NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Whatever momentum the Islanders found in beating the Maple Leafs in overtime on Thursday night is going to be tested fast.
The Islanders begin a four-game road trip through the Central Division on Saturday in Nashville before charting a course up through Minnesota, Winnipeg and Chicago over the coming week.
That means facing a Jets team currently atop the NHL, a Predators team fighting for a wild-card spot and a Wild team which has been rejuvenated under an interim coach before finally getting a break with the Blackhawks, who are without rookie sensation Connor Bedard and near the league’s basement.
After a pair of games at home followed another four-game trip out West, this amounts to the toughest stretch of the Islanders’ season and one of the most important, with the Isles entering play on Friday ahead of the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division on a tiebreaker.
“It’s always important to have the same energy as [Thursday] because we want to play our best game and we want to win every single game,” Alexander Romanov said following the 4-3 win over the Maple Leafs on Thursday.
The line changes which involved splitting up Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat for the first time all year on Thursday figure to stay in place given the Islanders found some offensive rhythm against the Maple Leafs and that Casey Cizikas — declared week-to-week with a lower-body injury — does not figure to be coming back anytime soon.
The mood in the Islanders’ dressing room on Thursday night was that after losing four of five games since New Year’s Eve, they had found their game and needed to build on it.
“Our last two games we weren’t too happy,” Barzal said. “It wasn’t fun to be around the rink the last couple days. That’s a big win against a good team. Nice to get one in front of our fans in front of a pretty well-packed house tonight. We needed that one for them and for us, especially.”
Getting a win over the Predators for the first time in nine tries — and over former head coach Barry Trotz, now the general manager in Nashville — would be a good way to affirm the sentiment.
Barzal became the first player in NHL history on Thursday with multiple games in his career of at least three assists in regulation and the winning goal in overtime, according to team statistician Eric Hornick.
The win over the Maple Leafs was the second time he had done that this season — the first was Nov. 30 in Carolina — and the 29th and 30th times it had happened in league history.
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