas in which the team tightened up to reignite the style of play that has propelled them through the prior two-thirds of the season. Goaltender Thomas Greiss was superb, stopping 64-of-65 shots in the two wins, reaching the 20-win mark in the process, as well as rebounding after a 5-2 loss to Philadelphia. The Islanders blue line got goals from Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech this week, marking the fourth time in five games a defenseman lit the lamp.

"I think we just got back to playing our game overall," Martin said. "Like [coach] said, you can't really focus too much on what the other team is doing. It just seems like at this time of year everyone that will be in the playoffs is winning or everyone that has a chance to make playoffs is winning. At the end of the day, you can only control what you can control. We've done really well the last couple of games to get back to our roots and what we need to do to be successful."
Rather than creating a fraught environment during the slump, the Islanders utilized each game as a fresh start and even picked up a pair of wins when admittedly not at their best. But .500 isn't good enough for the Isles, who opted to demand more from themselves en route to re-identifying with the structure and sacrifice that has yielded their prior successes.
"When you're struggling you try to keep a short memory and not dwell on it too much," Martin said. "Every team throughout the course of the season goes through a little bit of that lull and a little bit of that adversity. That can help you grow as a group. [Coach] always says when things aren't going well you just have to get back to the basics. We've just got to continue to come to work every day and improve on the areas we need to improve on. At the end of the day, our foundation is everything and that's what has made us successful."
As the playoff hunt ramps up, every point becomes vital and every game gets a little nastier, as evidenced by the pounding physicality of Monday's game and Thursday's chippiness. That's what the Isles can expect in the playoffs, which right now is uncharted territory in particular for leading scorer Mathew Barzal, but one he's eager to explore in his sophomore season.

"At times it can get tough," said Barzal, who made a brilliant play to set up Anders Lee's game-winner on Thursday. "But at the end of the day, there's not a single guy in this room that's not going to sacrifice individual stuff for the team or for playoffs. Personally, I've never been to playoffs and a lot of guys here haven't really had too much of a taste. That's what we're focused on here now. Not numbers or goal scoring. Whether we win 1-0 or 5-4, it doesn't matter to us We kind of bring the same mentality to every game. We want to win every time. It's playoff hockey the whole way."
With a win over Detroit on Saturday, the Isles (89 points) could potentially jump into first place of the Metro and overtake Washington (91 points), should the Caps also lose. With 12 games to go, the Islanders are determined to best position themselves for playoffs just as any vying playoff contender is, but the focus with the Isles resides in playing the right way.
"At the end of the day, we're worried about the team in front of us," Martin said. "We want to catch that team. We're not too worried about the teams behind us. We want to continue to win and play the right way. Ultimately, we want to try to get in first place. But most importantly heading into playoffs we want to continue to play the right way and playing the way that has made us successful the whole year. We got away from that a little bit, but we're back on the right track."