To say that the New York Islanders need to win on Tuesday may come across as an even more obvious statement than saying water is wet. Yet here we are, the Islanders need to come away with a win against the Washington Capitals to close out the three-game set.

The consecutive losses and their recent 5-4-1 stretch have not done New York any favors in terms of maintaining control over home-ice in the playoffs. In fact, their chances of finishing first or second in the division have dropped to a mere nine percent and 28 percent respectively, according to PlayoffStatus.com.

The Islanders are four points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins and three points back of the Washington Capitals. The Boston Bruins are three points back of the Islanders in fourth but take on Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

Over the course of the 56 game schedule, every game has taken on an extra sense of importance, but that has become magnified in the last few weeks of the season. Especially as it seems every team around the Islanders have begun to string wins together, even the New York Rangers have made things interesting.

“We’re approaching (the game) every night the same way,” Josh Bailey said. “Go out and we want to be trying to play our best hockey at this time of the year. Trying to win games. For us, I don’t think the approach really changes. It’s just one game at a time mentality that we’ve kind of had all season long. That’s going to continue.”

Thursday and Saturday were the first time the Islanders had lost consecutive games at home all season long and came after New York had appeared to break its scoring drought the game before. The Islanders put up six goals against the New York Rangers the prior game, but they were outscored 6-3 in the two losses to Washington.

Their power play struggled the first game, whiffing on two opportunities in the third with the game scoreless, and they didn’t capitalize on a fast start on Thursday night. On Saturday the Islanders struggled five-on-five, but the power play and penalty kill kept them in the game, before allowing things to slip away.

“They’re playoff hockey games, I think that’s the biggest thing we have to take away from (the past few games),” Scott Mayfield said. “We have to raise our game to another level. It wasn’t there the last two games. I think we know what we have to do. We can take some good things away from the games. I think special teams were good, we got the power-play goals and the PKs been when we need it too.

“I think there’s things you take away, but at the end of the day, you have to get the two points and it’s playoff hockey.”

Washington is the last playoff-caliber team the Islanders will face until the final game of the year and potentially a team they will see again in the postseason. The Islanders face the Rangers twice later this week and then have a back-to-back with the Buffalo Sabres next week.

Two games with New Jersey round out the home schedule before the Islanders play their final regular-season game against Boston on May 10.

With how condensed the schedule is, the Islanders will be playing every other night for the rest of the season, along with a back-to-back. Monday was likely their final practice day they’ll get before the playoffs start and it’s a balancing act trying to fight for playoff seeding and preparing for the playoffs.

“I go into every week going ‘ok this is what the plan should look like,’” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “Balancing practice and the importance of the games have been a hard thing to do. All the guys are pushing hard. We were in a playoff race basically from day one.”