Islanders hoped for more meaningful matchup vs. Capitals (Mar 15, 2018)
NEW YORK -- The New York Islanders and their fans could have been forgiven if the Islanders' first game against the Washington Capitals this season left them imaging what could be at stake the next time the Capitals returned to Brooklyn.
Unfortunately for the Islanders, they'll be in spoiler mode for the Brooklyn rematch on Thursday night, when the Capitals visit Barclays Center for the final time this season.
Both teams won their most recent games.
The Islanders snapped an eight-game losing streak by beating the host Calgary Flames 5-2 on Sunday night.
The Capitals posted their second straight victory on Monday when star left winger Alex Ovechkin scored two goals -- the second of which was the 600th of his career -- in a 3-2 overtime win over the visiting Winnipeg Jets.
The win over the Flames was almost certainly too little too late to save the Islanders (30-29-10), who were eight points behind the New Jersey Devils in the race for the second Eastern Conference wild card entering the Devils' game against the Vegas Golden Knights late Wednesday.
The fall has been steep for the Islanders, who moved into a tie for second place in the Metropolitan with their 3-1 win over the Capitals at Barclays Center on Dec. 11. New York is 13-19-7 since then, and its playoff hopes were likely extinguished by going 0-4-4 from Feb. 19 through March 8.
Still, the Islanders are focused on making the most of a long-shot opportunity beginning Thursday and Friday, when they play the Capitals again in Washington D.C.
"You go eight games and get four points, regardless of being in position to win or not, that's pretty catastrophic at this time, there's no ands, ifs or buts," Islanders coach Doug Weight told reporters after practice Tuesday.
"But it happened. It's behind us. We've got to win every game and that's how we've got to go about it. We've got to beat a good team on Thursday and then we'll try to beat them again on Friday and we'll go from there. That's our mindset."
The mindset of the Capitals (39-23-7), meanwhile, is focused squarely on positioning themselves for a long-awaited Stanley Cup run.
Washington, which won the Presidents' Trophy each of the previous two seasons before being eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the conference semifinals each time, entered Wednesday one point ahead of the Penguins, who visited the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
Grinding out consecutive wins over two Western Conference contenders -- the Capitals beat the San Jose Sharks 2-0 last Saturday -- has them confident that they are beginning to play the type of hockey necessary to survive and advance in April, May and June.
"It's definitely a playoff hockey style, so it's important to see that we can pull those games out," Capitals right winger Tom Wilson told reporters. "It's a good team game against an opponent that makes you earn your goals and earn your outcome."
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer is expected to receive his fourth straight start for the Capitals on Thursday, Grubauer, playing in place of the struggling Braden Holtby, won Monday with 26 saves against the Winnipeg Jets.
Grubauer is 0-2-0 in three career regular-season appearances against the Islanders.
Weight has yet to announce a starting goalie, though rookie Christopher Gibson could get a third straight start after registering 85 saves in the last two games, including 50 against the Flames. That was the second NHL win for Gibson, whose first was in his lone appearance against the Capitals on April 5, 2016.
