Andrew Gross: Islanders desperation needs to be ramped up in playoff push
Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau is congratulated by teammates after a goal in the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Blue Jackets on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Columbus, Ohio. Credit: AP/Sue Ogrocki
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Wanting, nay, hungering for a playoff spot guarantees absolutely nothing in the NHL. Let’s face it, all 32 teams want to make the postseason. Only 16 can.
The Islanders sure do, after missing out last season.
And Saturday night’s 4-3, come-from-behind overtime win at Nationwide Arena helped their odds as the Blue Jackets, who desperately needed the victory, instead slipped seven points behind the third-place Islanders albeit with two games in hand.
But let’s talk about desperation. Or intensity. Whatever descriptor is most apt. The Islanders will need every ounce of it in their postseason push to go along with their playoff hunger. And they will need it more consistently over 60 (or 65) minutes.
The Islanders, winners of four straight and seven of nine, have come out of the three-week Olympic break with two straight 4-3 overtime wins, including Thursday night in Montreal, and, in each, they faced a 2-0 deficit in the second period.
“We definitely were not at our best tonight,” Bo Horvat told Newsday. “But we found a way to win.”
So if the Islanders are to be criticized for not being their best over the full course of the match, they must be praised for their resiliency. Or, as coach Patrick Roy described it, their “confidence,” and “swagger” in knowing they could rally.
On Saturday, sub-par puck management in the first period slowed the Islanders. But once they started attacking the net consistently in the second period, the game turned in their favor. Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s line with Anders Lee and Simon Holmstrom was instrumental.
Lee, in his 901st game to match Brock Nelson for fifth most in team history, notched the Islanders’ first goal after establishing position at the crease. Pageau tied it 22 seconds later at 11:59 of the second period on a goal that withstood a challenge from Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness that Pageau’s skate interfered with goalie Jet Greaves.
“I would not have made that challenge,” Roy said. “Because the contact was not in the crease. If it’s not in the crease, I don’t know if I would challenge anything right now in this league.”
That, of course, is fodder for a different column.
Simon Holmstrom scored the winner at 1:47 of the extra period as the Islanders improved to 8-0 in the three-on-three overtimes.
The desperation/intensity Pageau’s trio brought was infectious and the Islanders, who had allowed Ilya Sorokin to face 27 shots in the first two periods, limited the Blue Jackets to three, third-period shots and none in overtime as they barely touched the puck.
“Other guys stepped up at key times,” Horvat said. “Pager’s line got us going in the second period.”
“I think we proved the last two games that we are very resilient,” Holmstrom said. “We don’t quit. We stayed with it and we got some greasy goals there and got the energy up.”
Still, and again, the Islanders will be much better served from having “the energy up” from the start over their remaining 22 games, starting Sunday against the two-time Stanley Cup champion Panthers at UBS Arena.
Horvat rightfully said having Sorokin in net is a great start to generating the needed intensity.
“Having that desperation in our game,” Horvat said. “Belief is a big thing, too. Whenever we’re down we just believe that we can come back and win. And we’ve shown that all year.”
The bigger picture when it comes to desperation is the motivation of how last season ended for the Islanders with a 35-35-12 record and nine points out of the playoffs. That followed back-to-back seasons of first-round losses to the Hurricanes.
The Islanders haven’t won a playoff series since 2021.
“I think, this, more so than any year, we’ve really been just talking about the playoffs,” Mathew Barzal, who extended his point streak to six games with two assists, told Newsday. “There seems to be a real hunger to get back in the playoffs I feel like from everybody. I think as you go along in your career, you never know when you’re going to be back in these situations where you’re in the playoffs at this time of the year.
“We’ve really got to take advantage of the situation we’re in right now and not let it slip. I feel like, as a mature group, we’re not going to let that happen. We’re going to give it everything we have every night.”
That’s playoff hunger. There also must be consistent desperation.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
