Don't Call the Islanders Season Finished Just Yet

Don't throw in the towel just yet. I get it, an eight-game losing streak is awful and the New York Islanders are playing poorly. Don't get it twisted, this isn't some irrational take where I'm going to defend the Islanders play so far in their season.

It hasn't been good enough, plain and simple. All I'm saying is that with 79 percent of the season remaining maybe don't just call it a lost season yet.

Chris Botta reminded us of an Islanders team that started out 5-11-1 and managed to make the playoffs still.

Sure, the Metropolitan is extremely tough but teams fall out of it all the time. For instance, the Buffalo Sabres in 2018-2019 had a 10 game win streak in November. On December 1, they were 17-7-3 and five points up on Boston at the time, well they ended up finishing with 76 points on the season and a record well below .500.

Here's another good stat from you courtesy of nyclanders on Twitter, since 2000-2001, 34 teams had a 17 game stretch with a points percentage less than the Islanders current point percentage and still hit 95+ points.

Of the stretches that were this early in the season, you can draw comparisons to the 2001-2002 Kings, 2017-2018 Panthers, and 2003-2004 Islanders. If the Islanders get healthy, they can absolutely salvage their season.

The Islanders are 12 points out of a playoff spot with four games in hand on Pittsburgh who is the second wild card team right now. Columbus currently holds the top Wild Card spot. Would it surprise anyone if the Blue Jackets start to fall out of it? Heck, Detroit is right there in the race as well.

The point I'm trying to make here is while, yes it's bad there's no denying that it is by no means finished. Get healthy, make some moves at the deadline, and that's it. With the NHL playoffs they don't have to be the one seed, all you need to do is get in and I don't hear a fat lady singing just yet.