The Islanders’ looming task of playing themselves back into playoff contention certainly appears daunting.
But that’s not how the team sees it.
"I don’t think it’s overwhelming at all," Mathew Barzal said. "We know we have a ton of games in hand. We know there’s 50 or so games left in the season. Also, we’ve been in situations before where we’ve been down or out of a playoff spot and battled our way back. This team has got a lot of resilience and a lot of character. We’re not feeling overwhelmed at all."
The Islanders open a back-to-back, home-and-home series against the Flyers on Monday night at UBS Arena – the first of three games between the teams in nine days – coming off one of their more disappointing performances.