Islanders Hot Start Can Get Even Better?! | New York Islanders News

Islanders Hot Start Can Get Even Better?! | New York Islanders News

We should check out the Islander schedule though. Yeah. What we wanted to start the show with is something interesting that Mitch pointed out that he wanted to bring up on the show. So, just for some pre-context until we get into it, the Islanders have played 31 games. They’re 1711 and three, 37 points. And in the Eastern Conference, they are third in the Eastern Conference and eighth overall in the league. Uh, and that’s good obviously, right? Like I think we we both agree that they have exceeded our expectations for where they would be at almost not quite but almost the halfway point of the season, but you pointed out that they are actually tied with the San Jose Sharks for the easiest remaining schedule in the league. Yeah. So based off that alone, so usually you look at the Tankathon page to see like do we have a tankable path, right? I know we’ve done it before to look at the strength of upcoming schedule or remaining schedule for these New York Islanders and you’re going well do we have to face a lot of high quality opponents and the higher you are if you’re looking at it if you’re nearer the top that’s the harder the schedule you have that’s where you want to be if you’re trying to tank which is the entire point of the site um and it’s a great site for for that those type of resources however the islanders are all the way at the bottom as you said tied with the um the San Jose Sharks at 0.550 I forget what the metric metric is and how they they figure out what the metric is exactly. I think it’s points percentage of the teams they have to face and how many times they have to face them type of thing. Um but yeah, easiest schedule in the league. They still have to face Vancouver twice, Nashville twice, Calgary twice, Buffalo three times. Um it it’s going to get easier from here on out, which is insane to think that it we’re already third and it’s going to be better. Like it could potentially be better going forward, right? And that’s kind of where I wanted to go with this. It doesn’t necessarily guarantee like they’re they’re going to go on this run. You still have to win the games that’s in front of you. But it’s almost like they got the hard part out of the way and they are above where we thought they were after that hard part. Right. That’s the main that’s at least my main take away from it. That’s it. I actually didn’t take a look at that at the that tankathon page to see where the rest of the Eastern SK the Eastern Conference is because that’s kind of where we’re at here vis the Islanders and where they they they sit in the Metropolitan and the Eastern Conference because it is tight, right? There’s a lot of teams that are kind of log jammed together where a win here or there can have dramatic changes on the standings. The Rangers are losing two nothing. Love it. Right. You got the Islanders at 37 points. You can go all the way to uh the Montreal Canadians. That’s three teams below the wild card who are three points back of the of the Islanders. And Montreal’s got two games in hand. Not to say that Montreal can catch the Islanders in the in the Metropolitan. Obviously not, but it it shows how tight things are where the next five teams below the Islanders are still, you know, really in this thing. And that’s not counting other ones because we have such a long runway to go here. Yeah. No, absolutely. And you know, I’m looking at just some of the teams that are around the Islanders in the easiest portions of the schedule. And honestly, Mitch, it’s a lot of Western Conference teams. It’s San Jose at tied with the Islanders. Uh then Anaheim, Vegas, Tampa, New Jersey, obviously Eastern Conference, but then Los Angeles, and Colorado. Those are the top one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight easiest schedules remaining. Yeah. And then Boston, Seattle, Nashville, Edmonton, like the top Dallas. Yeah, Dallas. You’re right. So that’s what 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Just about half the league is mainly Western Conference teams that have a easy schedule. Yeah, there’s three Eastern Conference teams and the Islanders. Yeah, man. Um that’s like how good can it get? Do let’s just pipe dream pie in the sky. You know how good can things get, do you think, for these New York Islanders? Now, I’m not asking you to change your expectations for them, but with this in mind, seeing how easy the schedule is going forward, do you think it gets much better than 597 points percentage here on out or could, sorry, could get that? I mean, it could, but even if they just play a 597 the rest of the year, that puts them at 98 points, which that’s about 14 points higher than I thought they’d finish. I thought they’d be maybe a couple a couple points over 500 for this year was my thought. Right. And that’s playing at the pace that they’re currently setting right now, which is is obviously great. 