All that, and the Islanders are right where they’ve always been.
There was supposed to be some clarity by now on what this team is, and thus which direction it should go at the trade deadline in a month.
Instead, after 55 games, what the Islanders are is a team whose record is overwhelmingly similar to the last two years and whose roster is so decimated by injuries that no one can tell whether that is representative or exactly what the best version of the lineup looks like.
So, as they hit the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Islanders’ season could go any which way, but it sure feels like a familiar playbook.
The bottom line: At 25-23-7, the Islanders are four points off the playoff cut line.
They have pulled their season back from the brink, and unless things trend back toward the wrong direction, it’s tough to see Lou Lamoriello doing what so many would classify as the smart, prudent move by selling off parts at the trade deadline.
“I said to the guys that I was very proud of them before the game,” coach Patrick Roy said Saturday after a 6-3 loss to Minnesota. “They’ve been doing exactly what we wanted. We are playing good hockey right now. … I thought that was the message. But our guys deserve that break. We need to be ready to come back when we play Dallas on the 23rd.”
A little over a month ago, a disappointing season was starting to take shape. If that had continued, even Lamoriello might have needed to throw in the towel at some point.
Except the Islanders went and complicated things by winning 11 of 14, pulling themselves back into the race and suffering a glut of injuries all at the same time.
It was impressive to watch but, standings-wise, all it really means is that the Islanders are in the race instead of facing imminent disaster.
For a lot of teams, that wouldn’t be enough to alter a trade deadline trajectory. For the Islanders, recent history says it might well be.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the Islanders won’t look different after March 7, or that they won’t move someone who’s a part of the core.
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But taking a step back to take a step forward in the future isn’t something Lamoriello looks likely to do unless his hand is forced, and right now, it isn’t.
At minimum, the Islanders have bought themselves until the deadline.
Management is still thinking about the now — something evident in all the defensemen they’ve brought in, and in Brock Nelson not only still being an Islander, but the looming possibility that the club attempts to extend him.
Indeed, any notion that there should be urgency in moving Nelson — who is playing for Team USA this week in Montreal and thus a risk to get hurt — has gone by the wayside, despite the specter of John Tavares breaking his leg at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
The two-week layoff is coming at a good time for the Islanders, who lost three of their past four, with injuries to Mat Barzal and Scott Mayfield finally tipping the scales to a point they could not handle.
This time is crucial for Mayfield and Marcus Hogberg, the two injured players believed to be the closest to return, to get back to the lineup.
Anthony Duclair, who had another rough game in Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Wild, must take advantage as well.
He has not looked right since returning from a suspected groin injury in December, and with Barzal out of the fold for the time being, the Islanders need the version of Duclair they thought they were signing in July.
If they really are going to go for it again, then those are all prerequisites.
So is a good showing in the six games between the break ending and the March 7 deadline.