The NHL needs to fix the New York Islanders’ schedule after the team was left with only two games in a 25-day span. Both of those games are now in the past.

The NHL announced Friday that the Islanders’ upcoming road trip, featuring games against the Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames, was postponed due to attendance issues at the Canadian venues.

That announcement left the Islanders with a 12-day schedule gap between Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win against the Oilers and the game on Jan. 13 against the New Jersey Devils at UBS Arena. The Islanders previously had nine days off between Dec. 20 and 29 due to league-wide COVID-19 outbreaks.

A break like that is counter-productive for any professional sports team, especially one that seems to finally be finding its stride after a nightmarish start to the season. It doesn’t help that there’s another three-week pause in February.

The Islanders already have one of the most packed schedules in the second half of the season. The team spread out its matchups during the 13-game road trip and it was one of the first teams with postponed games due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Finding ways to relieve that pressure, albeit on extremely short notice, can go a long way for the Islanders’ playoff hopes.

Luckily, the Islanders have games they can reschedule during this newly-created break. The easiest would most likely be against the Buffalo Sabres. The Islanders were supposed to travel to KeyBank Center on Dec. 27 but the game was postponed to give teams more time to conduct COVID-19 testing following the Holiday break. The Sabres, coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins Sunday, don’t play again until Thursday. There are no events scheduled at KeyBank Center until Thursday’s game so squeezing a game in on Tuesday or Wednesday is certainly possible.

Another game the Islanders can make up is against the Philadelphia Flyers. The game was one of the first postponements following the Islanders’ initial COVID-19 outbreak and was supposed to happen on Nov. 30. The Flyers have a three-game homestand from Jan. 6-11, and the Islanders can play them on Jan. 9. It would be a tight squeeze considering Wells Fargo Center is hosting WWE Monday Night Raw on Jan. 10 and the Flyers would be playing three games in four nights. However, considering the craziness of the NHL schedule this season, it’s certainly possible.

The Islanders can also host the Washington Capitals on Jan. 12. UBS Arena has no scheduled events between Jan. 9-13. The Capitals were supposed to play at UBS Arena on Dec. 23, but they can come on the 12th instead and stay in New York until they play the Isles again on Jan. 15. An alternative would be for them to play the Islanders on Tuesday. The Islanders would then travel to Buffalo on Wednesday.

The other two postponed games will have to wait. The Detroit Red Wings have a packed January schedule and the Montreal Canadiens are dealing with a large COVID-19 outbreak. The NHL will likely reschedule those games during the Olympic break or after the regular season.

Rescheduling NHL games this quickly is certainly challenging but is something the league learned how to manage last season. If it’s too soon to make these changes, then the league will hopefully reschedule games during the Olympic break. The league is clearly focused on maximizing ticket revenue from all of its 32 teams, so they’ll do whatever they can to achieve that goal. We’ll soon see how the NHL proceeds.

Ben Baruch

Born and raised on Long Island. Isles fan since 2009. Studying journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.