As the 2021-22 NHL season fastly approaches, the Islanders will look to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup. Anything else is a failed season for the Islanders. In the end, nothing else will matter if the Islanders are not hoisting the Stanley Cup at the end of the season.

The Islanders have gone from a franchise deemed for peril to Stanley Cup or bust in three short years. Despite how crazy that may sound to fans throughout the NHL, that’s the truth. The Islanders are Stanley Cup contenders, and you’re fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

In 2020, the Islanders lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Lightning went on to win the Stanley Cup. The Islanders and the Dallas Stars were the only teams to push the Lightning to six games. In 2021, the Islanders returned to the Stanley Cup Semifinals. The Islanders defeated two offensive juggernauts in the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Boston Bruins to get there. The Islanders went to Game 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning but ultimately lost 1-0. They were the only team in the NHL to push the Lightning to seven games.

Other than the Lightning, no other team in the NHL has had more playoff success than the Islanders in the past two years.

But the Islanders window is closing just as fast as it opened. The Islanders’ core is only getting older. Key veteran pieces that the Islanders recently acquired, such as Zach Parise, will not be able to produce for too much longer. This next season is crucial for the Islanders. It is Stanley Cup or bust.

But it won’t be easy. The Islanders have played a lot of hockey in the last two seasons, despite a long break between the end of the 2020 playoffs and the start of the 2020-21 season. Losing in back-to-back years is also heartbreaking, which can lead to some mental fatigue. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are exhausting; every night is a battle. There will probably be some level of mental exhaustion for the Islanders at play.

Moreover, there is an element of luck in the playoffs. One unlucky puck bounce can change an entire series. Momentum in hockey is enormous. It seems like every year the Stanley Cup champion got lucky at least once on their road to victory. Obviously, these teams were good on their own, and they ended up victorious because of the team they had. But, as former Major League Baseball Player Rico Carty once said, “they say you have to be good to be lucky, but I think you have to be lucky to be good.”

Good teams get lucky bounces. The Islanders got lucky in this year’s playoffs, most notably when Penguins goalie Tristian Jarry turned the puck over to Josh Bailey in Game 5 of the First Round. But their strong forecheck forced Jarry into the mistake. It’s unpredictable how bounces will go in any playoff year and how the momentum will turn, but the Islanders will need some more bounces to win a Stanley Cup.

The stakes are high. The juggernaut Metropolitan Division only got better this offseason and the Islanders will need to get out of it in order to win the cup. But if the Islanders do not win the Stanley Cup this season, they might not get another chance.

Ethan Halle

Ethan is an Economics Major at the University of Florida looking to pursue a double major in Sports Management with a minor in political science.