597, like you said, you’re a 98 point team, better than we thought they were going to be. And the potential is there for them to do that just based off of the strength of schedule that they’ve got left. Uh, which is wildly impressive considering where they are right now. Um, of course, you never know, right? Things can happen, injuries can happen, right? Like we’ve already lost Romanov. We’ve lost Pal Mary for for the year. Uh, Pejo has just returned. Uh, but you never know if another one can happen. Uh, and then people, you know, they this is a random sport, so you Bo Horvat might go on like a 20-game cold streak. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but it could very well. And that changes a lot for these Islanders. Um, so none of this is like, oh, they got an easy schedule guaranteed going forward. But god damn it, when you’re at 597 and you’ve done the hard part, and they have done the hard part, holy man. Like, it’s hard not to think that they could do better. Without a doubt. And I think that’s the the exciting part at least to me, right? Like they’ve overachieved the expectations for for now, right? But it’s just like on on top of that, there’s a chance that this could even get better. So yeah, look, I don’t want to put the the cart before the horse or whatever the the saying is there, but I I think it’s fair for the Optimus fans. I’m sure they’re loving this. they’re looking at it and I I think I’m I try my best to be somewhere in the middle. I don’t like to get too high or too low, but to go a little positive and a little optimistic right now, they’re playing just under a 600 win percentage or points percentage right now. And like with how their schedule lays out, it could it could potentially improve off of that. And if it does, then yeah, the playoffs are absolutely realistic for this team. That’s just it, man. Again, like you’re saying, none of us, neither of us is saying playoffs guaranteed. It feels like we’re headed in that direction, right? We’ve passed the Thanksgiving threshold. We’re in a comfortable position, at least going forward. Sure, there, you know, like I said, there’s a log jam of teams that are pretty close to us, but we are in the driving seat regarding that specific situation. And then you have an easy schedule going forward. It’s it’s hard not to think that it could happen, but you like you said, we don’t want to confirm that because anything can happen, but you you add on top of that that I said that they’ve done the hard part already. And I really meant that because when according to Power Rankings Guru, the strength of schedule of games that they’ve already played has been the hardest in the NHL. Not tied with anyone, it is the hardest. There’s no one even close. Well, I guess close technically like 33 uh difference between them and the San Jose Sharks in second, but like they have had a hard schedule and they’re still at a 597 points percentage. Yeah, that’s impressive. Yeah, that that that makes me feel more confident about the Islanders chances of being a playoff team this year, which again, I’m repeating myself, but in a year where that wasn’t the expectation for a lot of people, to me would be a good surprise. I I know there there may be some it’s probably a smaller portion of the fan base now than what it was in the beginning of the year that, you know, they really want the draft picks and they want to get up high and and continue to add to uh the the prospect pool. And I get that. But I think I think you could spin this as a positive for the Islanders overachieving in a year one of Matthew Dar. Now he doesn’t have to, you know, completely abandon course and go spend on 30-year-old free agents now, but it shows that what you’re doing is working and that I think is a good thing though. Absolutely. Your floor right now is and then credit to them as well. remember they started the year saying we think we believe that this team is a playoff team and we both said I don’t know if believe is the right word you want to use here like I don’t think this team can get to the playoffs um do we think they could maybe but it’s not no one we shouldn’t say should let’s not put this in the water but it looks like they might very well be of course we’re only 30 games in but like kudos to them for for saying that but you’re absolutely right that doesn’t change anything you you don’t go like, “Okay, we’re going to go full Lamarella mode now.” No, you got rid of him for a reason. You moved on for him for a goddamn reason. This is the floor now. Okay, now how do we build from here to open this window and keep it open for as long as humanly possible? Like, you’ve already got we’ve got three picks in the first round last year. We’ve got two picks this year. What? We don’t need to go back and and do like get a top five pick. We don’t need that anymore.

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