Islanders have golden chance to prove themselves right about playoff race

When the Islanders have insisted that they’re still in the playoff race, it has often sounded more like a pipe dream than anything resembling reality. Well, if they are going to prove themselves correct, this is their chance. They are suddenly playing their best hockey of the season, having just swept a road trip of three or more games for the first time since October 2018.Now it’s a season-high seven-game homestand coming up, with three of the first four games against teams around the Islanders in the standings, starting with Tuesday night against a Senators team they’ve already beaten twice this season in Ottawa. The winning streak has come without much payoff in the standings so far — the Isles are still five points behind the Blue Jackets for the last wild-card spot.

For that matter, they’re still a game below NHL .500, and their last time over that mark was all the way back on Oct.25.

So nobody should be getting carried away just yet. But the last few games haven’t been a mere run of good luck. The Islanders are playing as good of defensive hockey as they have all season, with the Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock pair putting in vintage showings and the penalty kill — horrific all season long — going three games straight without allowing a goal for the first time since Games 2-4 of the season.You don’t win three in a row on the road, including the Golden Knights, who have the NHL’s best record, by accident. There are still injuries — Simon Holmstrom, Isaiah George, Hudson Fasching and crucially Semyon Varlamov — but Mat Barzal is starting to look like himself again, and just had possibly his best game of the season in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Utah.

Holmstrom, George and Varlamov (Alexander Romanov’s status is unclear after the defenseman was a late scratch on Saturday) should begin skating with the team again this week, per Lou Lamoriello. There is something here.And with the next two weeks at home and a relatively easy schedule...