Islanders continue to fight and win games, have saved their season

Islanders Head Coach Patrick Roy recently watched the movie Rocky and it dawned on him that his team has been channeling their inner "Rocky Balboa".

"At the fight, Rocky was bouncing up and down," said Roy following the morning skate on Tuesday. "Apollo (Creed) looked at him and was like what are you doing? Go down. Rocky refused to go down. He didn't win the fight but he won the next one."

That came in Rocky II and now the Islanders are hoping that the second half of the season can continue to the "never say die" attitude that was a staple of past times that found a way to create some magic.

The Islanders season looked lost a few weeks ago as the losses and injuries mounted, but Tuesday night's 2-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights was the Isles' eighth win in their last nine games and they are now within three points of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second Eastern Conference wild card spot.

The Islanders, just like Rocky Balboa, are proving to be resilient.

"I think it's pretty obvious," said Roy. "Five games in seven days and we have so many injuries and we keep playing. We don't want to go down. I think people love people (who) refuse to go down and when they go down, they go back up and that's exactly what we did."

Tuesday night's game could have gone in the direction that so many others have this season as the Islanders took a 1-0 lead into the third period. Brandon Saad's goal at 7:40 of the third period tied but a little over three minutes later, Brock Nelson deflected an Alex Romanov shot past Ilya Samsonov at 10:43 to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead.

All they had to do was hold on and withstand a late Golden Knights flurry just like Rocky taking punch after punch from Creed.

And they picked up two more huge points in the standings.

"Every win right now and every game is crucial for us," said Nelson. "A few weeks ago, we were talking about how we wanted to try and string together a few wins. These few weeks have been great for us and we trying to keep it rolling."

It won't be easy for the Islanders to keep it rolling in their final two games before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.  ON Friday night, they travel to Winnipeg to face the NHL-leading Jets and then on Saturday they're in Minnesota to take on the Wild who have the fifth-best record in the West.

The Islanders just have to "stick and move" and try to get the job done.

"It's all we can do," said Islanders Captain Anders Lee. "We got two more left here. We got a couple days to get ready for some of the best teams in the league."

The Islanders certainly dug themselves a huge hole earlier in the season and now they've lost two more important pieces to injury in Mat Barzel and Scott Mayfield.

But they continue to get off the canvas and they keep fighting.

"It's really important," said Islanders forward Bo Horvat who scored the first Islanders goal on Tuesday night. "All these points matter for us. We're still playing catchup. We're still out of a playoff spot at this moment. All these games matter and these two coming up are huge for us."

Just like Rocky, the Islanders have shown they can take a punch and then punch back. A few weeks ago, the Islanders looked like they would be sellers at the trading deadline. But considering their current run of counter-punching, the situation has changed.

The Islanders have proven to be a resilient group with new additions Tony DeAngelo, Scott Perunovich and Adam Boqvist filling the shoes of injured players.

"It confirmed what I thought of them," said Roy. "I know we have great leadership. I know we have guys (who) really care. We have guys (who) are proud to wear the logo."

In the movie "Rocky Balboa", Rocky summed up life so eloquently and passionately in a scene where he was talking to his son.

"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows," said Rocky. "It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

They've been underdogs for weeks, but the Islanders are showing grit and heart and they've put themselves in position to play meaningful games. They're a group that you can really get behind and enjoy watching. For the moment, the Islanders have saved their season.