'Playoff time' arrives early for Islanders

Thanks for the memories from that 17-game point streak, Islanders. It was big fun . . . when was that again? Oh, right, last autumn.

That is ancient history now, with exactly two months left between their next game and their last regular-season game on April 4 — if not their last game, period, with a playoff berth far from a certainty.

The good news is this should be an entertaining ride, as evidenced by Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Canucks at Barclays Center, which allowed the Islanders to cling to third place in the Metropolitan Division thanks to a late, point-salvaging goal.

The scary news for the team and its fans is that this is not going to be easy, not with a tightly packed posse of Eastern Conference contenders on the Islanders’ heels.

While the coach and players said many positive things about their effort against the Pacific Division leaders after having been off since Jan. 21, they are going to need many more positive things to happen in the coming weeks.

Let’s be real: Missing the playoffs is not an option, not after what they did last season, reaching the second round in the first season of the Lou Lamoriello/Barry Trotz regime.

Not after returning pretty much the same roster. Not after that early-season point streak.

The bet here is they find a way into the tournament. (Scoring help at the trade deadline would be nice, of course.)

But the alternative would be an abject failure. In a league in which the playoffs have more than a little randomness to them, the 82-game regular-season slog is a fair test, and not making the postseason at all would be a huge setback.

The Islanders did their best Saturday to put a positive spin on the wild ride ahead.

“It can be a stressful time or it can be a fun time, whichever you want to make it,” Trotz said before the game, later adding, “If you have competitive juices in your body, then you’re going to love this time of year, and if you don’t, then you’re going to hate this time of year.”

The Islanders allowed a goal 2:09 in against a team that had played twice since the All-Star break. But they mostly outplayed the Canucks, tied the score with 25.1 seconds left in regulation and lost it 42 seconds into overtime.

Trotz said he generally was pleased with how the Islanders played, a sentiment echoed by his players, who like their coach acknowledged that the point they earned might look very good come early April.

“It’s not going to be easy,” captain Anders Lee said. “It’s that grind that makes this so much more exciting and so much more rewarding when you put yourself in a good position to end the season. I think that’s what makes this all so great.”

Said Jordan Eberle, “I haven’t been in situations deep into a season very often where obviously you’re in the mix. These occasions for me haven’t come along too often. You use it as a motivation, and the end result of this game is you want to win and make a push in the playoffs.

“But first and foremost, you have to get there . . . Every point matters.”

Said Matt Martin, “I thought it was pretty good, not even for a first game back. It’s the way we want to play . . . . Things are obviously tight. We’ve got 30-some-odd games left where it’s going to be tough every night.”

When Trotz was asked about benching a struggling Tom Kuhnhackl in the third period, he said, “We don’t have any margin for error, and this is playoff time.”

Playoff time? On Feb. 1? Yup, pretty much.

“That might be the point that, at the end of the day, gets us in the playoffs,” Trotz said. “It really might. So you just don’t know how it’s going to play out ’til it’s all over. That was a huge point.”

They all are now.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.