The Islanders need to come out of the All-Star break like they did a season ago.
When the calendar flipped from 2023 to 2024, we here at The Hockey News wrote about how if the New York Islanders wanted to stay in the playoff race, they could not mimic their January failures of 2023.
The Islanders went 4-8-3 in a rough first month of 2023, averaging just 1.93 goals per game and allowing 2.87, but were able to still have a playoff spot in sight because the teams around them in the standings also weren't at their best.
This go-around, it was the same story for New York as with the Metropolitan Division and wild-card race so tight, a putrid January was the last thing Lane Lambert's club needed.
But like in 2023, the Islanders January woes continued, going 3-7-3 through their 13-game slate.
The Islanders did increase their goals-per-game output from a year ago, scoring 2.54 goals per game, but allowed 3.62, the sixth-most in the NHL over that span.
Now, this January was much different than last year's.
After a win-less road trip (0-3-1) from Jan. 13 to 19 and a 2-4-2 record to kick off the new year, the Islanders elected to fire their head coach Lane Lambert, replacing him with Hockey Hall of Famer Patrick Roy.
Despite progression under Roy, the Islanders went 1-2-1 under him to close out the month, entering the All-Star break five points out of a wild-card spot and four points out of third in the Metro.
"We all understand there's a push that has to be made at some point," Roy said following the Islanders Saturday night overtime loss to the Florida Panthers.
While a break may be a positive for some players, like Noah Dobson, who ate minutes given all the injuries, having a new coach making many changes now loses valuable ice time with his players.
"I think the break isn't necessarily going to be nice for that," Mathew Barzal said on getting more acclimated to Roy's system, but he said it would allow them to come back refreshed.
"I think it's just been a tough stretch of games. So I think that getting some time off and letting the body rest -- a couple of ailments that we got, a couple of guys hurt that we'll hopefully get back right after the break -- and almost looks like a fresh team coming out," Barzal said. "So I think that's more what it is. I think it's also going to be good because it allows us to just kind of reflect on new things that have come into play and really absorb it. So I think it's gonna be good for us."
The Islanders have no choice but to turn up the engines and come out on fire in February.
All they have to do is continue to follow their script from last season because they were a different team post-All-Star break.
In the final 30 games of the 2022-23 campaign, the Islanders -- Bo Horvat but only seven games with Barzal -- went 17-9-4, scoring 3.13 goals per game while allowing just 2.53, which ranked fifth-best in the NHL.
They went 6-3-3 in February, 8-3-1 in March, and 3-3-0 in April.
Lambert elected to play Barry Trotz-style hockey, focusing on tightening his defense, ultimately allowing for more offense chances and goals.
Even with a strong post-All-Star break performance, the Islanders needed a Pittsburgh Penguins collapse against the Chicago Blackhawks to qualify for the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
If the Islanders want to make the playoffs this year, they need to look at what this team was able to accomplish a year ago and run whatever that mindset was back.
"You'd love to string a couple together right off the bat," Kyle Palmieri said. "I think you'd look at this week, and there were opportunities where maybe we could have had a couple of extra points, but the reality is we got to play really good hockey and string a couple together.
"It might not happen the first night [back against Toronto], but we just got to get the ball rolling, and you never know when you put a couple together, and all of a sudden you're climbing back into it, and you feel good about it. It's the same kind of thing that happened last year. We played playoff hockey down the stretch and found a way to get ourselves in, in game 82."
Out of the break, the Islanders play the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 5, whom they've beaten twice this season, the Tampa Bay Lightning for the first time this season on Feb. 8, and the Calgary Flames on the 10th, whom they beat in a shootout on Nov. 18 to snap a seven-game slide.
Before hitting the great outdoors to face the New York Rangers, the Islanders battle the Seattle Kraken on Feb. 13.
Two of those four teams are currently holding down playoff spots, with Seattle right there in the Western Conference wild-card race.
The Islanders face seven playoff teams in February so that it will be a strong test for Roy's club out of the break.
A failure to get off on the right foot will likely put the Islanders in a hole that may be too deep to get out of this time around.