Islanders refuse to lay down on playoff chase as hot streak continues with win over Flyers

Is this going to matter? That’s the big question right now for the Islanders, who are doubling down on this season on twin tracks — finding their game on ice while the front office continues to send signals that they are not going to lie down, play dead and sell off parts. This was the message on a Friday night when the Islanders won a third straight game to make it six of eight, beating the Flyers 3-1 at UBS Arena mere hours after the team brought in Tony DeAngelo as its Noah Dobson replacement, Dobson having suffered what looked like a serious right-leg injury Monday night.Depending where you sit, the move read somewhere between desperation and pragmatism, but what it said loud and clear is that Lou Lamoriello’s position has not changed from earlier this month — he’s not yet thinking about selling. The Islanders, at 20-20-7, are back at NHL .500 for the first time since Dec.12, with a chance to get over the mark for the first time since Nov.

14 when they face the Hurricanes on Saturday.For the first time all season, they are playing like a team with an identity, sustaining their level from game to game and working through adversity on the fly. There is real momentum here.

Players and management are aligned in wanting to defy the narrative. The rub is in the standings. Even after winning a four-point game against the Flyers on Friday, the Islanders still sat 15th in the Eastern Conference, needing to pass seven teams and make up six points on the Blue Jackets — who currently hold the last wild-card spot — to be above the cutline. At least for now, this still is a low-stakes game, with the pot inching higher and higher until the March 7 trade deadline.Aside from risking injury to a tradable asset or a DeAngelo-induced public relations fallout, there is not much to be lost by letting things play out for a couple of more weeks. At least on Friday, the Islanders did not look like a team that was going to let its season go easily. In a low-even...