NHL

Devils, Islanders begin weekend set today

Encouraging signs can only carry a team so far, so the Islanders, losers of seven of the past eight, need to start putting up wins before they find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.

Yet, encouraging signs are what the Isles can take away from Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Flyers — especially the play of Kyle Okposo, who scored his first two goals of the season after being a healthy scratch for three games.

“I thought Kyle really responded,” head coach Jack Capuano said after the game. “Clearly [he] was one of the better players on the ice, and it was good to see that.”

Okposo, reteamed with his old linemates, center Frans Nielsen and speedy winger Michael Grabner, played a hard game at both ends of the ice. That’s something Capuano has repeatedly emphasized, and it resulted in the scoring touch that had eluded the 23-year-old for the first 15 games.

“Something clicked mentally and I’m happy to be back,” Okposo said. “I try to play like that every night and goals are just a byproduct of that.”

The Islanders (5-10-4) are going to need a tough mental outlook when they host the Devils (11-8-1) for the first game of a two-day home-and-home this afternoon. The Devils, who beat the Blue Jackets 2-1 in a shootout on Wednesday, are winners of three of their past four games and seven of the past 10.

“We played some really good teams and had great chances to beat every single one of them,” Devils captain Zach Parise said on Wednesday. “I don’t like using the cliché ‘play 60 minutes,’ but I think that’s what it was for us. We need to play the same style the whole game.”

Parise, who is on a one-year $6 million deal that might find him traded by the February deadline, has six goals and is disappointed the Devils have blown two three-goal leads in the past five games.

“We did good things, did things pretty decent,” Parise said after the victory over Columbus. “But again, we had some breakdowns at the end and I guess the coaches watched the game again and said, I don’t know if it’s by nature or what, but we not necessarily sat back, but we weren’t as aggressive as we were.”

* The Islanders waived forward Blake Comeau yesterday. If he clears waivers, he will be assigned to Bridgeport. … The Devils assigned RW Nick Palmieri to Albany (AHL).