At least one team in Columbus didn't have anything to celebrate Monday.
In what amounts to a must-win game for the Islanders against a Blue Jackets team they're chasing in the wild-card race (that is, if one believes the Islanders are still in the wild-card race at all), they pulled together the kind of effort that… It took 60 minutes which was missing earlier in this home win 3-1 at UBS Arena.
It was the kind of effort that, if the Islanders can replicate it consistently, would make them look like a playoff contender.
Just like Saturday against the Sharks, the Isles chased and screened pucks aggressively all night while their top six played up to their billing — particularly the Matheu Barzal-Bo Horvat combo, where Barzal fed Horvat twice for goals.
There was also a strong effort on special teams, as the Isles scored on a power play and had a scoreless night on a penalty kill, with a shorthanded tally to make up for Columbus snapping the Isles' scoreless streak on the PK.
The four-on-five effort was the backbone of a tight defensive effort against Ilya Sorokin, who stopped 24 of 25 shots, with the Islanders rarely allowing anything inside.
The only downside on the night was a possible injury to Noah Dobson, who left the game early in the third period after taking a hit from Cole Seelinger and did not return.
Quietly, the Islanders have won five of their last seven games — and that hasn't translated into them moving up the standings, in part because both losses came to other teams ahead of them. Even after a four-point game against the Blue Jackets, they are still seven points behind in second place.
However, it's not really in doubt that the Islanders have played some of their best hockey of the season since the new year.
For example, the second period is on Monday.
After losing 1-0 to a Kent Johnson goal in the first game, the Islanders dug in and got to work. Horvat's line with Barzal and Anders Lie was dominant, scoring just 43 seconds into the half as Barzal set up Horvat from behind the net.
The duo would score a similar goal on the power play 5:47 into the period, with Barzal circling the offensive zone before picking off Horvat for another one.
In between, a penalty kill was taken advantage of after Zach Werenski was tripped in the neutral zone, with Jean-Gabriel Pageau passing Simon Holmstrom for a shorthanded goal.
That was one of three penalties the Islanders were able to kill in the second — and in a five-on-five game, they were constantly up ice.
For the second game in a row, the Islanders had to maintain a 3-1 lead into the final 20 minutes, and they did so again without incident.
The third period — an intentional foul during the first six weeks of the season — became a safe zone for the Islanders when they got ahead.
If they can make that improvement quickly, perhaps there's hope that the two strong weeks of play on special teams can be sustainable as well.
The Islanders' position in the standings is such that if they are to have any chance at all of making a run, they need to pick up back-to-back wins. One loss can hurt them as much as multiple wins can help them, especially against another Eastern team.
For that reason, the odds are against them, even if the Islanders have found something in their game lately.
But even at this point, making the playoffs is still the goal.
