What could overshadow Tony DeAngelo’s first game as an Islander — and his first game back in the NHL after a KHL stint that had looked like the end of his NHL career?
How about the roaring Islanders comeback that played out on Saturday night at UBS Arena, ending on Brock Nelson’s overtime winner to cap a 3-2 victory over the Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall-infused Hurricanes?
For good measure, how about the Islanders playing the whole game with five defenseman after Ryan Pulock got hurt on the first shift, then losing goaltender Marcus Hogberg to injury right before the extra period?
So much happened in 62:03 of game time on Saturday that you almost forgot: With their fourth straight victory, the Islanders are over NHL .500 for the first time since mid-November.
“There was a lot of energy and a lot of heart being given tonight,” Anders Lee said after a win that qualified as both the most emotional and most entertaining of the season for an Islanders team that has dug in its heels and absolutely refused to quit on their playoff chances, however minute. “I thought all four lines were skating as hard as they could. We were battling, grinding this one out. And look — these guys [Carolina] are the ones that have been knocking us out.”
Forty-eight games in, the Islanders’ season is hitting an inflection point in these weeks before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
What happens now dictates whether or not a team that’s trying desperately to prove it can still be a contender will get a chance to do so post-March 7.
Just like their general manager, Lou Lamoriello, the team is refusing to cede an inch of ground.
There was an abundance of story here, but start with the comeback itself against a team that’s been a litmus test against which the Islanders have fallen short the past two postseasons.
After the Islanders spent much of the second period knocking on the door, the score stuck at 2-1 with the home side having given up a pair before Alexander Romanov cut the deficit in half at the end of the first period, their breakthrough finally came 6:26 into the third.
Anders Lee followed Bo Horvat’s initial shot by jamming it into the net, putting paid to the momentum the Islanders had steadily built for 30-plus minutes.
That opened up what had been a tight match with the Islanders steadily controlling possession into a track meet, with the teams trading chances throughout the rest of a highly entertaining third period.
With Andrei Svechnikov’s shot off the crossbar being the closest either team got to a winner in regulation, though, it took three-on-three overtime to settle things.
Even that came with a twist, as Hogberg — who had played through an apparent injury that got steadily worse throughout the third — went up the tunnel before overtime, ceding the net to Ilya Sorokin.
Nelson then netted the winner from Kyle Palmieri on an odd-man rush, and the whole place went batty.
“We were resilient, but more than that, we showed character,” coach Patrick Roy said. “Down 2-0 in the past, it could have been worse. We stopped the bleeding. I was very proud of the way the guys played and stuck to it.”
Even with the Islanders on a decent run for the moment — they have won seven of nine and are inarguably playing their best hockey of the season — accomplishing the goal of making the playoffs is still the longest of long shots.
Most other general managers would have looked at the standings a few weeks ago and pivoted; not Lamoriello. Signing DeAngelo was another way of doubling down.
The newly minted No. 4 made his debut under tough circumstances, being asked to skate 25:10 in a system he does not know without so much as a full practice, the Islanders being forced to rely on five defenseman after Pulock got hurt.
DeAngelo held his own, which was about as much as anyone could have reasonably demanded.
“I don’t think I was expecting those minutes,” DeAngelo said. “I thought our team played really well.”
Pulock’s injury, though, complicates things even more. It was his three-point game in Boston early this month which helped kick the Islanders into high gear, and his renewed partnership with Adam Pelech has been a factor on a near-nightly basis.
There’s no timeline for now — all Roy would say after the game was Pulock and Hogberg both have upper-body injuries — but if Pulock does miss an extended period, the Islanders have just lost two of their most irreplaceable players in the span of a week.
Little about their situation was ideal before that became a factor. Things are now even tougher.
And still they march on.
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