Whatever you make of the Islanders, no one who has been around their dressing room can doubt even for a minute that this group very much believes in its own capabilities.
That is all the more evident at the holiday break, with the Islanders having played their best hockey over the past five weeks.
Since snapping a seven-game losing streak on Nov. 18, they are 11-2-4.
Dating back to an overtime loss in Vancouver on Nov. 15, they have collected points in 17 of 19 games.
That has gotten them as far as second place in the Metropolitan on Christmas Day.
“I think we’ve done a really good job of continuing to build our game and stick through some adversity that we had a little bit ago,” captain Anders Lee said after Saturday’s 5-4 win over the Hurricanes that got the Islanders to the holidays with another two points. “And continuing to push forward even when things are going well, as well.
“So it’s a combination of all the guys buying in, playing for one another, playing the right way and playing good hockey.
“You have to play good hockey on top of that. You can want it all you want, but we’ve played some good hockey.”
The analytics crowd is not at all sold that the Islanders have played good hockey, and not without reason.
The Islanders are also accounting for just a 46.93 percent shot share at five-on-five, 26th in the league, and a 49.06 percent share of high-danger chances, good for 19th, according to Natural Stat Trick.
They have won just four games by more than a goal, have yet to score into an empty net and rank 31st in the league on the penalty kill.
Cal Clutterbuck summed up the response to all of that pretty well on Saturday following a game in which the Islanders were outshot and spent a lot of the third period desperately defending the lead.
“Well we won the game,” he said. “So I think that’s the way we wanted it.”
Points are points, wins are wins and the standings say the Islanders are in second place.
If you don’t like it, too bad.
These are not the Islanders of three or four seasons ago that turned every game into a Floyd Mayweather fight — ruthlessly defensive, wearing you down, hell to play against.
These Islanders go up and down the ice.
They score heavily on the power play.
They are never out of a game, but never quite put teams away either.
They win games 5-4 instead of 2-1.
Watching them is like watching Hagler-Hearns on loop.
Perhaps the re-introductions of Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock and Scott Mayfield into the lineup — it’s not clear when those three will return from various injuries — will help calm that down a bit.
“Defensively, we have moments and situations where we have to continue to work to improve and correct,” coach Lane Lambert said Friday. “But every year I’ve been here and every year that I’ve been in this league — for a long time now — the offense in the league and the skill level in the league continues to increase. Just look at the goalies’ save percentage now — I’m not talking about our goalies, I’m talking about overall league save percentage now compared to five years ago. It’s trending a certain direction.
“What we’re interested in is being better defensively. We feel like we can be better defensively.”
Still, they are enjoying the ride.
“I think we’re doing some very good things offensively,” Lambert said. “I think our team is transitioning the puck very, very well. Maybe the best I’ve seen in a long time. We’re scoring goals.
