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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
If, before this weekend, you were ready to waive the white flag and throw in the towel for the 2022-23 season, you were not alone.
It was time to become sellers, consider a rebuild, and '“embrace the tank.” I’ll admit, I even spent time on tankathon last week and kept simulating the draft lottery until the Isles (with a 3% chance at the time) ended up with Connor Bedard at No. 1 overall. It only took approximately 50 times.
These two wins put that kind of stuff on hold - for now.
“I think if it went the other way the last two games, this week would have been tough. So for us to kind of put ourselves right back in the mix is huge going into the break.” - Mathew Barzal
For some of you, nothing has changed after two wins where the Islanders still couldn’t score three goals in a game. It just delayed the inevitable, and anything that prevents the Isles from being sellers at the deadline is not in the long-term interests of the franchise.
But for the players and coaches, two wins and four points affords them a chance to prove that thinking wrong. “We’re not far behind. That’s the first thing,” head coach Lane Lambert said of the team’s playoff chances. “The second thing is that we went through a tough patch, and we’re coming out of it. When we play the way we did [Friday] and play the way we did [Saturday], we can have a lot of success.”
Lambert added that these wins were “reassurance” that this group can do “great things.” Maybe you’re not buying into that, but the team has bought themselves some time to see what they can do.
Coming up, three rookies are sent down for action during the break, and Varly would love to stay. Plus, Sorokin is the NHL’s shutout king, a save-of-the-year candidate, and Isles make video cameos as John Tavares skates in his 1,000th game.
Let’s dive in.
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