You can pick your spot in the Islanders’ season when things looked their bleakest.
There was the overtime loss in Chicago on Jan. 19, after which Lane Lambert was fired and replaced by Patrick Roy with the team at 19-15-11.
There was the Stadium Series collapse against the Rangers in mid-February, the most emotionally gutting defeat in a season full of them.
There was the six-game losing streak in March that immediately followed a six-game winning streak, in which the Islanders’ playoff hopes appeared to be circling the drain.
But there is no arguing the moment where things looked their brightest.
That would be right now.
The Islanders partied like it was 2007 on Monday night as they clinched a playoff berth and third place in the Metropolitan Division by defeating the Devils 4-1 at the Prudential Center, culminating a chase that had rocked back and forth enough to induce seasickness in unsuspecting fans by giving them something to celebrate.
Some triumphalism on the part of Roy and general manager Lou Lamoriello would be well-earned, with the head coach helping engineer a turnaround which has seen the Islanders recover their ability to grind out victories in the nick of time.
For all the hand-wringing about keeping the core together and the lack of personnel moves both over the summer and at the deadline, Lamoriello’s Islanders are in the playoffs for a fifth time in six years that he has been the general manager.
And the way they are playing right now, with a 7-0-1 record over their last eight games, nobody should view them as an easy out.
