The Islanders did Rocky one better.
Whatever injuries get thrown at the Islanders, they suddenly look nearly invincible.
Life without Mat Barzal looks much the same, it turns out, as life without half the defense.
Unlike the fictional boxer — who Patrick Roy took some inspiration from Tuesday morning, analogizing his injury-plagued team to the character — the Islanders won.
They beat the Golden Knights 2-1 on Tuesday night at UBS Arena, playing shutdown defense to sweep the season series against a Stanley Cup-contending Vegas squad.
There’s not really a way to explain why the white-hot Islanders are suddenly playing their best hockey of the season despite seemingly half their team watching from the press box.
The out-of-nowhere run looked as though it might be derailed with Barzal’s injury, and after a seven-game winning streak was snapped on Sunday in Florida, but it got right back on track Tuesday.
At a moment when the entire league is waiting for the Islanders to fade, and wondering why they are not talking about selling off parts, they are sticking around in the playoff race.
As close as this season was to going down the tubes a mere month ago, the Islanders have now won 11 of their past 14 games in spite of a lineup that seemingly gets more bare-bones every night.
The way they won Tuesday was in classic Islanders fashion: Muck up the game, slow it down, keep it low-event and take advantage of the opportunities that come.
The shot count was 19-8 Vegas after the second period, but it was Bo Horvat’s goal off the rush at 18:21 of the first that accounted for the difference.
With Ilya Sorokin continuing to play lights-out in the crease and the Islanders doing an effective job of keeping the Golden Knights to the outside, they had just enough to get this one over the line.
Vegas did take advantage on nearly 30 straight minutes of pressure when Brandon Saad got to Nicolas Hague’s rebound at the 8:40 mark of the third, tying the game at one.
Just 3:03 later, though, Brock Nelson put the Islanders back ahead, tipping in Alexander Romanov’s point shot after having broken his stick on a faceoff, going back to the bench for a new one and coming back into the offensive zone, causing Vegas to lose track of him.
The Islanders sat back with this lead like they did so often in October and November to disastrous results, inviting pressure and hoping to just hang on until the buzzer sounded.
This time, it worked.
Back at home after a three-game trip — and for the last time until after the 4 Nations break — the Islanders had little choice but to try to turn this into a grind game.
That is something they’re more than comfortable doing, and there was almost no activity at all in the first period until Adam Pelech sprung Horvat off the rush with under two minutes to go.
Horvat slid the puck through Ilya Samsonov’s leg on his backhand to put the Islanders out in front.
It wasn’t pretty, and it’s probably not all that sustainable if this is how they need to win games without Barzal.
But you can’t argue with the results.
