It doesn’t work out this way all of the time, but there is something to be said about the power of believing. For the Islanders, believe is a strong word.
After all, there are two very powerful letters in that word…
LI
It sounds corny, but you can’t spell believe without LI, short for Long Island.
On Tuesday night against the Penguins, the Islanders trailed three times and rallied to beat the Penguins 5-4 on Bo Horvat’s breakaway goal in overtime in front of 17,255 fans at UBS Arena, the Islanders’ 11th straight sellout crowd.
Clearly, Islanders Country believes as much as the players and coaches do.
“This is our crowd,” said Islanders Head Coach Patrick Roy. “They always have in the back of their minds that they want to please them. We want to win for the logo but it’s nice to have so many people in building. We have great crowds night after night and I really think that lifts the team.”
Belief is important because over the course of an 82-game schedule, it’s impossible to bring you’re A-game every single night, especially with the condensed schedule that the Islanders have been powering through heading into the Olympic break.
When they play the Devils in the final game before the break Thursday night in New Jersey, it will be the Islanders’ eight game in thirteen days.
“There are going to be nights where you feel like you play a great game and you win,” said Roy. “There are nights when you play a great game and you don’t (win) and there’s nights where you don’t play your best but you manage to win. I’m not trying to find excuses for our guys here but we’re in the tough part of the schedule here. It’s a lot of hockey. It’s hard to be every night consistent.”
Roy loves to use the word “resilient” when describing his team and Tuesday night was a perfect example of that. The Islanders struggled through a good chunk of the game but they never allowed themselves to play their way out of the contest. They kept scratching and they kept fighting.
They never stopped believing and that’s been a trademark of this team all season.
“There’s belief in here,” said Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock. “For us, it doesn’t really matter the score…if we’re down…if we’re tied. There’s belief in here we can do it the right way and find a way to win any night. This group is resilient. There are nights where it works and there’s nights where it doesn’t but I feel like every night we push till the end and give it a shot.”
And that belief is part of the resiliency that Roy talks about. When things aren’t going well, the Islanders are still finding ways to win and that includes their incredible success in overtime this season. The Islanders have now won all six games this season that ended in overtime, a stark contrast to last year when the Islanders won just seven of nineteen games that went to the extra five-minute session.
What’s been the difference?
“I don’t think we do things differently than last year quite honestly,” said Roy. “Maybe (we’re) more confident. I guess the game is confidence and if you’re confident, things happen.”
And that confidence leads to resiliency and, you guessed it, belief.
“I think that’s what this group does,” said Roy. “They believe in themselves. The guys are pushing night after night.”
Even with their up and down play over the last few weeks, the Islanders find themselves in an Eastern Conference playoff spot as they sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division, one point back of the second place Penguins.
As they head towards the Olympic break, the Islanders have no reason to stop believing and neither should their fans.