Tonight against Toronto, the Islanders will continue a seven-game homestand before making their way to western Canada in February. They kicked it off with a dominant 4-0 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Friday night.

Isles fans are hoping they can take advantage of this homestand to turn their season around. They sit sixteen points behind Boston for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with five games in hand. On Tuesday, the struggling franchise reached .500 for the first time since October.

Opponents

Four of the games will be against teams close to the bottom of the standings. Arizona, Ottawa, Seattle, and Philadelphia are all in the bottom six in the league when considering points percentage (and they already beat Arizona). They face two strong teams in Minnesota and Toronto, and Los Angeles is also in playoff position. Minnesota has played just five games in the past month, but they have registered points in four of those games and will be tough to beat. They handed the Islanders a 5-2 loss in November. The Maple Leafs will visit Long Island tonight, on the tail end of a six-game road trip that has seen more losses than wins so far. They beat the Isles 3-0 in November. 

Expectations

The Islanders have begun to pull themselves out of the shadows. They have registered at least a point in 12 of their last 15 games, including a 5-1-0 record since returning from Christmas break. Hope has found its way back to Long Island, as the team and fans are slowly regaining their spirit after a bizarre start to the season. After losing their first seven home games, the Isles have gone 6-1-1 in their past eight games at UBS Arena. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to continue their success at home and win five or more games on their upcoming road trip. If they do, they will continue to make the case that they are a playoff-caliber team that simply had a rough start. If they only win two or three games, that case will be tough to make. 

John Smark