For those thinking the New York Islanders can go five hundred in the next forty games and finish with 97 points and qualify need to start taking a hard look at reality.
I'm well aware how many times here I put the number at 97 points during this season.
#isles The 7th seed Caps are on pace for 104 points. This may be a record breaking year just to qualify for a playoff spot at all.
— NYI Fan Central (@nyifancentral) January 12, 2015
#isles The 9th seed Panthers now nine games over five hundred win their games in hand they are only four points behind NYI.
— NYI Fan Central (@nyifancentral) January 12, 2015
Florida wins their next game they hit the 41 game mark in 9th place with 51 points on pace for 102, and on the outside.Boston has a weak hold on the eight seed but seven over on a three game winning streak 6-1-3 and Charlie Jacobs cracking the whip on management.
This is not your 92 point (sometimes much less) 8th seed Eastern Conference in 2014-15.
I wrote about the 97 point number being enough to make the playoffs in the past based on the Western Conference and because that number has never been required in the East.
For this season the East looks like it could break all past playoff point trends more than I ever could have anticipated.
Bottom line, the New York Islanders must keep winning, or not losing in regulation any way possible.
Any falloff they drop out of the top eight spots.
Winning in Columbus in regulation for the first time ever after playing/traveling against a tired, traveling team 10-1-1, but backsliding recently was their latest, biggest win of the season.
The New York Islanders have not/will not get the rest and many games against teams who have played the night before, the competition has received often.
Ryan Pulock if the organization is lucky misses 3-6 weeks, if not and needs surgery he's had a Calvin deHaan setback that could run into 2015-16.
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The likely sale of the Stockton Thunder to the Calgary Flames means the club may need a new ECHL affiliate, perhaps it's time to put a second Islander ECHL affiliate in Webster Bank Arena pending a possible Sound Tigers move to a renovated Nassau Coliseum.
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It's not our father or brother's NHL all-star game any longer with all the years of absence and the last thing anyone needs is another injury if Halak is named to the team.
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The cap floor challenged NY Times have gone the buyout route with long-time Ranger salesman Jeff Z Klein in their dwindling cap floor hockey coverage as he announced he left in December 2014. Klein was good at treating the Isles poorly, his ridiculous assignment to go interview Cody Rosen the final straw not including he was a Flyer prospect in their summer camp the year before Snow selected him.
Allan Kreda, the remaining Times writer seems to give the Islanders a fair shake in the part time coverage at best for NHL hockey. The Times dropped it's hockey blogs in 2013 as did Dolan's money bleeding Newsday this season.
Stu Hackel describes himself as "for hire" now that Times/SI finally are done with him. He does part time columns with other bloggers for THN.
Yes, the professional hockey newspaper industry in New York is going away quietly.