Next couple of months for Islanders will be grueling
The New York Islanders are on hold, again, after having a number of games postponed. There is no team that has played fewer games this year than the Islanders with 28 games played. And it's January.
The season is scheduled to end on April 29. That's 113 days between today and the scheduled end of the year to play 54 games. That's 2.09 days between games from now until the end of the year. That's a grueling pace of games.
New York Islanders schedule is absolutely grueling
Remember the 2020 playoffs when the Islanders marched to within a few goals of making the Stanley Cup Finals? From Game 1 of Round 1 to Game 7 of Round 3, the Islanders had a game every 2.10 days.
Now keep in mind that the Isles didn't have a single back-to-back game in that playoff run. Through the next four months, the Islanders have ten back-to-back games, at least. They have three in January, March, and April. The last one is in February.
And that's before the other nine games that were postponed from the first few months of the year are rescheduled. You have to imagine those nine games that need to be rescheduled will be added to the calendar in that three-week stretch in February that was previously reserved for the Olympics. And that at least one more back-to-back will be added to the calendar as a result.
Now add an eight-game road trip from April 1st vs Rangers to April 17 vs. Toronto to the growing list of complications this schedule presents the Islanders. Eight-game road trips aren't very common. The run to the end of the season is going to be tough for the Islanders.
And I don't know if you've heard this before, but the Islanders are the oldest team in the NHL. So that grueling schedule I just talked about carries extra weight on those aging bones.
Making things worse is the Islanders remaining schedule is one of the toughest in the league. According to Tankathon, the Isles have the eighth toughest schedule ahead of them.
And look, the Isles aren't out of the playoffs right now but being one point back of the Bruins for the final Wild Card spot in the East with one game in hand and this schedule ahead of them is a daunting task for them.