{"id":542702,"date":"2026-04-05T21:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/542702\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T21:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:09:18","slug":"floundering-islanders-must-take-advantage-of-rare-break-with-playoff-hopes-in-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/542702\/","title":{"rendered":"Floundering Islanders must take advantage of rare break with playoff hopes in peril"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 1 images, Image 1 shows The Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho (20) scores against the Islanders on April 4, 2026<\/p>\n

RALEIGH, N.C. \u2014 The Islanders have four days now to figure this thing out, four days they must take advantage of before getting back into action Thursday at home against the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

The extended break is something of a makeup after a schedule that has been condensed all year, and will allow other teams to make up games in hand. That means by Thursday, there is a very good chance the Islanders \u2014 currently third in the Metro despite their 4-3 loss to Carolina on Saturday night \u2014 will be out of a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

After losing four straight games, a season high, and looking completely overwhelmed by the Hurricanes<\/a> on Saturday, the break is at least coming at a decent time.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes\u2019 Sebastian Aho (20) scores against the Islanders on April 4, 2026. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A mental reset certainly seems to be something this team needs right now. So does some practice time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some time off, the holiday. See family, spend some time,\u201d Scott Mayfield said. \u201cWe\u2019ll think about this one on the way home, wash it. It\u2019s all about the next game. We gotta start getting some points to stay in our position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what the other scores are but you can\u2019t drop games like this. We haven\u2019t done four in a row I think all season. It\u2019s not a good week to do that but you can\u2019t change that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Schaefer\u2019s late assist on Anders Lee\u2019s goal gave him the record for most points ever by an 18-year-old defenseman, passing Phil Housley\u2019s 57.<\/p>\n

Roy\u2019s move to insert Max Shabanov into the lineup for just his third game since the Olympic break paid off when Shabanov scored for the first time since Dec. 27.<\/p>\n

Isaiah George also drew in for the Islanders, with Adam Boqvist and Kyle MacLean coming out as healthy scratches.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the only good news for the Islanders on Saturday came on the out-of-town scoreboard. The Red Wings, Senators and Blue Jackets all lost, though the Capitals did climb into the outer fringe of the playoff race with a win and the Penguins now seem out of reach after their victory over Florida.<\/p>\n

The bad news is that the Islanders still do not control their own destiny, leading Detroit, Columbus, Ottawa and Philadelphia all by a point with one extra game played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 1 images, Image 1 shows The Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho (20) scores against the Islanders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[11464,8493,3644,599,62,5,19497,122,34754,20,374,35971,3328,159,5190,5189,4,72,1467,5890,1174,4937],"class_list":{"0":"post-542702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-adam-boqvist","9":"tag-anders-lee","10":"tag-blue-jackets","11":"tag-detroit","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-isaiah-george","15":"tag-islanders","16":"tag-kyle-maclean","17":"tag-maple-leafs","18":"tag-matthew-schaefer","19":"tag-max-shabanov","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-new-york-islanders","22":"tag-newyork","23":"tag-newyorkislanders","24":"tag-nhl","25":"tag-ottawa","26":"tag-philadelphia","27":"tag-scott-mayfield","28":"tag-sebastian-aho","29":"tag-the-islanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116354153366961553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}