The Islanders spent their final game before the trade deadline surrounded by uncertainty and steeped in sentimentality. Because OF COURSE they did.
Was a 3-2 win over the NHL-best Winnipeg Jets in the Islanders’ final game before Friday’s trade deadline enough to convince Lou Lamoriello to either stand pat or make additions? It was the 11th win in the last 17 games for the Islanders, who pulled within three points of a wild card spot with 21 games to play.
But it was also just the third victory in the last nine games for the Islanders, who gained ground in the playoff race because they were the only wild card contender to win Tuesday. And as the seventh-place team in what amounts to an eight-team derby — and the only one not playing over the next three days — the three-point gap masks a precarious position for the Islanders, who fell four points back when the Senators won and the Rangers lost in overtime Wednesday night. They haven’t occupied a wild card spot since Nov. 19, nine days before American Thanksgiving.
So was the win a reminder that occasional flashes of excellence aside, the Islanders are in the midst of a fourth straight mediocre season and in need of a reboot/reload that could be sparked by the trades of impending free agents such as Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri?
And thus was Tuesday a goodbye to Nelson? At the least, it embodied what has made Nelson as good a player and representative the Islanders have employed in the post-dynasty years.
Nelson collected a goal (his 295th, fourth-most in franchise history) and an assist (his 279th, tied for 14th-most in franchise history) to increase his career points total to 574 (ninth-most in franchise history). After all that, he spent the waning seconds of his 901st career game (fourth-most in franchise history) on the ice helping turn back the 6-on-5 opportunity by the Jets.
Afterward, Nelson’s omnipresent poker face — which he’s had from day one as an Islander, which was May 11, 2013, which was the same day Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera earned the win and the save for the Yankees in a 3-2 victory over the Royals, in case you were wondering how long Nelson has been with the Islanders — wavered when he seemed to be near tears during a postgame on-ice interview with MSG Network’s Shannon Hogan.
Were those the actions of a man simply a little worn out by the attention — in addition to fielding queries about his future, Nelson also played in the 4 Nations Face-Off while the rest of his teammates got nearly two weeks off — or someone saying goodbye in his own understated, stoic manner?
“There’s a lot going on, for sure,” Nelson said a few minutes later in that understated, stoic manner.
But Nelson’s on-ice reaction — as well as that of Hogan and his former teammates Cal Clutterbuck and Thomas Hickey — was a reminder of the unusual connection the Islanders have made with each other as well as their fans.
The Islanders provided islanders one of the few diversions during the awful summer of 2020, when the Islanders returned from the COVID pause and made the NHL semifinals in the Canada bubble. The Islanders filled up Nassau Coliseum one more time in the spring of 2021, when another delirious run to the semis provided the backdrop and the soundtrack as life seemed to return to normal.
The Islanders haven’t won a postseason series since then, a span in which champions such as the 2021 Braves (Freddie Freeman) and 2024 Eagles (Darius Slay) have immediately bid farewell to iconic core players while the Lightning, whose back-to-back Stanley Cup runs included the semifinal wins over the Islanders, allowed Steven Stamkos to exit as a free agent last summer.
But Lamoriello, no one’s idea of a warm nostalgic executive, has basically tried running it back since the buzzer sounded in Tampa in the Game 7 loss on June 25, 2021. Eleven Islanders remain with the team — the Lightning has just seven holdovers from the ’21 champs — and five more subsequently retired without playing for another team.
Even if they haven’t won a title together, the Islanders have a unique collective understanding of what it takes to get there — and a bond built by being sequestered together during the unusual circumstances of 2020-21. It was hard not to be moved Tuesday night, when Clutterbuck said he’d miss taking Nelson’s son to hockey practice if his Dad was traded.
Sentimentality, of course, is no way to build a Stanley Cup winner, and it’s hard to envision these Islanders, even at full strength, being a serious contender in a couple months. The most jarring stat of all in favor of a reload is the fact the Islanders haven’t won a postseason series following a full 82-game regular season since the spring of 2019.
But it’s not that simple for Lamoriello and the Islanders, who have more than a season hanging in the balance as the trade deadline nears.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen at this moment,” Patrick Roy said Tuesday night. “It’s been a little roller coaster. We win some, we lose some. There’s days you want to buy there’s day you want to sell.”
And only one day left to figure out what to do.
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