New York Islanders Excruciatingly Deceptive Illusion Of What If

The New York Islanders have been locked in a months-long, many-team, existential battle for a single playoff birth. That chase has released a barrage of What-if gremlins.

The Islanders are in by a point and looking forward to a first round battle. Next day the New York Islanders are out by a point and considering Kailer Yamamoto in the draft.

This see-saw battle of wavering emotions plays havoc with the brains of fans. And if your fandom is anything like mine you start looking back over the season to see where perhaps, maybe, they could have squeezed out another point or two. And that’s when we all start playing the inaccurate game,, “What if…”

New York Islanders

How To Play

It goes like this; What if the New York Islanders had been even .500 on the road during the first half of the season, they’d be safely in the playoffs.

Then again, had they been able to use the overwhelming number of home games in the first half to pile up a lead, they would also be in a much more comfortable position.

What if everything else had gone the same and they just been able to beat Tampa, who swept them in three games.

I’m not asking for a complete reversal, just a 1-1-1 record. That would have the Lightning all but eliminated, and the Isles in the playoff by four points.

What if, in those back to back games against the awful Coyotes and the historically horrific Avalanche they had won instead of lost? Two more wins give them a ton of breathing room, and it is perfectly reasonable to say they should have won those games.

What if the special teams were good? They seem to have the tools to runs better than average power play, but they are near the bottom of the league. I’m not asking for “best in the league” but if they had something like the tenth best man advantage record, BOOM. They’d be dominant.

What if they could have back all those games they squandered in the final minute? The Islanders would look like a cup contender with those recovered points.

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What About Intangibles

Those are all numerical, measurable phenomena.  What about the more esoteric and unknowables?  What if the Islanders had fired Jack Capuano a month earlier, or a year earlier for that matter?

What if they had resolved their three-headed goalie situation before the season? That would have merely been “the expected”.  What if they sent Jaro Halak down in September instead of January? Like any other team might have.

What if they had sent Berube down instead? You know, sending a minor league goaltender to the minor leagues. What if they had played Halak seven straight games AFTER he had lost the starting job?

And, of course, what if they had traded for Matt Duchene?

The Fallacy of It All

Here’s why it is all a fallacy.

While any of those what ifs could have been the magic elixir to securing a playoff birth, maybe not.

Because if you subscribe to these what ifs you have to say to yourself, “We have a team that doesn’t win enough either at home or on the road, has soft special teams, poor coaching, bad management decisions, can’t close out games and gives away points to poor teams.”

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Does that sound like a team that deserves the benefit of the what ifs?

They may make the playoffs, and they may not.  Either way, I am going to try and not create any of these false narratives as a single reason for their demise. It would be the cumulative effect of their many weaknesses being slightly greater than that of their opponents.