It’s not exactly something Knute Rockne would approve of, but at least coach Scott Gordon isn’t fooling himself.
“We’re in a situation where realistically, we’ve gotta aim for that eighth [playoff] spot and there’s a lot of teams that are bunched in that area,” Gordon said after a 3-1 win over Toronto snapped a three-game losing streak (and a stretch of four straight defeats at Nassau Coliseum).
One of those teams is Toronto and another is the Rangers, who the Islanders face on Saturday.
And for those games to wind up meaning anything, the Islanders need more performances like the one they got last night, especially on special teams.
Perhaps more importantly, for the Islanders to become legitimate NHL contenders again, they’re going to need John Tavares to develop into the elite player they hoped he would be when they drafted him first overall over the summer.
Tavares ended the longest scoreless streak of his rookie year when he buried a pass from Blake Comeau in the second period to give the Isles a 2-0 lead. It was the center’s first goal in six games.
“Definitely, most times you don’t go through things like that in juniors,” Tavares said after notching his team-leading 16th goal.
Tavares hadn’t scored since tallying a pair of power play goals on Dec. 9 and was without an even-strength goal since Dec. 3.
“But you play so much here, you’ve gotta move on and get ready for the next game,” Tavares said. “Tonight I focused on keeping my feet moving and having lots of intensity.”
Nevertheless, Gordon said he knows struggles like the one Tavares — and the rest of the team — have gone through weighed on the 19-year-old.
“He has such high expectations for production that he’s always been able to produce on a consistent basis,” Gordon said. “When you make that jump from juniors or college to the pros, you feel like that’s gonna continue and when you have the dry spells, it’s probably harder on guys like him. He’s gotta learn to relax. Every player has their stretches [when they’re] not gonna get points.”
Tavares had plenty of company in that department lately, because the Islanders still have scored more than two goals just twice since Dec. 5.
Unlike in previous games, though, their special teams were solid last night.
Heading into the Toronto game, the Isles had scored just one power play goal in their last five matches and given up eight power play goals in three games.
Though they failed to score on three chances with a man advantage last night, Trent Hunter wristed one in three seconds after a power play ended in the second. Comeau finished the scoring when he was credited with an empty-net goal after being dragged down on an empty-net breakaway at 19:25.
They also took just two penalties and managed to kill both, behind excellent goaltending from Dwayne Roloson, who made 26 saves.
“We did the little things we had to do,” Roloson said. “We simplified, went back to basics and won the game.”